The student art show at the American History Museum at Deptford includes graphite on paper drawings and acrylic paintings.
The Museum of American History at Deptford hosted the opening day of its 14th annual student art show on March 2 featuring a variety of artwork by students from area colleges, specifically Rowan University and Rowan College at Burlington County.
Displayed throughout the exhibit and available for purchase were graphite on paper drawings, acrylic and oil on canvas paintings and gouache on Bristol. Subjects depicted included animals, architecture and scenic vistas. The exhibit will be on display through Saturday.
“We’re excited to help the kids out,” said museum curator Jeffrey Norcross. “It gives them the opportunity to display the work outside of the university or college they’re attending. This is something, especially if they’re in fine arts, they’re going to be doing their whole life. Going to different galleries and museums. We’re trying to help them out and we enjoy doing it.”
The artists featured in the event were Emily Klassen, Kendelyn Welsh, Lily Richards, Bethany Oliveri, Meghan Dodds, Koyuki Furman, Allison Hillman, Manjot Kaur, Matthew Owens, Joseph Montalvo and AJ Bahooshian. Some of them were in attendance at the museum to chat with visitors and discuss their work, as well as what influences their art style.
“I’m very interested in scientific illustration,” Welsh noted. “I always like drawing animals and stuff.”
Her piece, “Toadbug at the Window,” depicts her cat staring at itself in the window, and “Dire Wolf” depicts the anatomy of a dire wolf’s skull.
“I took a nice picture of Toadbug and I could see her reflection in the window,” Welsh explained. “I really liked that photo. For the dire wolf, it was a collaboration between us (the students) and MARU, which is the Museum of Anthropology at Rowan University. We were doing reconstructions of skulls they have in their collection.”
Some of the artwork had descriptions that described the artists’ inspiration. One of those was, “Thinking Quack,” by Matthew Owens, a sculpture of colored toy ducks atop a bicycle helmet painted to mimic a duck’s head. The ducks represent ideas, since to Owens, the light bulb that goes off when one has an idea is similar in shape to a duck’s body.
“Each duck has a tangled color scheme to represent the vastness and complexity of how my thoughts are,” Owens’ description notes. “Every idea has a busy style that brings each duck together to connect with the cap.”
The exhibit took place amidst the museum’s historic artifacts, which date back to the area’s pre-Columbian days.
“It (the artifacts) provides a colorful ambiance,” Norcross observed. “It doesn’t really detract from the artwork. If anything, it makes a nice backdrop.”
The Museum of American History at Deptford hosts several events throughout the year and in other locations such as the township library.
