Art graduates present a few pieces of themselves
By: Vanessa Kahin
Issue date: 5/5/09 Section: Entertainment
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The exhibit, which opened Monday and had its closing reception Thursday evening, featured the work of three graduating art majors: Melissa Cavaliere, Heather Hancock and Kyra Ann Burch.
This was not the first time that Hancock, 22, has been lauded for her art. She had not finished grade school when she won an art contest meant to encourage electrical safety with a drawing featuring a mouse being shocked by electric lines.
"I've loved art forever," Hancock said. These days, her art is no less surprising than an electrocuted mouse. One of her paintings, titled "West Texas Meets Surrealism," includes a herd of cows grazing as a golden sun sets in the background. One of the cows has stripes like a zebra.
In another painting, "I Want To Play Outside," Hancock has pictured another herd of cows that appear toylike and trapped inside a play pen. One cow is climbing the play pen wall to the outside and, in the distance, there is a cow that has apparently escaped long ago.
Hancock, who has resided mostly in Portales, said that her senior BFA exhibit is something she has been aspiring to since she was in high school and visited the ENMU campus.
"I'm just real excited, Hancock said. "I've been looking forward to (the exhibit) for a long time." Now, Hancock hopes to inspire other young students.
"I really want to be a high school teacher," Hancock said. "I've always wanted to teach art."
Burch, 22, is originally from Rio Rancho and is about to complete an art degree with an emphasis in photography. Virtually all of her contributions to the exhibit were portraits. Her black and white photographs offered glimpses into the personalities and lives of her subjects, namely, her friends and family. This intimate perspective, Burch explained, is exactly what she wants her portraits to achieve.
One portrait named "Fatherhood" features a man and baby napping on a couch. A portrait titled "Great Aunt Edith" presents a woman delivering a big smile back to the viewer.