PRESS
Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic is derived from listening to others’ experiences, seeing their aspiration to have their work seen, and redirecting what I have learned to strategically benefit my career path by continuing to have an active professional career. I achieve this through thoroughly planning my personal, academic, and professional life. As an Enneagram Type 7, I embody the spirit of an adventurous enthusiast and I have a thirst to not miss out on opportunities. I develop my occupational and artistic goals on a sixth month schedule or month to month basis and go for them.
I learned at a guest artist lecture at Samford Art Gallery that becoming a successful artist and designer would require dedication, hard work, and motivation amid current and future life changes. After meeting Sarah West, a painter who obtained her MFA from Clemson, and with the advice from my sculpture professor Lauren Frances Evans, I began exploring graduate programs to advance my education. I often worked late into the night to complete assignments while my peers made different arrangements. I developed a routine of completing two projects for every classroom assignment and consistently exceeded the requirements of my classes. I wanted to have a destination after undergrad. I needed to expand upon my art history knowledge and learn how to write and talk about what I was making…
Alumni art showcased at Samford Art Gallery
“Roundabout” is the latest exhibit featured in Samford’s Art Gallery and consists of a small collection of various works created by Samford alumni.
Lauren Evans, Samford art professor and director of the gallery, curated “Roundabout” after coming up with the idea for the collection a couple of years ago during a zoom call with Kaitlin West, Nicole Weldy and Molly Lay. As they shared their experiences in graduate school with Evans’ senior class, Evans came up with the idea.
“[In that moment] I thought, ‘These three need to do a show,’” said Evans.
The goal of the exhibit is to showcase artwork created by Samford alumni during their years at graduate school. When Evans pitched this idea to her colleagues, they suggested she add Connor Gayda to the mix, since he was also a Samford alumnus pursuing a master’s in fine arts (MFA) degree.
The name “Roundabout” was inspired by the alumni artists themselves and their time at Samford. Evans thoughtfully considered how Samford and Birmingham act as the middle point for alumni to reconnect with their roots.
“All these artists all connect through Birmingham,” said Evans.
Evans captured this theme in the image of a roundabout as it represents the idea of students coming and going from different hometowns and backgrounds.
The pieces showcased in the exhibition were chosen by Evans, with intent to communicate her vision of “Roundabout” and to represent the four artists through their various works of art…
Senior art students Herzog and Weldy shows on joint display in Art Gallery
While Herzog’s show looked to the past, Weldy’s exhibition captured the present with her COVID-19-inspired show “United Through The Arts.”
“It’s a collection of work that describes and data marks my quarantine experience in relation to what other people experienced through the pandemic, through quarantine regulations and through COVID,” Weldy said. “It describes how society felt alone, but at the same time, it’s the closest we’ve ever been to one another.”
Weldy’s show features a variety of mixed media and interactive art pieces that range from conformed clay sculptures, a nearly six foot tall colored pencil drawing of an iPhone and a gigantic dodecahedron made entirely of Duct Tape hands.
Weldy said that her desire was to create art that displayed what the world was going through during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some people feel like we need to skip over 2020. It’s not that a year went missing, it’s that it’s a year of untold stories,” Weldy said. “So ‘United Through The Arts’ is me telling my story and the people around me’s stories of what was happening…”