If you happen to be walking around the second floor of 185 Nassau and see a couple of smashed computers with their internal parts spread across the floor, don't worry – this wasn't the result of some overly-stressed student who finally reached the breaking point during the last week of finals. It's art, of course. And this is just one of the many of interesting pieces of art on display in the Lucas Gallery after its opening on February 5th.
Students from a range of Visual Arts classes, including Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced Painting, Sculpture, Drawing and Photography, each have at least one piece of artwork exhibited that deserves to be admired, or at least pondered. But no matter what art piece you choose to consider, be assured that you are witnessing hours of diligent student work.
Derek Chan '04, whose transcription of Agnolo Bronzino's "Venus, Cupide and the Time" is displayed at the exhibit, admitted to spending at least ten to twenty hours a week outside of class working on his paintings. Never having painted before, Chan credits his newly acquired artistic skills to his instructor, Brian Jermusyk, and the other outstanding Visual Arts faculty.
"I think a lot of Princeton students avoid taking Visual Arts classes because they're discouraged by the time commitment, but I think the show demonstrates the strength of the Visual Arts Program at Princeton," Chan said.
Intermediate Painting professor Nancy Manter assigned her students a project in which they reconciled two different subjects in their artwork. For instance, Michael Weirnert's '02 painting illustrates col-laboration between poetry and painting.
"My paintings were originally inspired by a poem a good friend of mine had written," he said. Weirnert also remarked on how alike poetry and painting can be because each is "an attempt to construct and organize an idea, and then find a means to express it."
Christy Sander '03, another student in Intermediate Painting, chose to use her projects to intermingle painting with Doppler radar systems, a less than obvious connection. But this is exactly what Sander enjoys about her past Visual Arts classes.
"Painting is more of an exercise in thinking, especially because of our final project, which urged us to link different subjects and visually describe the relationships. And that's why I've found painting to be really helpful in my other classes also – it helps you formulate how you think," she said.
As for having their work from the semester displayed for two weeks in the Lucas Gallery, most Visual Arts students couldn't be more pleased. Sander remarks, "To be able to share what you've worked so hard on is really rewarding, and you're not self-conscious because it's just a reflection of all your hard work."
While Sander comments on how friends of the Visual Arts students often enjoy viewing the works because they can learn more about their friends' personalities through the artwork, she also notes, "If you don't know the person you can appreciate the art more for what it is because you aren't looking for insight."
So whether your intentions are to support a friend's hard work, to take in some fresh new art, or just to pass this fleeting yet blissful idle time during the first couple weeks of classes, take a stroll through the Lucas Gallery and enjoy.
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