WMU BFA Students Showing at Westin Gallery

Christina Wilber

Christina is an artist at Western Michigan University. She has loved to create art ever since she was little, and in high school she realized it was something she could make a living off without hating. She often creates artwork in various mediums both digitally and traditionally. Her artwork is often representational, but she also makes symbolic pieces though means of color or context, and sometimes abstract pieces as well. All her artwork has a fine attention to detail regardless of size, medium, or message. She hopes that her pieces spark emotion or thought but is happy if they are just enjoyed for face value. Oftentimes, when a piece is really good, she will also have work in progress pictures of it, which can be seen on her art page on Facebook.

Christina.e.wilber@wmich.edu

www.Facebook.com/ChristyArtCreations

Megan Pfeifer

Growing up, I’ve always had an active imagination. My work is not only inspired by this imagination, but also the dreams I have. I tend to focus on the subconscious mind and how it manifests in dreams and in our behavior. I work with dreams and personal symbolism and attempt to relate them to how we function mentally. I enjoy creating a narrative within the art I make too, so some pieces have multiple characteristics to create a story when seen together.

mep6125@gmail.com

Mason Powe

This work submitted is a collection of sports photos taken at the Western Michigan University football by Mason Powe. He’s currently a sports photographer for the Western Herald school newspaper. His primary focus is in sports photography. This photo was taken at the first Western Michigan home game by him.

Mason.J.Powe@wmich.edu

Kristina Ziemer

Kristina is a painter who prefers to work with water-based mediums such as acrylic paint, pastels, and charcoal on large scale canvases. The majority of her subject matter is portraiture and the nude. She classifies herself as an expressionist painter.

kristina.ziemer@outlook.com

https://www.instagram.com/kziemerartwork/

Lily McClelland

Lily McClelland Is inspired and constantly challenged by the art of pottery, and every day she strives to make works of art that are not only successful on multiple levels, but will help shape her and fully express her as an artist. While she mainly works with the wheel and makes thrown vessels she also does a lot of hand-building in her everyday process. Something that inspires her and something she tries to contribute to every piece of pottery is the exploration and the associations of pottery to the human body. The way that functional pottery has necks, bellies, feet, and lips that touch our lips is something that she is constantly looking at when making her pieces. She believes that the personal relationship between a piece of pottery like a mug or a bowl and the use of it is important and strengthens that association between the piece of pottery and someone using it. The personal connections that people will have with her pieces of pottery one day are something she tries to remember when creating and continuously helps her focus on the end goal of each piece and their forever home.

Lily.mcclelland333@gmail.com

Allison Mikesell

Allison is an artist that works in sculptural ceramics. Sometimes she will work with vases. She also likes to make sculptures based on the human form. She hand-builds all of her work. She likes to make strange sculpture forms to express how she sees the world. She has Aspergers syndrome, which is on the autism spectrum. She sees the world differently from neurotypical people. She focuses on strange little details from things she sees in the world and uses that to inspire her artwork. Her works definitely come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. There is always a variety with her works. Her sculpture The Hand is a ceramic vase. The hand itself is a vase. She hand-built this piece from stoneware clay. She created this piece because she has always loved drawing hands. Her father told her when she was younger that drawing your own hands is good practice for becoming a better artist. Hands are very intricate and very interesting to draw or sculpt. She made the hand a vase to hold flowers. Like the hand itself picked flowers to give to someone. This is what inspired her to create this piece.

allison.e.mikesell@wmich.edu

Cameryn Lucia

Cameryn has always had a strong connection to nature. When it comes to clay, nature is always present in some way, shape, or form. The clay comes from the earth; water is used when shaping or sculpting it and throwing it on the wheel; fire is used to finalize the item in the kiln. These are all elements that are essential to the process involved in making Cameryn’s work. The fact that Cameryn can make functional things out of a material that came from the earth is fascinating to her and the time and effort that goes into making something handmade is very meaningful. Handmade items have imperfections that leave behind the memories of making. This shows the craft of the artist unlike anything else and can only be shown in handmade items. Cameryn’s goal is to be able to keep a bit of the essence of the clay in the work that she makes so that her finished pieces can still have a part of their natural form. To do this, she leaves a strip along the bottom of her pieces unglazed to show the raw clay peaking through. This gives people the opportunity to see what the bare clay looks and feels like. Cameryn wants to elicit a conversation between the original form of the clay and the finished product. She also likes to use colors when glazing that may be found in nature to bring her pieces even close to the three essential elements

element.ceramics3@gmail.com

Mitchell Gross

As he shouted into the void the silence became deafening so he filled that void with color. Charismatic Yellows and melancholic blues with painfully pink notes

Mitchsamoc@gmail.com

Stephanie Leaver

In a growing artificial world, our environment’s longevity is alarmingly decreasing. Ecosystems in our biosphere are being compromised by the malevolent will of human indifference. Within these systems live pollinators like Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, yellow jackets, hornets) and Diptera (hoverflies and flies), and the pollinated (flowers). The pollinated and pollinators play a critical and valuable role in keeping the ecosystem and biosphere in balance. Pollinators are not just important to performing the act of pollination, but also as an aid in facilitating plant growth, preventing soil erosion, increasing carbon sequestration, and in the production of consumable honey. The pollinated on the other hand, are more than just a beautiful sight, they are an important part of many life-giving necessities for humans, animals, insects, and other plant life to grow and evolve. Flowers are a crucial element in pollination (cannot happen without them), they support water purification, produce oxygen, are habitats for insects to find nutrients or to use as a “home”, provide food and medicinal supplements, and also play a role in the reduction of soil erosion.

This work intimately explores the diminishing life of pollinators and what would happen if they were to vanish from existence, as well as accentuating the importance of pollinators, the pollinated, and their relationship to each other. These pieces are a selection of the greater series called “Hive Mind”. “Hive Mind” is not only directly related to the term ‘hive’ (meaning a physical nest for bees), but also to the concept of ‘hive mentality’—where all minds are linked into a single collective consciousness and can feel and think the same. By having this ‘hive mentality’, it drives the idea of how this work is influential into causing a uniform reaction from callousness to compassion when it comes to acknowledging the importance of both pollinators and the pollinated.

stephaniepaigephotos@gmail.com

www.stephaniepaigephotography.com

https://www.instagram.com/stephaniepaigephotos/

https://www.instagram.com/stephaniepaige.art/