The Slocumb Galleries held its fall Bachelor of Fine Arts exhibition from Nov. 13-21, highlighting two ETSU seniors.

Each semester, the Slocumb galleries and the Tipton gallery holds an exhibition open to seniors graduating with a degree in fine arts, rotating between artists through the end of the semester. The seniors highlighted were Morgan Bakaletz and Lauren Whipple.

Morgan Bakaletz’s collection is known as “Peculiar Places, Strange Spaces.” Bakaletz’s art is a submersion into another world, somewhere to escape and wander as Bakaletz once needed. Bakaletz uses her work to reflect her emotional journey, in which she came to understand herself, in hopes of providing comfort to those with similar experiences.

Photo of the exhibit “Peculiar Places, Strange Spaces” by Morgan Bakaletz. (Seneca Rulison/East Tennessean)

Lauren Whipple features her works titled “Sincerely, Yours.” Much like Bakaletz, Whipple’s art is drawn from past experiences, such as grief and heartache. Each piece has a figure in focus, allowing the audience to submerge into a fictional world, following the figure through their journey, while reflecting on each other’s memories along the way.

“My process involves making references of the figures and then inserting them into landscapes. I’m looking about memories from my past and imagining them into these new scenarios. It usually involves a lot of paint and layers and just going with the flow,” said Whipple.

Photo of the exhibit “Sincerely, Yours” by Lauren Whipple. (Seneca Rulison/East Tennessean)

Whipple features female figures in her bright and dreamy landscapes, figurative of her self-reflection.

“I look to Nadia Waheed for inspiration. She does large scale oil figurative painting of women, and I enjoy her work because it’s really dynamic and bold. I feel like it’s aligned with my own style,” said Whipple.

The Slocumb galleries will be presenting the works of eleven seniors graduating with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts through Dec. 15, and a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Dec. 8. The galleries are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and you can stay up to date with exhibit information through their Instagram: @slocumbgalleries.

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