The annual Senior Art Show at Bethel College features the work of three seniors working in photography, sculpture, fabric, drawing, graphic design, linocut and etching.
Gracie Higgins, Tacoma, Wash., April Powls, Garnett, Kan., and Lizzie Schmucker, Goessel, Kan., all have art on display in the Regier Art Gallery through May 18. The reception will be May 16 from 7-9 p.m. at the gallery in Luyken Fine Arts Center on campus.
Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, 2-4 p.m. There is no admission charge.
Higgins’ part of the exhibit is titled “A Knight’s Folly.” It combines a series of charcoal and pastel drawings, fiber art, and digital graphic design methods.
Higgins says she “can’t remember a time when I wasn’t dreaming of different worlds,” creating fictional stories that she has long wanted to join with her art.
Her choice to include quilting she attributes to – and uses to honor – her mother, who she says was always working on a quilt.
Powls’ piece is titled “A Way Home – A storybook without words.”
Like Higgins, Powls has used a story from her own imagination, creating a children’s picture book about a young rabbit who is swept away in a thunderstorm and struggles to find his way back to his mother.
“Each panel shows a different section of the story in an etched plexiglass print, lightly shaded by watercolors,” Powls says. “Some depict a main scene, while along the sides another part of the story plays out around it.”
The “faces” of four trees that are part of the story flank the panels as four linocuts.
Schmucker’s section of the exhibit is titled “Fractured: The Untold Story” and comprises photographs with some sculpture. The latter are pieces of mylar that were integral to creating the photos.
“In this project, I wanted to explore self-perception by making it more external with the mylar reflection paper,” Schmucker says. “In these photos, one does not just find the subject and how they portray themselves to be to the outside world, but the myriad facets of their true self and how others might see them.”
Higgins will graduate from Bethel May 18 with a B.A. in art. Schmucker plans to do student teaching in the fall and complete a B.A. in art with teacher licensure in December. Powls will earn a B.A. in art with graduation to be determined.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Community Healing and Transformation (TCHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see https://www.bethelks.edu
