For Pamela Johnson, the associate professor of art and visual culture who has guided 15 senior studio art majors through the second half of this year’s thesis process, the work she’s looking at now has proven prescient.

There are echoes of the comforts of home, which many if not most of the students returned to in March, but also dystopian and imagined worlds, disequilibrium and emotional intensity.

“Given the reality we are now living in, the work that our seniors developed and the vision they offer us is even more essential to protecting and celebrating our humanity,” Johnson says. “We need art now more than ever.”

�ֲ���ý Communications multimedia producer Theophil Syslo interviews a range of senior artists to hear them reflect on their artwork, and on creating artwork in an unprecedented time.

Each spring, the Senior Thesis Exhibition opens with fanfare and with hundreds of people walking through the physical space of �ֲ���ý Museum of Art to witness a triumph: the artistic visions of the year’s studio art seniors, now realized through a range of dazzling artwork.

This year, like so many other changes due to the COVID-19 global health crisis, the exhibition is online, featuring images and statements from each senior.

That means none of the collective experience of walking through a space together, or the “hugs and laughs and tears” that make the museum come alive with ambitions realized and creativity on physical display, says museum director Dan Mills.

In February, Associate Professor of Art and Visual Culture Pamela Johnson, adviser to the Class of 2020 studio art majors, works with her seniors in an Olin Arts Center studio space. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

But it’s been gratifying for him to be part of the team of faculty and staff that expanded the online presentation this year. “We offer our heartfelt congratulations to these artists, and invite others to carefully view, and reach out and congratulate them as well,” Mills says.

The hope is that, as the online exhibition reaches viewers near and far through social media and other means, gestures of congratulation and support will flow digitally to the 15 seniors.

For Carolina González Valencia, the assistant professor of art and visual culture who guided the seniors during the fall semester, it’s been particularly special to witness the upward trajectory of this group of artists, some of whom were in the first class she taught on arriving at �ֲ���ý in 2016, “Drawing and Intention.”

The hands of Celia Feal-Staub ’20 of Putney, Vt., work the potter’s wheel in Olin Arts Center in February. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

She invites the seniors to remember their studios as they were in the first days of classes in 2019, empty and ready for their work.

“Treat the new journeys you will find ahead with the same bravery, excitement, rigor, kindness, and community building as you did while doing these theses,” she says. “Remember, that it is all about practice, and mark by mark you will start to create what leads you ahead.”

Still, what has been undeniably painful is the way this annual process was cut short, Johnson says, when the college quickly moved to remote learning in March.

With little ability to plan, students had to break down their studios and pack up their work, some of it not quite finished, and head home to locations where for many, there could be no dedicated space to create art. (Issues of equity become more readily apparent outside of Olin Arts Center, Johnson noted.)

Some of the seniors’ artwork was damaged in transit. Other pieces had to be left behind altogether.

Grace Smith ’20 of Williamstown, Mass., works on artwork in her Olin Arts Center studio space in February. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

As painful as it has been to know that her students — like all seniors — have lost a piece of their senior year, Johnson hopes they hold on to how they persevered in a time of disruption.

“Our arts students will help show us the way forward.”

“Our students in all the arts at �ֲ���ý are creative and resilient,” Johnson says. “By definition they are great problem solvers. The arts teach you to work devotedly without ever being certain of the outcome.

“Our arts students — our musicians, theater artists, poets, writers, dancers and visual artists — will help show us the way forward, and revive our spirits along the way.”

Ariel Abonizio of Cuiaba, Brazil
“More haunting than ghosts”

“Sometimes, things feel more present when they are gone — a missing family member, an abandoned house, or a single sock without its mate,” says Ariel Abonizio.

Through photographs, videos, and installations, Abonizio attempts to “document what is not there. I make copies of a reality that never truly existed, not even in my dreams — I make unicorns.”

Unicorn Dreams, 2019, inkjet print, 29 x 36 inches, by Ariel Abonizio.

For Abonizio, the things that are not there — such as unicorns — “often resemble apparitions, events from my past that linger on despite not being actually there. When something is forgotten, I can still feel its contours, as something still remains. It is as if silence could be louder than words.”

At other times, the opposite happens. The things that are not there afford a presence that is “unfulfilling and resembles absence. It is like seeing a fake smile or being in a house full of strangers. The moments when presence vanishes and turns to nothing are more haunting than ghosts.”

Mayele Alognon, Louisville, Ky.
“Parts of me are hidden, obscured, or spliced”

“Is there one authentic version of self, or are there multiple — even infinite — versions that are all equally authentic?” asks Mayele Alogon.

Her artwork assumes “that the latter is closer to the truth,” she says. “I am African American. I am female. I am an immigrant. I am a daughter. I am a sister.”

Working from photographs that she takes of herself, Alogon creates nude self-portraits on cardboard, starting with line drawing, then using gouache, an opaque watercolor.��

Black skin on cardboard I, 2019, gouache on cardboard, 35 x 23 inches, by Mayele Alognon.

She finds meaning by using items “that are often thrown out without a second thought. The meaning of a painting can change knowing the previous uses of the surface and its near fate as garbage.”

While wholeness is a major theme of her paintings, she presents her body “in fragments. Parts of me are hidden, obscured, or spliced. In some paintings, it may be difficult to tell where one figure begins and where another ends, because with this multifaceted process comes complexity and ambiguity.”

Celia Feal-Staub of Putney, Vt.
“To experiment with form — and also with collapse”

At first, Celia Feal-Staub was enthralled by the usefulness of the clay objects she created — mugs, bowls, pitchers, jars, plates — and the “complete and utter control” that she had over what emerged from the potter’s wheel.

“I controlled the speed of the wheel, and the pressure of my hand which pushed the clay wall out, creating a different curve each time.” But what, she came to wonder, would it feel like to lose control, “to fully experiment with form— and also with collapse?”

Gut Feeling, 2019, reduction-fired stoneware, various sizes, by Celia Feal-Staub.

She discovered that allowing a loss of control allowed her to open a door. “Rather than barricading emotion out,” she allowed a wider range of feelings to “seep into my work: anxiety and desperation and joy and compassion.”

“With a squeeze of the vessel’s neck, or push to the belly, they take on entirely new forms — perhaps forms of people in love, listening deeply to each other, enveloped in hatred, rejection, longing, acceptance or the lack of it, or empathy.”

Nick Eaton, Lake Oswego, Ore.
“When an effort is made to stop and observe”

Nick Eaton’s digital photographs are creations in more ways than one.

The end product, photographs of striped bass that Eaton caught, is one creation. Another creation are the flies that he hand-ties — using elk and deer hair, rabbit fur, and hen feathers — and uses to catch the fish.

Catch and Release #1, 2019, digital print on luster paper, 13 x 9 inches, by Nick Eaton.

Fishing and photography, he says, have allowed him to “examine my relationship with nature, and the beauty that can be seen when an effort is made to stop and observe.”

He takes his photographs shortly after catching a fish, holding it in the salt water, scales visible to the camera, and keeping its gills submerged to allow the fish to breathe.

“As I stood there in cold, waist-deep water with wet, salty hands trying to get the perfect shot, I admired the sheer magnificence and strength of this fish,” he said. “I work quickly and then release the fish back into the water.”

Fishing and conservationism share a commitment “to ensuring a healthy environment and ecosystem, keeping our rivers running cold, and preserving fish stocks for generations to come.”

Sophie Gerry of Williamstown, Mass.
“My act of remembering”

When Sophie Gerry is working in her Olin Arts Center studio, she’s thinking about home. “How do I perceive, experience, and remember the landscapes I have spent my life in?” she wonders.

Local Landscape 1, 2020, paper and ink, 12 x 7 inches, by Sophie Gerry.

Gerry’s artwork is multidimensional, evoking the woods and mountains surrounding her hometown of Williamstown, Mass., where trails sweep through shaded woods and open meadows and cut across hillsides.

“My memory of those places is strong, though the landscape shifts and evolves with each season,” she says. “Similarly, my perceptions flicker and change over time. The art I make is my act of remembering.”

Using pens, pencils, ink washes, and cut-out shapes on papers of various colors, weights, and textures, Gerry places cutout forms on top of and in front of each other, which has led her to creating paper mobiles.

“Layered images and moving mobiles both ask to be looked at from different angles,” she explains, which “begins to capture the visual experience of moving through a natural setting.”

Emma Blaire Hall of Boise, Idaho
“The messiness of the human experience”

Sculptor E.B. Hall is a “mess-maker,” she says.

Collecting “unwanted, rejected, or forgotten items” like plastic toys, articles of clothing, or even dryer lint, she creates abstract pieces that reflect — or challenge — her own experiences.

Hall counts as an influence the multimedia and performance artist Vanessa German, who exhibited at the Museum of Art in 2019–20.��

Hxmpty Dxmpty, 2020, object sculpture, 62 x 80 x 85 inches, by Emma Blair Hall.

A central piece in Hall’s body of work is an interpretation of the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty.” The massive work incorporates swaths of fabrics, eggshells, dolls, and the limbs of dolls.

“Defining these as lost or found limbs is up to the viewer. Not even the King’s horses or the King’s men can put you back together again,” she says.

“Working with my hands, I am interested in the messiness of the human experience,” she adds. “The themes of my work center around my experiences with the instability in lust, love, death, and life.”

Michael Hogue of Chicago
“See brown and black people for who they are”

Portraits of black and brown faces have often been at best caricature, at worst racist, presenting�� people “as simple-minded and often subjugated,” says Michael Hogue.

“As a black man, I often feel underrepresented throughout daily life. Because of this I strive to activate and challenge the audience not only to confront the art, but the subject as well.”

Untitled, 2020, oil pastel on paper, 12 x 18 inches, by Michael Hogue.

In addition to oil, Hogue’s other drawing media includes pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, and marker. “Working within these constrictions gives the portraits a more realistic feel,” he says, citing Terrance Vann and Christopher Clark as inspirations.

Many of his portraits look directly at the viewer. “This is what I want to challenge the audience with,” he says. “This direct gaze inspires me because it is forcing the audience to confront the subject — almost as if it is a mug shot.”

Fredrick Douglass famously challenged the nation by presenting black freedom and dignity in the many photographic portraits that he sat for. Similarly, Hogue hopes “to challenge my audience to see brown and black people for who they are, rather than what people take them for.

Michael Jones of Stratford, Conn.
“Exploring the souls of my creations as real beings”

For his senior thesis, Michael Jones used ink, colored pencils, markers, and white gel pens to create characters in a fantasy world of his creation, Lezeallion.

Aftermath, 2020, sumi ink and pencil, 9 x 12 inches, by Mike Jones.

Inspired by works of epic fantasy such as Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series and the Kuroko no Basuke (“Kuroko’s Basketball”) series by Tadatoshi Fujimaki, Jones created “stories of action and power” as well as “magical abilities, dynamic powers, and destructive entities,” he says.

“One of the enjoyments of making my work is creating the visions that I want to see more of in fantasy media and bringing these ideas to life,” Jones says.

“This can include characters with darker skin or anthropomorphic beings interacting in a human setting,” he adds.

“I find satisfaction in exploring the souls of my creations as real beings who face issues that can be metaphorically or literally relatable.”

Otis Klingbeil of Powell, Ohio
“Letting each new piece inform the next”

Painter Otis Klingbeil took his inspiration from Woodstock, Vt., a town that has been important to his family for several generations.

Using “oil, collage, and three-dimensional painting,” he seeks to capture “the essence of this place by simplifying and abstracting rural barns around my town.”

Vermont Barn 1, 2020, oil paint and gesso on matte board, 23 x 16 inches, by Otis Klingbeil.

Working from photographs that he took, Klingbeil sometimes makes oil paintings; other times, he works with other materials, cutting them into various shapes and glueing them “at differing heights, building them out…from the front the image is coherent, but it is more fragmented when seen at an angle,” he says.

“I think of my work as a series of repetitive studies of these barns, letting each new piece inform the next,” he adds.

Eden Rickolt of Landenberg, Pa.
“A parody of comfort and happiness”

Real flamingos are few in the U.S., found mostly in southern Florida, explains sculptor Eden Rickolt of Landenberg, Pa. “But plastic, hot pink flamingos are everywhere.”

In her work, Rickolt uses the weirdness and wonder of the ubiquitous plastic flamingo lawn decoration to examine ideas about “iconized American suburbia.”

Untitled, 2019, crayon, 9 x 12 inches, by Eden Rickolt.

“My work was initially inspired by the curiosity of what happens when the visually consistent but symbolically erratic object is physically distorted,” she says. “Whereas the ornaments are so utterly uniform and lifeless, my flamingos take on an eerie individualism.”

Rickolt’s sculptures, using a mix of recycled materials, papier-mâché, and fabric, portray “quintessential elements of the American house and yard with the goal of creating new, surreal places that are both funny and disturbing.”

“I like the idea of my sculptures resembling candy that is so sweet that just looking at it will rot your teeth,” she says. “In other words, the colors become a parody of comfort and happiness.”

Madeline Schapiro, Malibu, Calif.
“A��garden of permanence”

Working in earthenware, Madeline Schapiro reflects her own history of tending her garden on Saturdays, the red hue of the clay corresponding to the clay she pulled out of the soil in order to plant and nurture seeds. Growing up, Schapiro grew tomatoes, peaches, and lemons, along with vegetables and produce.��

Lemon, 2020, hand building with earthenware, 4 x 4 inches, by Madeline Schapiro.

But where those gardens came and went with the seasons, Schapiro aims, through her work, to make this clay lasting. With the same hands that weeded and planted, she rolls red clay, rakes it and then folds and drapes it into shape.

“My work is a garden of permanence,” she says. Her inspirations include William Morris’s botanical patterns and 19th century botanical drawings.

Grace Smith of Williamstown, Mass.
“A record of our experiences, pain, battles, and torments”

Smith paints, draws in pencil, sews, and does both embroidery and appliqué on fabric to create her expressive portraits. The mix of mediums is fitting for what she’s trying to translate, the complexity and layering of emotions.

“Most of my portraits move between multiple feelings simultaneously,” she says, which can arrive, “all at once and often confused.”

Reflection #4, 2020, dyed fabric and thread, 18 x 36 inches, by Grace Smith.

Smith’s artistic inspirations include Orly Cogan, Egon Schiele, and Gustave Klimt, the latter two known for their portraits of women, often twisted into the frame and bound by rich patterns.

There’s also family heritage in the work of this Williamstown, Mass., native, with fabrics she received from her grandmother woven into the work. “Each holds a story,” Smith says. Those stories include the generations of her family who sat in furniture that was once wrapped in these upholstery fabrics.��

The process of creating these portraits has been therapeutic, Smith says. It’s taught her to embrace scars, understand pain and look at how bodies convey emotion through movement and posture. “Our bodies are a record of our experiences, pain, battles, and torments,” Smith says.

Jeffrey Spellman of West Roxbury, Mass.
“Preconceived ideas are always incorrect”

In his still photography, Jeffrey Spellman seeks to examine the space between the familiar and the blurred.

He works with a deliberately slow shutter speed, contrary to much of portraiture today, with its emphasis on detail. He asks his subjects to move within the space he’s chosen, enjoying the unpredictability of what comes next.

“No two shots are ever the same and all of my preconceived ideas about what the shot will be are always incorrect,” says Spellman.

Untitled 1, 2019, digital photography, 30 x 40 inches, by Jeffrey Spellman.

His thesis project also includes a video that depicts the harsh realities of mass shootings by describing what to do if caught in such a situation.

“The video is purposefully devoid of human life,” Spellman says. He uses a robotic voice to give the instructions, a voice that is meant to reflect “the robotic response triggered by mass shootings in this country.”

The camera becomes a character in this video, and once again, motion is the focus of Spellman’s process.��

Haiyao Tian of Beijing
“Intimate, emotional, and meditative”

When Haiyao Tian left Beijing to come to �ֲ���ý four years ago, she brought just two suitcases with her, filled with items that weren’t necessarily practical.

There were favorite books and pictures stuffed into them, and other “useless” objects. She has no regrets. “It was the personal treasures I cherished that helped me recreate a home away from home.”

Sleeve, 2020, digital photography, 13 x 19 inches, by Haiyao Tian.

Those objects are a key part of her thesis project, which she describes as a visual diary of her room at �ֲ���ý, photographed day after day in multiple sorts of light and in varying circumstances (playing 70s rock while she’s shooting the photographs might bring a different level of energy to the image, for instance).

“I want to push the boundaries of my imagination to make works that go beyond a simple documentation of personal objects, and instead are intimate, emotional, and meditative,” Tian says.����

Tian uses wide-angle lenses and plays with shallow depth of field to create ambiguity and depth, paying homage to the work of artists like Sally Mann and Todd Hido.

But these images of her belongings, photographed in her “sanctuary from the outside world,” speak directly to the life she has built for herself. “To some extent, I would say this project is a personal portrait of myself,” she says.

Philip Wu, New Taipei City, Taiwan
“Defy the norm and provoke confusion”��

Philip Wu occasionally leaves lines unconnected in his pen and ink cityscapes, aiming, he says, to better evoke the fictional characteristic of dystopia. He keeps much of his work deliberately monochromatic, hoping to transcend the boundaries of time.

“While most of my work remains conceptual in nature,” he says. “Each work is conceived by integrating reflections of reality with fictional elements to construct a dystopian image.”

Upsurge, 2020, ink, 14 x 17 inches, Philip Wu.

Wu says he grew up being reminded that the privileges he was given should not be taken for granted, and his thesis work reflects the “experiences and devastations I have been fortunate enough to avoid suffering.”

But it also reflects hope, a “happy ground” he believes could be found. His approach is to illustrate his perspective on dystopian cities, with “a twist reflecting possibilities that human actions can incur on the environment.”

To build his versions of dystopian cityscapes, Wu relied on photographs he took in various countries, from their slums to their skyscrapers. His interest in architecture and space can be glimpsed throughout his thesis work. His goals are to “defy the norm and provoke confusion.”

The three tenure recipients are assistant professor Pamela Johnson of the Department of Art and Visual Culture; associate professor John McClendon of the programs in African American studies and American cultural studies; and assistant professor Michael Sargent of the Department of Psychology.

All three live in Lewiston and have taught at �ֲ���ý since 1999.

Johnson teaches studio art media and techniques. A painter and printmaker, she has recently completed a body of more than 50 mixed-media pieces that use images from fairy tales and nature to explore themes of female identity. She has shown work in solo and group exhibitions at Maine venues including the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, in Rockport, and Zero Station, Portland, as well as the �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art. Her work has appeared at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., Bennington College, Vermont, and Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass.

Johnson received a B.F.A. in art history at the University of Kansas, a second B.F.A. in painting at the Kansas City (Missouri) Art Institute, and her master’s at Bennington College. In 1993 and 1994, she worked as a personal assistant to Helen Frankenthaler, the noted Abstract Expressionist painter. Johnson also studied at Maine’s Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

McClendon teaches courses in cultural politics, African American philosophers, Africana thought and practice, theory and method in African American studies, and the role of athletics in African American culture. He is interested in the intersections of philosophy, social science and the African American experience, and particularly in African American expressions and adaptations of leftist thought.

McClendon is a widely sought-after public speaker and a prolific author. He has written diverse articles for scholarly journals, reference works and anthologies, served on the advisory board of the journal Cultural Logic, and served as editor of the American Philosophical Association’s Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience. His book C.L.R. James’s Notes On Dialectics: Left Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism? was published by Lexington Books in January, and he has three other book manuscripts in progress.

Before �ֲ���ý, McClendon taught in public schools and in academic settings including the University of Missouri and the University of Illinois at Champaign. He received a B.S. in black studies and political science at Central State University in Ohio, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Kansas.

Sargent teaches courses in social and political psychology, research methodology, prejudice and stereotyping, and social cognition. Most of his research focuses on stereotyping and prejudice.

Sargent has written and spoken extensively on the Implicit Association Test, an instrument for measuring attitudes and responses that individuals are either incapable of recognizing in themselves or unwilling to report honestly. He has also written and spoken on issues of race in police work and the legal system.

Before �ֲ���ý, he taught at the Ohio State University. Sargent received his B.A. in psychology at Hendrix College in Arkansas, and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Ohio State.

Twelve art majors cap their �ֲ���ý College careers with the popular Annual Senior Exhibition, opening with a reception at 7 p.m. Friday, April 9. The exhibit at the �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art, 75 Russell St., runs through May 30 and is open to the public at no charge.

The exhibition highlights work selected from the thesis projects of graduating seniors majoring in studio art. The program emphasizes the creation of a cohesive body of related works through sustained studio practice and critical inquiry. The yearlong process is overseen during the fall semester by Assistant Professor of Art Pamela Johnson, and during the winter semester by Senior Lecturer in Art Robert Feintuch, who also curates the exhibit and oversees its installation.

In alphabetical order, here are the exhibiting artists:

Julia Allen of St. Paul, Minn., has made cups, bowls and vases of porcelain, exploring varying degrees of distortion in order to find forms that imply fluid motion.

Sarita Fellows of Natick, Mass., has used Nigerian printed fabric as a source of inspiration for intensely colored abstract paintings and etchings.

Jon Greer of Chester, N.H., has worked with abstraction, space and light in his monochromatic paintings of fragmented images of the figure.

Using manipulated and anthropomorphic forms, Paul Heckler of Cross River, N.Y., has made a group of high-fired reduction stoneware teapots.

Alison Locke of Troy, Maine, has done a group of paintings of Martha Stewart that evoke journalistic photography and address Stewart’s multifaceted and controversial image.

Working with images of furniture, Graham Macbeth of Ellsworth, Maine, has made paintings and monotypes that play with ideas of geometric abstraction and representation.

Meredith Nutting of Rockville, Md., has used forms found in tree branches as the basis of abstract paintings that explore color interaction and spatial relationships.

Helen O’Donnell of Mount Desert, Maine, has used etching and drypoint to make images that combine handwritten text, abstract imagery and cartoons, and that question traditional ideas of content and meaning.

Through her work in ceramics, Caitlin Reiter of Mystic, Conn., investigates textured surface patterns in a series of monochromatic functional forms that are hybrids of bowls and trays.

In digital photographs that stress color, Elizabeth Sall of Villanova, Pa., shows still-lifes that she found in domestic situations.

Annie Schauer of Louisville, Ky., has made black-and-white photographs of interiors and landscapes that evoke notions of absence and presence.

K-Fai Steele of Charlton, Mass., is interested in the intersection of banality, humor and awe. Her work in the fall semester culminated in the large-scale installation in the Perry Atrium. Her more recent work uses a structure inspired by dollhouses.

The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and is closed Sundays and major holidays. For additional information call 207-786-6158.

A senior art major’s thesis project has transformed Pettengill Hall’s Perry Atrium, covering most of its three-story glass wall with translucent paintings that flood this popular space with the glowing colors of stained glass.

“Me and Jesus” is the creation of K-Fai Steele, of Charlton, Mass. Working in brightly colored house paint on large plastic dropsheets, Steele has created a cycle of 22 paintings that explore modern American attitudes about Christ.

The art will be in place through Friday, Jan. 23. Steele will discuss and answer questions about the work at 4��p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, in the Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall.

After studying traditional church depictions of Jesus and other Christian figures during a year of study in Rome, Steele returned to �ֲ���ý determined to find an approach to depicting Christ that would speak to contemporary American popular culture just as the art of Michelangelo or Titian spoke to the culture of 16th-century Italy.

She settled on a narrative style that rendered concepts from Byzantine and Italian Renaissance art in a distinctly American manner: the bold colors and flattened, symbolic images of cartoons. In addition, Steele puts the Christ figure in that most American of stories, the Hollywood boy-girl romance.

“People can project themselves onto cartoons,” Steele says, and by putting Jesus into a modern relationship with a sort of Ms. Anygirl, “Me and Jesus” raises all manner of questions about the nature of Christ and the ways in which people relate to him, or don’t.

“How do we make sense of Jesus now?” Steele wonders. “And who is this ‘me’ in terms of Jesus?”

Taking a cue from the traditional of church stained glass, Steele decided to use translucent media in her paintings, which are 10 feet square or 10 feet by 20 feet, and hang them over windows. The paintings cover two of the three tiers of atrium windows, leaving the uppermost tier unaffected. The installation took much of last Friday and involved not only Steele but a crew of student and Facility Services helpers, not to mention a Genie lift — a small cherry picker.

The project is a first for Perry Atrium. With its glass wall affording captivating views of Lake Andrews and the Olin Arts Center at �ֲ���ý, this three-story space is a popular spot for studying, relaxing and meeting friends. In a testament to the �ֲ���ý tradition of balancing individual initiative with community interests, Steele made a formal presentation about the installation and asked permission of atrium users to go ahead with it. Permission was granted unanimously.

At the same time, Steele intended that “Me and Jesus” be provocative. “I’m very open to criticism,” she says.. “I’d be happier with criticism than no response whatsoever.”

Steele’s thesis advisor for the project is Assistant Professor of Art Pamela Johnson. The project has received funding from the Barlow Endowment and the �ֲ���ý Student Research Fund, and has the support of the Department of Art, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty and Facility Services.