Exhibit showcases seniors' artistry

Diggs Gallery's final student exhibit for the semester features artwork from eight Winston-Salem State seniors.

The exhibit will be on display until May 9.

The works presented are from Alfonzo Callejas, Dave Goliszek, Christopher Griffith, Cassius Parsons, Valentina Pushkina, Sean Robinson, Rashawn Temple, and Natasha Young.

The WSSU Senior Thesis Show & Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Schools Senior Exhibit also includes at least five art works from seniors in area high schools.

The seniors are required to participate in this exhibit prior to graduation, but to them, this exhibit means much more than just a grade.

"It means a lot for seniors, not just to graduate," said Pushkina, an art major with a concentration in computer graphics.

Pushkina is from Moscow and has four pieces on display. She said that there are a lot of good things about the exhibit.

"It shows what we have done. It shows what we have learned. It shows what we want to do in the future when we graduate," she said.

"An employer or a really nice artist from Winston-Salem, they come in and see our work, and might hire one of us."

Pushkina said the motivation behind her collection came from her native land, the courses on religion she has taken, as well as her interest in architecture.

"In Russia, some of the most beautiful buildings are the cathedrals and churches," Pushkina said.

"I wanted to show people a piece of Moscow. This is something inside of me."

Each of the oil on canvas mediums shows the cathedrals in a different season.

"It's [oil on canvas] one of my favorite mediums for paintings," Pushkina said.

She said she has sold two of the paintings from this collection, the winter and fall pieces, in an earlier exhibit.

Leo Morrissey has been instructing at WSSU as an associate professor of Art the past four years. He has been on the faculty with this exhibit for two years.

"The community gets to see what our students are doing, especially in this environment where this is the city of arts,"Morrissey said.

"We have the North Carolina School of the Arts here [in Winston-Salem], and it shows that we are participating and working at that caliber."

Students were not restricted on what they could submit. The exhibit includes paintings, sculptures and a range of sizes and mediums from print on vinyl, digital prints, animation, and digital mixed media.

"I enjoyed the exhibit," said Alfred Peller, a computer graphics graduate from the University of South Carolina.

Peller also expressed frustration about how art is being removed from schools.

"After seeing it [the exhibit], I think the future of art is heading in the right direction. I hate that so many art programs are being cut out of school, but this [exhibit] was very nice, very refreshing to see."

Morrissey also said he thinks it is important that art education stays in the schools and that art is highlighted more.

"I think it is very short-sighted to cut art programs out of schools," he said. "We need to keep the arts in the schools."