News

BFA Art Majors “Reflect” on the Meaning of Art

“Part 2” will be Friday, December 7, at the L&N Station on Greensboro Avenue in Tuscaloosa.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 18, 2012Show card for REFLECT: Carolyn Kerr & Sloan Saunders BFA Exhibition

WHAT:   REFLECT: Carolyn Kerr & Sloan Saunders BFA Exhibition (Part 1)
WHEN:   November 1 – 16, with a reception on November 1, ART NIGHT, 6-9 p.m.
WHERE: Harrison Galleries, 2315 University Boulevard, Tuscaloosa
Please call (205) 464-0054 for more information about exhibition times.

The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by two Bachelor of Fine Arts majors in studio art. “Reflect,” an exhibition of digital works and ceramics by Carolyn Kerr and Sloan Saunders, will be held in the Harrison Galleries in downtown Tuscaloosa November 1-16. The gallery, located at 2315 University Boulevard, is open by appointment. Please call (205) 464-0054 for more information about exhibition times. An opening reception will be held ART NIGHT, Thursday, November 1, from 6-9 p.m.  The public is invited to attend and meet the artists. There will be a second show on December 7 at the L & N Station in downtown Tuscaloosa, which will be a one-night-only event.
Facebook Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/102408629920575/

As seniors nearing their end of their college years (both graduate in December), age has made Carolyn Kerr and Sloan Saunders more introspective, and their exhibition theme conveys that thoughtfulness. Saunders, a sculpture major originally from Greenwood, MS, writes that the title reminds her to “reflect within yourself, reflect on the things around you.” Besides reflective surfaces like water and windows, Kerr, whose concentration is in sculpture and digital media, plays with reflections and points-of-view; her work is “about reflecting on things that surround us [and] reflecting on ourselves as human beings.” Saunders also reflects on her relationship to her art professors. “The teachers here are more than just professors. They become family and you strive not to let them down.”

Show card for REFLECT: Carolyn Kerr & Sloan Saunders BFA ExhibitionSaunders says that she has wanted to be an artist since she was three years old. “Art has always been my life.” For a while in college, she did not think she should major in art: “I didn’t want my life ‘job’ to be my passion…so I went to my second passion: science, [especially] chemistry and mineralogy.” She plans to go to graduate school in sculpture, but she also wants to be a gemologist. “Gems and minerals are another passion and I would love to work with jewelry. But I have a long list of things I hope my art will let me do, from teaching to therapy to creating.”

Kerr, who grew up in Gadsden, AL, came to art from interior design after several events in her life made her question the choices she was making for her future. She briefly turned to social work, but when she took ceramics, she “realized that there was nothing I wanted to do more than create things.” She feels that with sculpture, her “options are limitless and it is more than just making a 3D form. It’s about problem solving. It’s about coming up with a design and figuring out how to execute it properly, which for me often involves a great deal of experimenting. I feel if you can create something out of nothing than you can do anything you set your mind to. Sculpture has boosted the confidence I have in myself and  has honestly changed my life in the best way possible.”

###

The BFA degree is the professional degree for the artist; it is also the foundation for the masters program in studio art.  For more information about our BFA degree program and other degree programs at The University of Alabama, go to Undergraduate Programs.