The 18th annual ArtsWorcester College Show, a juried exhibition showcasing “the next generation of regional artists,” has opened in an online, accessible format featuring work by three Worcester State University students whose art ranges from watercolor painting and printmaking to mixed media. Danforth Art Museum Director and Curator Jessica Roscio served as juror of this year’s College Show, an impressive and diverse exhibition of work by 47 students from across the region.
The Worcester State students whose work is being featured in this year’s exhibition are: Linda Casey ’24, history major; Alexandria Hensel ’23, liberal studies major with a concentration in art and communication and an education minor; and Emily Parish ’22, a visual and performing arts (VPA) major.
“Guiding Light” by Alexandria Hensel ’23
“In the printmaking course I took last semester we explored many different printmaking methods,” wrote Hensel, who leveraged water-soluble inks, watercolor paint, and salt on rice paper to create “Guiding Light” through VPA Professor Amaryllis Siniossoglou’s AR230 Printmaking Course. “This piece explored layering the different blocks and monoprints I had created over the course of the class. I had a lot of fun playing with more familiar mediums like watercolor but practicing their use in less conventional ways to create the background monoprint. In the midground, I explored mixing gradients with the water-soluble printer’s inks on a tessellating linocut block. (The final step involved) printing the foreground with a new woodblock print I had carved.”
Casey’s featured art, “Serenity,” showcases watercolor and ink work from Siniossoglou’s online AR240 Watercolor Course. And for Parish, work on a mixed media doll entitled “Martha” took on three-dimensional shape through VPA Professor Stacey Parker’s #MakingArt Course.
“With this piece, I wanted to explore my interest in historical fashion by reimagining a mid-nineteenth century dress on an unconventional model,” Parish said through an artist statement. “I connected with the past through the historically-inspired design as well as the techniques I used to create this doll and her clothes. Everything is hand-sewn, without the aid of a machine, and patterned from scratch. I enjoyed thinking about duality during the creation of this piece—movement and motionlessness, hard and soft, old and new. Because of her hybrid form, Martha is representative of the Victorian ideal of womanhood (a cooing, nesting ‘angel of the house’) as well as a symbol of freedom and self-determination. The contradiction between these modes of existence is very interesting to me, as a modern feminist with an affinity for the past.”
“Martha” by Emily Parish ’22
Worcester State University Visual and Performing Arts Chair and Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Theatre SamO’Connell said the exhibition marks a proud moment for the Worcester State University artistic community.
“Congratulations to Emily, Alexandria, Linda, and all of the College Show’s inspiring, rising artists with work showcased inthis year’s dynamic exhibition,” he said. “For Worcester State, the diverse art of our students also reflects our talented art faculty’s instruction through our dedicated studios and laboratories for printmaking, painting and drawing, design and sculptural work. It is great for our students to be able to develop their work within our visual arts curriculum and have their creative process culminate in the display of their artwork in a juried showcase. Our entire department thanks ArtsWorcester for its visionary, open approach to supporting local artists, celebrating contemporary art, and greatly enhancing our community.”
New this school year, Worcester State offers a Bachelor of Arts in Art. The new major immerses students in a 45-credit program of study that integrates broad-based studio art training and arts research with the development of creativity, communication, and critical thinking to prepare students for graduate studies or careers in a wide range of arts-related fields, including arts and cultural entrepreneurship, museum studies, arts administration, and arts and community development — to name just a few opportunities. For more information, contact VPA@worcester.edu.
To view the work of Casey, Parish, and Hensel, as well as the 18th Annual ArtsWorcester College Show in its entirety, please visit the art show website.
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