Students exhibit best work

Ethan Swanson

Ethan Swanson

Getting through your senior year in any major at SDSU requires you to pass certain trials, and a major in visual arts is no exception.

Every senior is required to take part in a senior show, in which they display a “portfolio of work that demonstrates their best capacity as a student,” said Norman Gambill, head of the Department of Visual Arts. This portfolio is what students deem to be their best work done while at SDSU. Molly Althoff, from Amboy, Minn., describes it as “a climax for everything we have done at school.”

The Visual Arts Department offers three majors, and students collaborate with others in their major when putting the show together. The current display at the Ritz Gallery has work from graphic design seniors Althoff, Marcus Bergren and Joshua Johnson. It includes posters, linocuts, business projects, material from graphic design classes and intaglio prints.

Bergren said that “putting the show up was a lot more fun than I expected,” and it gave him the feeling of being “a curator for a museum.” It took most of the weekend for the three seniors to set up and arrange the display.

“It was a good learning experience, getting to see how an art show is put together,” said Johnson, a Canton, S.D., native.

According to Johnson, the show also offers a chance for friends and family to see exactly what the students have been up to and to see how each artist differs in style.

“I like a dirty feel to my work, a lot of experimental stuff. I also like to put humor to my work. If you can’t enjoy it, why do it?”

For Bergren, his work is about “trying to find the clearest and most interesting way to communicate an idea.”

“I like to use color and put texture into my work,” Althoff said. “It’s nice when work shows human hands created it; not everything has to be perfect.”

There will be a public reception held at the Ritz Gallery located in Grove Hall on Friday, Dec. 12 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. The artists will be present to discuss their projects, and refreshments will be available.

#1.882117:937948700.jpg:Rtiz_Art_Studio_Trey.jpg:”Trey,” a linocut by Marcus Bergren, is based on a photo of one old bandmate playing guitar. Linocuts are done by cutting the image into linoleum blocks and a different block is used for each color. :#1.882116:85147351.jpg:Ritz_Art_Studio_The_Duke.jpg:An intaglio print of John Wayne is just one in a series titled “Battle of the Dukes,” a story board presentation by Joshua Johnson. Intaglio prints are created by etching a drawing into a copper plate and using the plate to print the image.:#1.882115:2064507920.jpg:Ritz_Art_Studio_Battle2.jpg:Duke Ellington and John Wayne battle it out in Joshua Johnson’s “Battle of the Dukes.” The print is one in a series and is currently on display at the Ritz Gallery.: