Art students prepare for final projects

As finals week approaches, USD is full of students preparing for the end of the semester. For students in the art department, finals week often means finishing a project that incorporates passion and creativity with what they’ve learned in class.

“Art projects are more about showing improvement than showing perfection,” said sophomore and studio art major Mikayla Tuttle.

Rather than having exams, depending on the class, students in the art department create a final project that exemplifies what they’ve learned thus far from instructors. Students then present their work  at a final critique in order to share their differing visions.

“It’s interesting to see how people express themselves,” said Chris Meyer, a USD sculpture professor.

Meyer said his favorite final projects are self-portraits created with mixed media of the student’s choice. Students can incorporate something about them, whether that be a feeling or a personality trait, and turn that into a visual work.

“A student once created an upside down ice cream cone that had fallen on the floor to talk about the stage of things in their life,” Meyer said.

Different emphases in the fine arts department result in different final projects.

Shea Kister, a junior studio art major with an emphasis in photography, described what finals week has been like throughout her time as an art major. She said her favorite part of the semester’s end is the potluck that concludes the critique in one of her studio art classes.

Kister said many studio art classes have final critiques.
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“I think that it’s more stressful because it’s like everything is due a week before, and these projects are the biggest of them all,” Kister said. “You’re taking all these things you learned the entire semester and applying them in a project.”

While these projects can be stressful, Kister said they’re also beneficial because they give students more freedom to incorporate their own styles into the techniques they’ve learned.

Kister says when it comes down to it, art students shouldn’t stress too much in the face of finals week.

“Don’t freak out because the professors know that you’re spending a lot of time with these projects, but so is everyone else,” Kister said. “People have done these projects before and will do them again after, just remember to keep getting better.”