The annual Senioritis art exhibition opened at Seaver Gallery on Tuesday, Oct. 13 and showcases members of the senior class’s work throughout their years at Marlborough. Senioritis, featuring a large range of visual art, from drawing and photography to original jewelry and clothing, is an opportunity for members of the Marlborough community to celebrate the hard work and artistic talent of the Class of 2016. Visual artists Julia Cardenas ’16, Rachel Corren ’16, and Abigail Decter’16 are showing their art in the gallery, alongside other seniors as well.
Ever since she was in preschool, Cardenas says she has been interested in crafts. Since arriving at Marlborough, she has seen Senioritis and looked forward to having her own artwork displayed there one day.
“It’s exciting that it’s finally my turn. It’s also exciting to see all the other girls in my grade and their art,” Cardenas says.
Working among the lines of 2D design in her AP Studio Art class, Cardenas likes to use pen and ink and Photoshop, but also more traditional means like charcoal, chalk pastels, and oil pastels. Some of her inspirations are ’30s artists and classic impressionists, specifically Howard Tangye, Henrietta Harris, and Egon Schiele.
Over the summer, Cardenas says she realized, that there are a wide range of jobs that can come after an art education, such as architecture, graphic design, and the film industry. She is now considering majoring or minoring in art.
Corren remembers starting ceramics in the 9th grade at Marlborough and finding the class difficult for her at first, but she persevered and now is also in AP Studio Art.
“In the past, I had primarily worked with traditional painting or sketching, so clay was a new medium in that it required a very different skill set.”
Corren explained that she enjoys the long and deliberate process involved in working with clay, and she feels more accomplished when finishing a piece. She favors sculpting the clay with her hands instead of using the spinning wheel because building with her hands allows her more freedom to shape the clay as she wants.
“There is a lot of freedom working with clay because you are able to manipulate it in many ways; you can turn it into coils, throw it on the wheel, roll out slabs. Basically, anything you imagine can probably be created from clay since it is both a surface for painting and texturing, and creates the structure of a piece.”
From childhood Decter has had an interest in photography but only started more serious photography when in ninth grade she was in Ms. Tanzman’s class here at Marlborough. Since then she has taken more courses, including AP Photo last year. She particularly likes exploring images of architecture and reflection.
Decter mostly shoots with digital cameras but likes to use film too as she appreciates a “certain old fashioned quality” with film. Unlike with digital cameras, in shooting with film, she has to wait until she develops the film to see the outcome.
Although Decter doesn’t plan on becoming a photographer, she says that photography is a good skill to have.
“Whatever you do in you life, having an artistic perspective on things can really help you out. Especially if I wanted to do something with marketing or graphic design, it’s good to understand how light and shapes and and everything should look.”
Senioritis will be in Seaver Gallery through November 13th.
