This holiday season, there is more to see than stockings and Santas and tacky trees. Original artwork by Eastern students provides a refreshing escape from the red-and-green commercial blitz
For the month of November, the halls on the second floor of McInnis featured artwork by four Eastern students. Seniors Kelly Blom and Stephanie Frank, commissioned by Academic Dean Betsy Morgan, solicited pieces from all the art majors. “We didn’t get much of a response,” said Frank, “but it’s hard in the middle of the semester.”
The opportunity to appreciate student artwork is expanding. Blom and Frank, along with five senior art majors from Rosemont College, will hang several pieces in a show in half of Lawrence Gallery in Rosemont’s Lawrence Hall.
Frank’s work comprises photographs inspired by her home in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Blom’s work, titled “Modern Life is Fear,” includes screen-printed T-shirts that conjure images of fear in society.
In the spring, Blom and Frank will each have their own show in Lawrence Gallery, and are in dialogue with Morgan about hanging them in McInnis afterwards.
After graduation in May, Frank plans to go to graduate school and possibly teach. Blom would like to work in graphic design and start her own T-shirt company.
The other half of the gallery will be hung with work by Rachel Aversano, an Eastern studio art major graduating this December. Ten paintings, including depictions of a desolate playground and an empty room, impart the theme of “Implied Presence.”
Opening night for the show will be Dec. 8 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. “It’s just a time for people to come and congratulate me,” laughed Aversano. “No, it’s kind of the time for me to present my work to society, because it’s my first formal art gathering.”
The event is free and open to the public.
The show will hang until the end of January, and art aficionados are welcome to peruse the pieces at any time that Lawrence Hall is open.