MSU students showcase thesis work at BFA show

By MATT CRANE
life@starkvilledailynews.com [2]

For 11 Mississippi State University fine arts students, years of creative expression and hard work comes down to their much-anticipated thesis exhibition debuting Tuesday.

Art student Jesse Thames said the show's title, "Commune," expresses unity and communication through a diverse amount of individuals.

"The viewers of the exhibition will be able to connect through the artworks to their own selves," she said. "We, as the artists, believe we communicate with each other through the artwork and, as this fact, we are united and liberated through each other's processes and pieces."

Thames said the journey to this thesis show has been a combination of nerve-racking and exciting.

"We have been working so hard on these works of art over the past many years," she said. "By the time the exhibition opens and the receptions happens, I believe the 'Commune' members will essentially be proud of each other and so relieved since this is basically our final project as undergraduate students."

Along with Thames, the "Commune" students include: Aaron Autin, Emily Hobart, Amanda Jefcoat, Nathan McRee, Anna Katherine Phipps, Sarah Qarqish, Lindsey Rushing, Charlotte Smith, Dawn Tayor and Rebekah Trotter.

Thames said she definitely defines her group as a family who have shared artistic feedback with one another for many years.

"There has been so much pressure, frustration and happiness, and we share all these experiences with one another through communicating," she said. "Our art pieces show much of our experiences as well. Art, for us, is a form of communicating."

Thames said she is looking forward to the public viewing of the students' work.

"I am definitely excited to know that the public is invited into our minds, our thoughts and essentially our being," she said. "The idea of unity is not just within our country or world, but our universe and everything within as a whole."

A reception for the artists will be held Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Department of Art gallery in McComas hall, 6:30 p.m. in the Colvard Student Union art gallery and 7:15 p.m. in the Visual Arts Center gallery on University Drive.

For more information, visit http://www.bfacommune.com [3].