Saint Mary's senior art students displayed their final exhibits at the College's Moreau Art Center beginning last Friday.
The projects were the culmination of the seniors' final year of work.
Senior Mary Castle, an art major and music minor, displayed 14 canvases inspired by the works of French composer Charles Camille Saint-Saens' "Le Carnaval des Animaux."
"I chose this theme in order to use a lot of different colors and techniques, which incorporate both my art major and music minor," Castle said.
Castle accompanied her visual art with a piano performance during the exhibition. She said she hopes others see the parallels between art and music in her work.
Castle add the she would like to encourage a desire to listen to her work, "The Carnival of the Animals."
Kelly Payne, another senior artist on display, said the natural beauty she enjoys while running outdoors inspired her work.
"Running outside got me interested in the beauties of nature, of what God has created to make the world look beautiful," she said in her artist's statement. "It also gave me a way to meditate and not think about the opposing and jarring aspects of life."
Payne said her artwork depicts the abstract beauty of day-to-day images.
Abstract imagery also inspired Saint Mary's senior Elizabeth McDonald to create her three-dimensional display, "A New Age of Horror."
Social issues were also an inspiration to some artists. Senior Erin Malter created a six-canvas display to speak about animal abuse. Her exhibit, titled "In Their Shoes," substituted humans in the place of mistreated animals.
Senior Caitlin Duerinck created three-dimensional sculptures for her exhibit, "Duende." Edward Hirsch's book, "The Demon and the Angel: Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspiration," inspired her five large-scale ceramic pieces.
"This philosophy book examined the ways in which artists in various media, such as dance, poetry and sculpture, connect and respond to the Spanish concept of duende, the evocative force that drives people to create works of art," Duerinck said in her artist's statement. "I created this work to encourage others to examine how and why they are inspired, to note what they are inspired by and to act upon their personal inspiration."
The displays are open to the general public until Friday.
