Scripps College Presents: “Things You Can’t Explain: 2015 Senior Art Show”

Sometimes it’s easier to show what you mean rather than explain it through words. “Things You Can’t Explain,” the annual exhibition highlighting the final thesis projects of a select group of graduating studio art majors, takes on the unexplainable through visual representation. The show will be on display from May 1-16 at the Scripps College Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. An opening reception will be held on May 1 from 7-9 p.m. in Bixby Courtyard. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

“Things You Can’t Explain” will feature a wide variety of art forms, including mixed media art, paintings, drawings, interdisciplinary installations, ceramic sculptures, and animation. The exhibition is a juried show celebrating the achievements of student artists who worked throughout their senior year in anticipation of the event. In addition to creating the works displayed, the students conceptualized the show, installed their pieces, wrote artist statements, and managed the publicity for the exhibition. A preview photo series of the exhibition can be found here.

This year’s featured seniors are: Lily Alan, Teagan Blain-Rozgay, Mabelle Bong, Susanna Ferrell, Leah Hughes, Haley Ross, Seana Rothman, and Allison Schubauer.

During the exhibition, the gallery is free of charge and open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information, please contact the gallery at (909) 607-3397 or visit its website here. The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery is located at Eleventh Street and Columbia Avenue, adjacent to Baxter Hall.

	Lily Alan A Los Angeles native, Alan explores the word “interior” in her piece because she is fascinated by the potential the word has in describing a physical space, as well as characterizing a sense of self. A studio art major and art history minor, Alan learned the duality of the word “interior” in a Scripps humanities course. “My hope for my sculptures is that they encourage viewers to look outward as a means to feel inward,” Alan says.
	Teagan Blain-Rozgay Blain-Rozgay, a studio art major and psychology minor, created large-scale ceramic sculptures that reflect her recent transformative study-abroad experience in New Zealand. “Before I went to New Zealand, I felt lost. While there, the experiences and the people put me back on track,” says Blain-Rozgay, who is from Pasadena, Calif.
	Mabelle Bong A studio art and psychology double major from San Jose, Calif., Bong’s mixed-media piece explores the ways Asian women are exotified in the United States. “I want my work to reflect the destructive effects that these hyper-sexualized images of Asian women have on our identity,” she says. “I also examine how these degrading images are interpreted by others, as well as by Asian American women.”
	Susanna Ferrell Ferrell, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and Beijing, China, created a video and an installation displaying two-dimensional ink animations that portray the feeling of obsessive-compulsive disorder behavior. “My art compares the process of animation to obsession, where you’re drawing the same frame over and over again,” says Ferrell, a double major in studio art and art history.
	Leah Hughes Hughes says her artwork “is about my relationship with my car.” The studio art and politics and international relations double major from Fairdale, Ky. says her artwork relies on paint, stitchery, and storytelling to help her express her affinity with her car, which she named Tammy. “The California car culture is about getting the newest and best thing, but my relationship with Tammy is more than that,” Hughes says.
	Haley Ross A studio art major and psychology minor from Chicago, Ross created an art piece that consists of both wooden and brass “pieces that explore abstractions of constraint, confinement, and control.” Her mixed-media sculptural installation was greatly inspired by her time studying abroad at the University College of London’s (UCL) Slade School of Fine Art.
	Seana Rothman Rothman, a studio art major and an environmental analysis minor from San Diego, approaches her artistic practice through a scientific lens. Rothman explores concepts of vision and eyesight. The inspiration for her project comes from her dad who lives with impaired vision due to glaucoma. Using markers, she created portraits of students with various visual conditions such as nearsightedness, astigmatism, and double vision. “I want to encourage unconventional ways of thinking about vision and highlight the visual diversity within our community” she says.
	Allison Schubauer Schubauer, a Harvey Mudd College senior and studio art major from Sacramento, created a series of cartoon-style drawings expressing “the humor and pathos in everyday life.” Drawn mostly with ink, watercolor, and ballpoint pen, the images evoke degrees of honesty, humor, and directness. Her artwork spotlights varying levels of openness.