Column: Mercer seniors’ art displays highlight Macon’s First Friday

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo and enjoy downtown tonight during May’s First Friday. That includes taking in an informal reception at McEachern Art Center and seeing the work of six graduating Mercer University seniors whose art is on display through May 18.

Hours for the reception are 4-8 p.m. and the McEachern – or MAC, as they call it – is at 332 Second St.

“We’re excited to host the show which fills the MAC with personal reflections, political stances, commercial design and environmentalist messages,” said gallery director and Mercer lecturer Ben Dunn.

Here’s a hint of what’s in store:

Carly Curran is a graphic designer from Marietta who’s applied the dedication and discipline she learned as a lacrosse player to her art and academic life. For the show, she designed a calendar.

“I did market research for each month and used the information to help me decide what illustration to create,” she told me. It’s part of honing and developing skills and new practices.

“Like sports, there’s always something new to learn and challenge yourself with,” she said. “My goal in creating these pieces was to show that digitally created art, done by an artist, can be translated to the products we all see in stores. The consumer product industry is something we’re all familiar with whether we know it or not.”

Nico Fox is earning a double major at Mercer in history and art history. From Puerto Rico, his work takes on political as well as emotional meaning as he incorporates found objects and discarded items.

“My work tends to focus on the stories that inanimate objects like buildings tell,” he said in his artist statement. “I particularly like to paint abandoned buildings as I feel they have a visceral emotional quality and loneliness to them. I have been experimenting with using discarded objects as a way to connect my artistic practice to the physical world. My primary objective in this work is to evoke an emotional response. This could be a vague melancholy feeling towards an abandoned building standing decrepit and lonely or an urgency to action for a political movement.”

Jaron Dougherty set aside ambitions to be an athletic trainer to pursue graphic design. An early interest in logo design enhanced her sense of good design.

“My work consists of a majority of digitally created projects,” she said. “My digital projects are usually for sports teams and organizations but sometimes I create work just for me and that work is just pure imagination. In my current piece, my imagination brought me to a moment of reflection.”

Since life circumstances resulted in the loss of many things such as sports trophies and childhood momentous, Dougherty now has all she owns in her dorm room. She created an art installation for the show that somewhat replicates her room with the addition of digitally painted images reflecting her life’s moments and memories. Spoiler alert: it’s plain to see Dougherty is a Disney fan.

“It was important for me to display these memories in the correct light,” she said. “Life is not perfect and neither are the people you love, but family will get you through a storm. This piece provides a moment of reflection on pivotal events, the little stolen moments, and living to make the little girl inside of me smile.”

Max Bickers is a painter from Sandy Springs who majored in art and minored in journalism at Mercer. He said he’s been around art his whole life and was influenced heavily by his grandmother.

“My preferred medium is acrylic paint on canvas,” he said. “The paintings are from moments in my life I remember and photos I’ve taken. I hope to communicate my past in ways I see it, how I would like to remember it and create an abstract version of a moment in time. I’m exploring my past while learning new painting techniques that push me to develop my practice and open a window into my world allowing the viewer to experience my world through my point of view. There’s no meaning or narrative I’m trying to influence anyone to believe other than the fact that my art represents myself.”

Pedro Guillen is native to Cuba but spent most of his life in Macon. He said he initially was pursuing a career in Information Technology but rediscovered a love for the visual arts.

“My art combines digital media and traditional mediums to create visually engaging works that could only be produced using contemporary technology and techniques,” he said. “A lot of marks and textures are influenced by my history with black ink brush painting and black and white figurative ink drawings. At the same time, this process relies on technological literacy and tools only accessible in the present featuring drafting, photo and design software and accessible printing.”

Sydney Walker’s work reveals artistic side and environmental concerns. Using digital software to collage physical media including photography, cyanotype prints, linocut stamps, paint and digital illustration in her project, she sought to illustrate the connection between humans, the environment and all living things.

“My vision in this work is to communicate the importance of our place in the natural world while also dispelling attitudes of helplessness around current environmental issues,” she said. “There is a gap between belief and behavior, as many people have the mindset that their actions can do nothing to help the environment.

In addition to her posters, Walker created a booklet and cards. Naturally, desiring to keep things as eco-friendly as possible, she took the added steps of using recycled paper, including junk mail, magazines, and older sketchbook paper, to pulp her own paper cards to print using original linocut stamps.

“I think this adds to my message and helps reinforce my vision,” she said.

Also in the class of artists and their group photo, but without work in the exhibit, is Savannah Granito. Granito is an art history major also interested curatorial studies who Dunn said has served this year as an intern at the MAC.

Here’s more fun to be had at First Friday and otherwise.

— Friends of the Library Spring Book Sale is on at the Round Building at Carolyn Crayton Park, today and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with low prices going lower to half price Saturday from 4-7p.m.

— Gallery West hosts and shows the work of music photographer Rick Diamond along with Kirk West’s own photos. Also on display for the night is artwork by musician Abe Partridge. It’s at 447 Third St.

— The 567 Center opens “Now and Then,’ today from 5-8 p.m., their May show featuring art by students of Bsmithbrushworks. See the exhibit, meet up-and-coming artists and enjoy light refreshments and live music. Also, there’ll be glass-blowing demonstrations by Jamie Adams. The 567 is at 456 First St.

— The Macon Arts Alliance opens its May show, “Oneliner,” featuring Stephanie Glen tonight from 4-7 p.m. Glen works mainly with one-line pen and ink drawings incorporating mathematical elements. The gallery is at 486 First St.

— Free First Friday Family Fun Zone in Third Street Park from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

— Fresh Produce Records brings in MysticBlue Designs and their tie-dye creations from noon to 8 p.m. today while Rachel Forehand sets up for an acoustic music set from 5-8 p.m. Fresh Produce is at 567 Cherry St.

— And the Grand Opera House offers an amazing presentation of “Artrageous, the Electrifying Art & Music Circus,” at 7 p.m. today. Information is at www.thegrandmacon.com.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.