Fine arts seniors prep for showcase

Fifteen seniors are camping out in the computer lab, staring intently at their screens and moving their mouses around. But they aren't typing. Two floors up, other seniors are working on their final projects. But they have few books or pencils around. Like many of their classmates, these students are working on their senior theses. But for these roughly 30 fine arts majors, that means creating a series of artwork and then selecting some of their best pieces to be presented later this month at the annual Senior Thesis Show. The thesis is a required component of the major, a "cohesive body of work that revolves around one conceptual idea," said College senior Emily Schiffer, a fine arts major concentrating in photography. Her final project will include about 26 images that somehow represent sexual assault victims. Throughout the year, students develop a central theme, work on their art, discuss their progress formally in senior seminars and consult with professors. Mostly, they spend hours upon hours in the Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall, painting, sculpting, developing or working on animation. "I wake up in the morning, and I come over here, and I make art," Schiffer said. "Then, if I have class, I go to class. Then I come back here and make art, and then I go back to my room between 10 p.m. and two in the morning." College senior and fine arts major Sue Shon, who said she recently spent four days without sleeping because she was spending so much time painting in her studio, is working on what she describes as "representing text as an image and image as a text." For her, the thesis project is a process of experimentation and careful consideration. "I want to try out all the possibilities," Shon said, adding that she gets her ideas from a variety of sources and lets those ideas guide her work. "I'll keep working until it feels like I am done." One of the pieces she recently finished for her thesis is based on a poem written by a student she works with as a teacher's aid at a local school. After going through this yearlong experience together, all of the fine arts majors are eagerly awaiting the month-long Senior Thesis Show, which will begin after spring break. "We work really hard, and you create these portfolios, so you want people to see your work and, hopefully, you can find out if you were successful," Schiffer said. Along with the show itself, the majors design a catalog each year that is distributed to all those who attend. "The goal of the catalog is to provide a summary of the work of the artists," said College senior and fine arts major Aleah Borghard, one of the students in charge of producing the catalog. "It's a summary... so that when you walk away from the show, you have a memory of who the artists are and [of] their work." This year, they are hoping to add a funky, artsy look to the design of the catalog so that it will reflect the talents of the art majors. "We wanted to do something that was more interesting, because people are going to see it and remember it, but we wanted them to actually keep it and hold on to it and view it as a representation of the art department at Penn," Borghard said. "We wanted it to be something that if people saw our catalog next year, they would want to take it and look at it and maybe get ideas from it the way they would go to a store and buy a graphics design magazine." In addition to the hard work that goes into the art itself and the design of the catalog, the fine arts majors are responsible for funding the production of the catalog. After throwing an "Arty Party" and sending letters to local businesses asking for gifts of support, the fine arts majors are on their way to paying for this important aspect of the show. And now, with only a few weeks until the Senior Thesis Show begins, they have a lot to look forward to, other than sleepless nights in Addams Hall. When they finally complete their projects, the students will be able to say that they have successfully created a comprehensive body of self-generated work and that they have shared their art with the community. After four years of studying and creating art, they will doubtless breathe a proud, satisfied sigh of relief.