Art comes in Echoes & Whispers

Art and inspiration — Students enjoy a look at artists’ works, prepared for this year’s senior exhibit. Photo credit: Alyssa Bockman

Senior Art Show features four Liberty Artists

“Echoes and Whispers,” the Department of Studio and Digital Arts (SADA) four-person fall senior art exhibition, is now open. The show officially opened Thursday, Nov. 10, with an artists’ reception honoring featured artists Kaitlin Malvaso, Erin McCool, Kelsey Nicholas and Morgan Taylor.

“It’s kind of a surreal experience,” McCool, who plans to graduate in May with a B.S. in Studio Art with a teacher licensure, said. “You work so hard for four years and then to actually see it framed and matted and put up in a gallery — it’s something I’ve looked forward to the whole time I’ve been in this major. I was able to learn a lot about gallery shows and how much time goes into it. It was great to see it all come together and to be able to work with the other seniors who were doing the show along with me.”

The exhibition includes work completed throughout all four students’ college careers and features photography, painting, mixed media and drawings. Faculty helped each artist select several of their best pieces to be displayed in the show. The artists were responsible for choosing the theme and title of the show, McCool said. The inspiration for this year’s theme came from the hymn “Blessed Assurance” by Fanny Crosby.


“It’s talking about submitting everything to Christ and then, through that, being able to receive blessings from that…she references ‘echoes of mercy and whispers of love.’ That’s what God is — he’s speaking mercy and love to us when we surrender it all to him, so we kind of chose that theme because our work was varied with each individual. But we thought, really, this is what we’re trying to do through our art is to show people God’s mercy and love.”

Senior Kelsi Nicholas, who will graduate in December with a B.S. in Studio Art, said, in addition to the classes offered at Liberty, working on the exhibition helped her to broaden her style.

“I’ve loved art my whole life. My mom stuck me in private painting lessons in elementary school and I’ve loved it ever since then. The show has helped me pin down my style but my classes have helped me branch out with all the new stuff I hadn’t done before,” she said.

Liberty’s SADA degree program prepares students for career opportunities in the fields of advertising, freelance, business, sales, education and television and film.

“Especially from working with the great professors we have in the art department, I feel well equipped to really go in any direction that I want,” McCool said. “I’m not sure what that looks like yet, but whatever it is, I feel like I could do it.”

The exhibition is free and open to the public. It will run until Dec. 15. The gallery is located in the Student Life and Academic Building, which is adjacent to the Helms School of Government.

The gallery will be open to visitors Tuesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The gallery is closed on Mondays and will be closed for Thanksgiving break Monday, Nov. 21, through Saturday, Nov. 26.

For more information, visit the exhibition’s Facebook page or contact Katelyn Coogan, the Department of Digital and Studio Arts secretary and Gallery Assistant, at kdemarco@liberty.edu.

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