Senior art show to feature Clark, Gooch and Malone

The first senior art show of the semester will showcase three students: Andrew Clarke and Candace Gooch, who both have a primary emphasis on ceramics, and Emilie Malone, who has a primary emphasis on painting.

All three seniors have spent the majority of the Spring semester putting together these projects to present in a gallery show.

Clark’s show consists solely of handmade mugs that show his technical skill but they also present a concept very important to him about pottery.

“With handmade pottery, the reason why I think it’s really interesting and really cool is the connection and the relationship you form with the creator of whatever you’re buying,” said Clark.

Clark’s mugs all have a decal picture of his face fired onto them. His aim is to force users into recognizing this connection between creator and buyer.

Gooch chose to focus mainly on the technical side of pottery.

“I just wanted to use this as an opportunity to showcase that skill set that I have developed in ceramics while spending these last four years here,” said Gooch.

Malone, who is interested in visual storytelling, will present a set of illustrations based off the fairytale stories she grew up with.

“I just grew up around illustrated children’s books and stories were always just a really important part of my life,” said Malone.

The three seniors are all excited about showing their projects alongside work that is different from their own.

“It’s going to be an interesting show because [Clark and Gooch] are both pottery and I’m 2-D, so I’m going to be kind of a buffer between the pottery, so I think that’s going to work well,” said Malone.

These senior show projects have not all come easily or quickly. Most of the ideas and brainstorming behind the shows began last semester. This semester has brought much hard work in a short amount of time in order be ready for this show.

All three of the seniors said that the time constraint was a difficult factor in their work. Clark said the hardest part for him was being sure that his work was effectively communicating what he wanted it to communicate to the user. Malone said she struggled not to overthink her work and wanted to start everything over.

“The biggest struggle was trying to juggle everything and still have work that I was confident putting up in a gallery environment.” said Gooch. “As far as the technical side goes, there was a lot of trial and error with these glazes. For instance you could have a kiln-load of stuff you intended to put in the show, and stuff could go wrong, your glaze could run, they could crack, and then that sets you behind a week, a week and a half, and you’ve only got so much time before this goes up.”

Although eager to have their show behind them, the students are also excited about showcasing all their hard work.

“I’ve been really excited about doing this work and I’m excited about sharing it,” said Malone. “I think that’s kind of the point of stories is you have to share them with people. They’re not complete until they’re in the hands of someone else.”

Clark and Gooch are both looking forward to seeing their pottery sold and distributed among buyers as well.

After graduation, Clark, Gooch, and Malone all have summer jobs or internships set up. Malone will be working with RIFA here in Jackson, while Clark and Gooch will be interning at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. All three seniors hope to have careers in their emphases in the future.

The show will be displayed April 13-17 in the student gallery in the Pennick Academic Complex. There will also be a reception held on Wednesday, April 15 at 5 p.m.