Artwork from the Department of Art and Design Study Abroad trip is on display at the ACU Downtown Gallery with works of watercolor, acrylic paintings and photographs.
In the show, titled “Postcards from Abroad,” students such Crysta Cook, sophomore history education major from Abilene, and Madelyn Wischmeyer, sophomore graphic design and advertising major from Keller, displayed some of their work from classes they took in Oxford and Italy.
“Every one of those people that went are so insanely talented,” Cook said. “Most of them are art majors and it was just really cool to see all of their work and see how good they are. By the end of the trip, you could see everyone’s style. Through the process, I saw all of these paintings in their individual steps and it’s been a few months since I’ve seen them finished. It was cool to just to see the finished product.”
In their time spent in Oxford and various places in Italy, students took courses like art history, painting and photography.
“It was just a really cool experience, and it’s crazy how close you get to people just because you have to live with them,” Cook said. “It was just cool to get to know all the girls and see everyone’s perspectives of art and nature through their own eyes.”
The challenge of the trip was producing the art that is now on display at the gallery.
“Our professor said that we probably did more work in those seven weeks abroad than we would typically do in a semester,” Wischmeyer said.
Cook’s pieces in the show are a picture of a Parisian man on the street and a photograph of a man in Italy taken while he and his friends were cliff jumping. Wischmeyer also has two pieces in the show, a photograph of two people entering a church doorway and an abstract painting meant to represent our transition from Oxford to Italy.
“Everyone of us sees it differently – different shades differently, interpretations differently,” Cook said. “Some people will naturally paint darker or some people will paint lighter, it’s just really interesting.”
The show itself served more than the purpose of displaying the art that the students worked on this summer and provided an incomparable value.
“It was really fun, and we hadn’t seen each other in a big group for a long time,” Wischmeyer said. “That artwork meant a lot to us. It was embodying our whole trip. Going back and reviewing that had a lot of sentimental value.”
