Shublean Kaur '27
Dec 8, 2023
If you haven’t seen it yet, this year’s Advanced Studio Art pieces are currently showing in the Burgin Center for the Arts Cofrin Gallery. From afar, the pieces look very beautiful, and as you get closer, you can see deeper meaning.
“It really defines who I am as a person”, said Cocona Yamamoto ‘25, a member of the Studio Art class. “My portrait really means that throughout your life there’s a lot of people you’re going to meet and a lot of them will come and go but the person who is going to stay with you from the very beginning is just yourself,” said Yamamoto.
Another student artist, Collin Jin ‘25, said, “[My piece] symbolizes life and my appreciation for it.” Although Jin was not fully satisfied with the results of his portrait, he reported that completing it will help him grow as an artist. Jin’s favorite piece in the show is Anne Sehon’s ‘25.
Sehon’s self-portrait presents her looking upward, with bugs around the canvas, even some on her face. The piece relates to her childhood when she was called “bug-eyes.” The way Sehon displays this nickname on the canvas brings a literal lens to it.
The design process of the class self-portraits took much of the fall term. “We spent a lot of time talking about what it means to make a self-portrait and trying to say something more than just what’s on the canvas… as a class, we talked a lot which was really nice,” says Grace Chi ‘25.
Behind the faces, each piece has a deeper meaning when viewed up-close.