2022 Senior Thesis Exhibitions
Providence College Art and Art History Student Workers, Alexandra Kelly and Taylor Maguire, interviewed senior studio art majors, Callie Chan and Maggie Farrell, in anticipation of their upcoming Senior Thesis Exhibition which is on view now in Hunt-Cavanaugh and will be up through July, 2022.
Maggie’s exhibition features fourteen acrylic abstract paintings, notable for their vibrant colors and hypnotizing patterns. Her studio art concentration is painting, which provides her with ample freedom to explore different approaches and styles within the medium. Maggie’s primary faculty mentor is Professor Heather McPherson, who has been her advisor since freshman year. Maggie explains, “We met weekly to discuss my artwork and she was always able to rekindle my motivation, especially when I felt overwhelmed. As a fellow painter, I always found comfort in her critiques and looked up to her as a role model.”
The most impactful class Maggie has taken thus far is Art History Survey, where she fell in love with the artists and stories behind her favorite artwork. It also allowed her to engage with art from a new perspective, in which the story held more significance than the final piece. Maggie explains that: “This class changed the way I understand arts place in the world, and it has impacted my own process in creating art.”
The student workers asked both artists a range of questions on their relationships to art beyond the classroom setting. Maggie stated that an example of art changing the way she looks at the world was illustrated in a Banksy exhibition in Boston. In this exhibition, the artist Banksy critiques globalization and capitalism through humor. One piece that stood out depicts a boy wearing an “I Hate Mondays” shirt within a gray reality, which specifically stuck with Maggie because of its ability to reveal how art can open people’s minds and hearts.
A goal for Maggie’s thesis exhibition was to make as many different styles of abstract paintings as possible, which led to extensive research on artists working in abstraction. She is most inspired by Basquiat and admires the work of Jackson Pollock and Keith Haring. While making art, Maggie listens to crime podcasts in addition to the music of various artists including Rex Orange County, Frank Ocean, the Lumineers, and the Backstreet Lovers. Her favorite museum is the Accademia Gallery in Florence, Italy, which houses Michelangelo’s infamous sculpture of David.
Installed across from Maggie’s paintings, Senior Callie Chan has created a traditional Chinese dragon which appears in unique ceramic forms strung together with twine. Callie’s relationship with ceramics began when she was in high school. Her love for clay and glaze followed her to Providence College where she declared ceramics as her concentration. She notes that she values “The three-dimensionality of using clay while also being able to simultaneously create in 2D using glaze on the clay’s surface.”
When asked about her faculty mentors, Callie explains that both art department professors “Judd Schiffman and Heather McPherson have been the most impactful professors throughout my college experience. They both challenge me to challenge myself in ways that are unique to my relationship and experiences with both. I’ve grown the most as a person and as an artist with their teaching methods.”
An art class that impacted Callie was Modern Art taught at the time by Dr. Johnson. She explained that “This class is where I really found my voice as an artist and what I value most about art. I discovered some of my favorite artists to this day in that class–notably Yoko Ono.”
When asked about how art has changed the way she looks at the world, Callie explained that art exposes one to a lot of different mentalities. She explained further that being exposed to art has made her more aware of various perspectives around the world and has shown her how to pay attention to things that may otherwise slip by unnoticed.
When referring to her artistic influences, Callie introduced her “artistic family tree,” consisting of artists Yayoi Kusama, Richard Sara, Yoko Ono, and Ai Weiwei. She values their work because their large-scale non-representational pieces challenge Callie to draw meaning and see things from the artist’s perspective. While working in her studio, Callie listens to a mix of music ranging from K pop to R&B to hip-hop. She says that at the moment her favorite museum is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, because of its scale. If you have time this semester, please drop by Hunt-Cavanaugh to see their work!
Posted by Alexandra Kelly ’23 and Taylor Maguire ’24
