Works of North student, recent North graduate on display at Waldron Arts Center

The Herald-Times

Works of North student, recent North graduate on display at Waldron Arts Center

Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2014By Mary Keck 331-4353 | mkeck@heraldt.com 

Take a walk through the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center, and you’ll see the work of high school students among the paintings and sculptures created by professional artists. As part of the 2014 Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition of Emerging Artists, you’ll find photographs taken by Bloomington High School North junior Lucas Adams and a painting 2013 graduate Bailey Tichenor created while a senior at North.

For Tichenor and Adams, art is an avenue for sharing their perspectives with others.

When Tichenor places her brush on a canvas, she wants to “give other people a chance to see what I saw at that moment.” Her work on display at the Waldron Arts Center is oil on canvas and offers a view of purple phlox blossoms against sunshine filtered through a thick veil of green leaves.

The natural world is a place where Tichenor often finds inspiration for her paintings. She likes to capture a landscape, flowers or sunsets with watercolor or oil paints. She doesn’t necessarily go out seeking scenes to paint, but if she comes across something that would look good on a canvas, Tichenor takes a photo to save the idea for later.

Adams said he doesn’t necessarily search out subjects for his photos, either. He stops to take pictures when something “captures my eye. Sometimes I feel I’m naturally drawn to it,” he said. “I sit there, look at it for a second, and think, ‘How can I show this to everyone else?’” During this process, he asks himself, “What do I want to show? What do I want to say?”

In his photograph “Lone Tree,” displayed at the Waldron, Adams captured a white tree growing among jagged rocks in what looks like a barren landscape. Another Adams photo, called “Barn and Its Cabinet,” shows the worn, wooden side of a bright red barn. Attached to it is a solid white cabinet, its doors open just enough to reveal the shelves inside.

Finding and framing such images is fun for Adams. “It’s a great relief to zone in on art,” he said.

To see their works displayed among other accomplished artists is a thrill  for both Tichenor and Adams. “I was so honored to be selected for the gallery,” Adams said. “It’s really boosted my confidence.”

“I was really surprised and excited about it; I know a lot of people don’t have opportunities when they are this young to be in a show like this,” said Tichenor, who is now studying art history at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

To young artists who might feel uncertain about their art or competing to have their works displayed, Tichenor said, “Don’t worry about what other people think. It’s your own product. Even if nobody else likes it, it’s your art.”

From Adams’ point of view, he encourages others to think about what they want to say, and use it to create artwork. In the end, “You can think, ‘I said something.’”

View the works of Adams Tichenor and others at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Friday, or between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday, when the current exhibit closes.

Find more information at www.ivytech.edu/waldron.

Jeremy Hogan

Bloomington High School North junior Lucas Adams’ photographs are on display at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center. Jeremy Hogan | Herald-Times