MSU art department announces fall exhibit for graduating seniors

Contact: Sammy McDavid

STARKVILLE, Miss.--"Six Degrees" is the theme for a senior fine arts exhibition opening Nov. 6 at Mississippi State.

Works by a half-dozen art department majors graduating this semester will be featured through Dec. 2 in the McComas Hall gallery. A public reception for the honorees and their creations will be held 5:30-7:30 p.m. Nov. 9, also in the ground-floor-level exhibition hall.

Scheduled to receive degrees in December, the group includes Felesha B. Butler of Columbus, Amanda E. DeStefanis of Olive Branch, Elizabeth J. "Liz" Johnstone of Starkville, James D. Jones of Ingram's Mill, Sarah E. Kindelan of Germantown, Tenn., and Kathryn H. Little of Newhebron. All are specializing in painting and drawing except Kindelan, who has concentrated in sculpture.

The exhibition is among final requirements for MSU students completing the bachelor of fine arts degree. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

"A range of media and concepts in painting and sculpture are in store for those who visit the exhibit," said gallery director William Andrews.

"The paintings are as diverse as the artists' individual personalities, while Sarah's carefully crafted wood sculptures explore human-furniture relationships," he added.

Butler uses watercolor as her medium of choice in developing landscape images that first were captured in photographs.

DeStefanis prefers non-representational and abstracted imagery to explore relationships of color and texture.

Johnstone produces abstract oil and watercolor works that interpret remembered images of her native Scotland and of Canada, where she resided before relocating to Mississippi.

Jones was influenced by Dante's "La Vita Nouva" in a series celebrating the love of a woman and the art of a painting.

Kindelan offers a series of hyper-flat furniture objects that use wood panels in place of the more traditional carvings and embellishments of her historical design influences.

Little, also a violinist, explores the musicality in abstract oil paintings though the use of lines, spaces between the lines and color.

For more information on the exhibition, contact Andrews at 662-325-0393 or wandrews@caad.msstate.edu.

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LOCAL EDITORS:

DeStefanis is the daughter of Richard and Janet DeStefanis; Jones, the son of Jackey and Patricia Jones; Kindelan, the daughter of Juan and Brenda Kindelan; and Little, the daughter of Michael and Jane Little.

Parent information for Butler and Johnstone is not available.

For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.