McComas Hall Exhibition to Feature Creations by MSU Fine Art Seniors

Graduating MSU art major Amanda LeClair of Flowood moulds clay for one of her ceramic pieces being featured in the upcoming campus fine arts thesis exhibition.

STARKVILLE, Miss. (Press Release) — Works by five graduating fine-art majors at Mississippi State will be on display April 15-22 in the university’s McComas Hall Art Gallery.

Free and open to all, the art department-sponsored 2014 show is titled “Metamorphosis.” It celebrates the students’ final year of thesis studies in drawing, painting, sculpture and ceramics.

Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Creations by the seniors focus on many varieties of transformation, including the progression of time, loss of ego and transitions of shape and form.

A reception on the 15th, with refreshments and also open to all, will be held 5:30-7 p.m. in the ground-floor gallery. At 6 p.m., Jamie Mixon, interim department head and longtime art faculty member, will make remarks about this semester’s group of graduates.

“Metamorphosis” exhibitors include (by hometown):

• Brookhaven — Landen O. Peairs, a painting-emphasis major and the daughter of Darin and Annie Peairs.
• Cumberland — Sarah G. Kilpatrick, a sculpture-emphasis major and the daughter of Diane and Bobby Kilpatrick.
• Flowood — Amanda V. LeClair, a ceramics-emphasis major and the daughter of Shana and Geoff LeClair.
• Hattiesburg — Mary-Lucas Halliwell, a sculpture-emphasis major and the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. David Henry Halliwell III.
• Olive Branch — Andre A. Hernandez, a drawing-emphasis major and the son of Andres and Dicnelia Hernandez.

Hernandez, who also serves as thesis public relations chair, said the show provides he and his fellow exhibitors with the opportunity to “combine skills and knowledge we have developed in the past several years with experimentation and our own imaginations in order to communicate our ideas and personalities to the public.”

Jake Weigel, the department’s exhibitions coordinator, praised the seniors’ creations, adding that “they should be proud of what they have accomplished, as should their friends, family and the rest of the university community.”

The art department is part of MSU’s College of Architecture, Art and Design. For more, visit www.caad.msstate.edu; www.facebook.com/CAADatMSU; or Twitter @CAADatMSU.

For additional information about the 2014 spring exhibition, contact Weigel at 662-325-2970 or jweigel@caad.msstate.edu; or Hernandez at 901-288-3911 or aah142@msstate.edu.

MSU is online at www.msstate.edu.