By Crystal Stevens
A variety of pieces ranging from replica oil paintings to a sculpture of a roasted pig are on display in the Mazmanian Gallery’s juried student exhibit.
Each piece has been carefully selected by juror Lynne Harlow, who is a local artist from Attleboro and an FSU alumna.
In addition to picking which pieces would be displayed in the exhibit, Harlow also selected the winners.
Senior Danielle Butler won first place with her drawing, “Cry Baby,” a mixed media piece that includes glitter, watercolor and ink. Since she usually works with paint or collage, Butler’s drawing was a new experience.
“Glitter had been a theme for the entire semester, and sometimes, glitter is referred to as cheap and tacky,” Butler said. “I like to be defiant, so I decided to use it in most of my final pieces.”
The drawing places oversized babies among exotic dancers, two things one would not expect to see together. “The assignment was to put something in an unconventional space, so I put babies in a strip club,” Butler said.
Junior Sarah Ellis, the second place winner, created a plaster sculpture of a cake, titled, “Surprise!” The white cake with blue frosting reads, “Go fuck yourself,” across the top in red cursive.
“I didn’t want to make something average,” Ellis said.
Senior Carissa Valeri won third place for her sculpture, “Belltower.” She used clay and a found object, a bell, for the piece.
“I am doing a full series, and the pieces are autobiographical. This is the second piece,” Valeri said. “It’s about all the frustration in your early 20s.”
Using triangle slabs, she built around the base and up, creating the green- and blue-hued bell tower.
Valeri used clay, watercolor and acrylic paint to create the sculpture. “I glazed it and wasn’t 100 percent pleased with how it came out, so some of its glazed and some of it is acrylic paint.”
The juried exhibit is especially important to students, since an outside juror picks their work to be shown in the gallery. The juried exhibit has been using an outside juror since 2007, said Tim McDonald, director of the gallery.
The exhibit allows student artists to get creative with mediums and the subject of their pieces.
“Without fail, the jurors always select work because it’s something they didn’t expect,” McDonald said. “Those are the things that generally win first and second prize.”
Although first and second prize are usually picked based on exceeding expectations, “third prize is generally picked based on quality of the work,” McDonald said.