By Khadijah Yasin
Correspondent
Walking through the dimly lit hallway and turning into a relatively empty space, you would think you were in the wrong place. But as you step further into the room, you begin to notice the multitude of vibrant pictures and paintings. This is the collection of art being presented as part of the Senior Art Exhibition, “In and Out of Digital Space,” at the College.
Currently on display is the art of Scott Samuels, a College alumnus who graduated this past December. During his time at the College, Samuels studied art education and is now a middle school art teacher. Eccentric pieces of Samuel’s work can be found on display, each different and flamboyant in their own way. The artwork radiates with beautiful colors and each encompass a balance of images and text.
More than an entire month was dedicated to the development of the collection and the creation of the exhibition. With over 14 exhibitions under his belt, Samuels is no rookie and had everything planned out to a tee.
The room is very well done, with the pieces hanging collectively, yet each still standing out on its own. Emily Tirado, a freshman mechanical engineering major at the College, enjoyed the art display.
“My favorite part is the diverse use of color and materials in the overlay of the background and the foreground,” Tirado said. “My favorite piece definitely has to be the ‘Thanks, Ebay.’ It’s so colorful (and) it’s got notes in the background. It’s like a mix between the liberal learning and the logistical thinking, which I can relate to.”
An interesting aspect of each piece from Samuel’s collection, which was influenced by pop art, is that he integrates vintage art supply packaging into the creation of his pieces. He collects vintage art supplies and throughout his career, has put the packaging into his work.
“It elevates (the artwork) to the level of fine art,” Samuels said.
One unusual and amazing aspect of Samuels’s art is how it is actually pieced together. Samuels goes through an extensive process, beginning with the digital space of the piece with the art and background of the vintage packaging, then he takes photos of them and processes them out and paints over them.
“(It’s like) taking old imagery, putting it into the digital realm and then back into reality,” he said.
Aside from some of the more obvious themes, such as using text in his work, each of Samuels’s paintings has a recurring value of sentiment.
“The show is really autobiographical and personal to me,” Samuels said. “It really sympathizes the ideas I’ve been working with for a while.”
Every painting and picture has a memory and each stroke of the brush and letter of text is placed in remembrance of an instance from Samuels’s experiences.
The amount of detail and beauty in each piece is admirable. Even if you cannot defer all of the sentiment and meaning behind each detail, you can be satisfied with going to see interesting pieces of artwork, now through Sunday, Feb. 28, in gallery space 119 of the Arts and Interactive Multimedia Building.
