A select group of students had their work hand picked to be featured in a diverse exhibit in the Miller Fine Arts Gallery.

The show titled “Defying Expectations,” premiered at 6 p.m. Dec. 5 with an artist’s reception and end-of-semester celebration. It will be on exhibition through Jan. 31.

Twelve talented Linfield students created all the art on display. M.K. Guth, chair for the master of fine arts in visual studies program at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, was the guest curator for the exhibition. Guth is the only artist from in the Pacific Northwest to be named one of the 2008 Whitney Biennial Artists, and will have her work displayed in New York City.

Included in the exhibit is a wide range of artwork, such as paintings, carvings, murals and photography. For some of the student artists, their selections defied even their own expectations.

“This show is about artists doing things out of the norm,” junior Nick Jauregui said.
Jauregui’s contribution to the gallery incorporates photography and computer graphics. Using Adobe Photoshop, he digitally manipulated a photo until he created a new image within it. His idea originally came from a photography class project.

“I pretty much just opened Photoshop with these images and was like, what can I do that will be different?” he said.

The other student artists were chosen by Guth when she visited their art classes and personal studios in the Miller Fine Arts Center.

Guth had short meetings with the students to talk about their work, the techniques they use and what inspires them, senior Lindsey Thordarson explained.

Thordarson specializes in paintings, but had something different chosen to be on display.
“The pieces (Guth) chose were these three Styrofoam carvings I had done,” Thordarson said. “They kind of have the feel of a medieval woodcut, but they’re Styrofoam.”

Though different from her usual work, Thordarson said her carvings have the same sort of imagery as her paintings.

“My paintings have elements of surrealism,” Thordarson said. “This was kind of an attempt to combine the two.”

Another addition to the gallery is a mural by senior Keenan Havens.

Havens used Sharpie paint pens to draw directly on one wall of the gallery. As the show continues, Havens will be adding new elements to his mural. At the end of the exhibition, the mural will be painted over.

“I get some inspiration from everyday life and some from life and death,” Havens said. “In that sense, I like to use murals because it kind of illustrates how nothing is permanent.”
“Defying Expectations” is free and open to the public between noon and 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

It will be in the Fine Arts Gallery until Dec. 21, and will reopen by appointment only on Jan. 3.
“It’s fun to have the opportunity to show something, especially something you don’t expect,” Thordarson said. “Everyone’s work is so diverse.”

Student contributors include sophomore Aaron Cody, juniors Ryan Gerdes, Jauregui, Laura Johnson, Joe Robinson and Matt Worthey; and seniors Havens, Laura Hunt, Sarah Lapinski, Alia Moore, Claire Ratto and Thordarson.