The Organization of Murray Art Students started displaying its show on Friday, April 20 in the Clara M. Eagle Gallery.
This year’s show features about thirty different artists.
The media used in OMAS includes charcoal, metal working, wood working, photography, graphite, oil and mixed media.
Some of the participants are repeats. Matthew Todd, senior from Murray, was in last year’s show. He has a piece titled “Breath of Inevitability” this year.
“The piece ‘Breath of Inevitability’ is about the how humanity is constantly on the brink of destroying itself and yet it is not the end of life itself,” Todd said.
OMAS has provided an opportunity to see student work and showcase the art program on campus.
“The art and design department is a wonderful choice for students looking to get into the arts and the student show is a great way to show the student body as well as the community what a fantastic program we have here,” Todd said.
Anessa Ortner, senior from Little Rock Ark., joined OMAS this year and has a piece titled “Self Portrait” in the show.
“My piece ‘Self Portrait’ is a representation of myself and who I am as an individual. I incorporated 3 items: bird cage, a black bird, and a pit of snakes,” Ortner said. “The use of the black bird was to represent myself as a free thinker but also as a mysterious and unorthodox person. Even though the bird appears to be free it still carries the personal cages (or boundaries) and is constantly kept in the sky by the bed of snakes, or my past as they represent.”
Nick Uhan, freshman from Milwaukee, Wis., has a mixed media sculpture in the show. His friends encouraged his entry into the show.
“The ladder represented a person’s identity and the steps represented the journey of trying to find you, which is represented in the first steps of the ladder,” Uhan said. “You get to a point in your life where you can’t find anything that makes you happy, which is represented by the clear step on the ladder.”
Each part of the ladder is represented differently.
“You find someone or something that relates to you to make you feel better,” he said. “This is when the metal bars are starting to close in near the top steps of the ladder.”
Other parts of the ladder represents drifting from reality and losing identity from joining an organization or religious movementyou are and you lose your identity. When the cult becomes too much of your life it usually ends in a disaster of some sort such as prison or death, Uhan said. This is represented by the other half of the ladder that was burnt.
There are some interactive pieces in the show along with many different artists with differing styles in this year’s show. The OMAS show is a representation of the art students on campus as well as the art department.