Each spring, Brenau students put their creativity on display during the Brenau Collaborative. The Collaborative is a series of art events featuring work from concentrations in the Center for the Arts & Design, which includes the Arts and Design Department, Interior Design, Music and Dance departments as well as the Brenau University Galleries.
On Thursday, April 14, fashion design students kicked off the Collaborative with a show featuring their collections. The event also highlighted pieces by Brenau costume design majors.
Myriam Aguirre, a senior fashion design major, presented her junior and senior collections. Her junior collection, The Pink Ratio, was inspired by the golden ratio and finding a balance of acceptable workwear as the norms change. Her senior collection, Castle Dream, is her vision of what people would wear in a modern-day castle, or a mansion and is a mix of leisurewear and decorative evening wear.
“I’ve really enjoyed the whole process, starting with an idea and turning it into a whole collection, but I’d say my favorite part is choosing the concept of the collection and drawing it out,” Aguirre said. “It’s nice being able to share your ideas as visuals. Also, it is where the whole process begins. I had never participated in a fashion show before, and I enjoyed seeing everyone’s hard work put into one show.”
The Collaborative also features two art shows: the Undergraduate Juried Exhibition open to all Brenau students and the Senior Projects and Portfolios Exhibition, which features the capstone work for senior art and design students, including studio art, fashion design and fashion merchandising.
“For all students, having a gallery display on their resume or portfolio is a boon,” Galleries Director Nichole Ferguson said. “This is an opportunity for them to experience a professional submission process and subsequent event, which is useful beyond the college environment. I also think that it is meaningful for students to be praised for their work outside of the classroom, and this event allows students to be proud of the work they are creating and showcase it in front of an external audience.”
The Undergraduate Juried Exhibition features a range of media, such as interior design, graphic design, sculpture, drawing, painting and garment construction, Ferguson said. This year, the juror was Julia Forbes, head of museum interpretation at the High Museum of Art.
Senior studio art major Abigail Robertson was awarded best in show for her piece, Fading Memory. It features a pattern of sepia images from the past on a formal gown.
Other winners included sophomore fashion design major Jessica Garcia with first place for Cherry; junior interior design major Bianca Andersen with second place for Chairs Through History; and senior fashion design major Cassidi Jones with third place for All That Jazz.
Honorable mentions included works by junior mass communication major Stephanie Rangel Santos, senior music and fashion design double major Anna Feng, junior studio art major Vivianne Angelika Funes, freshman undeclared major Ana Gabriela Perez Batista and freshman interior design major Gabriele Rojas.
Blake Barnes, a senior psychology major, decided to enter some of her art in the undergraduate show this year. She said she wanted to explore her creative side and took a work study in the gallery. Barnes was encouraged by some of her friends and Ferguson to submit her drawings to the show.
“Even though I am a psychology major, I can still embrace and enjoy things in my pastime that are not related to what I want to do in the future with my degree,” Barnes said. “I also want this to remind me that I stepped way out of my comfort zone, and I am an artist as well as a science major.”
Barnes said she enjoyed photographing her friends in the dance department and decided to use their movement as inspiration for her own tarot card deck. Each card in the deck shows a line drawing of a dancer in various stages of movement.
“Each minor arcana is a different type of dance and the major arcana are some well-known poses,” she said.
