Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Seniors Daisy Yuhas and Allison McCarthy show work from the last four years in a Kitao exhibit Wednesday through Sunday from 3 to 6 pm.
The show, themed “Words, Words, Words” explores the ways in which text and images intersect and influence one another. This approach to the exhibit was really appropriate, because “we are both text people who like to draw,” says Yuhas. McCarthy, who is a religion and theater major, often matched costume renderings for a character with the character’s lines. Yuhas, an honors English major and Biology minor, incorporated some of her English seminar texts into the show. She also brought in her Biology minor to an extent. A favorite piece is of a tree as seen through a window in Beardsley. She will pair this piece with a passage from Darwin’s Origin of the Species, where Darwin is trying to understand how species are developing by considering the image of a tree. She really enjoys how this particular pairing makes you think about how something as organic and alive as a tree is now used as a mapping device in a variety of academic disciplines.
This show will feature a broad range of art from throughout Yuhas’ and McCarthy’s time at Swarthmore and even some earlier work. Yuhas has really enjoyed the retrospective aspect of working with art from over such a long period of time. She has found it interesting to see the development in her work both in terms of technical improvement and changes in herself as a person.
Most of McCarthy’s work is done with pencil and micron pen. “It lends itself so well to my ridiculous obsession with detail,” she says. She also does some work with paint and charcoal and is most excited about the dragon drawings she will display in this exhibit. Yuhas works primarily in watercolor.
In addition to the Kitao exhibit, Yuhas will have more of her work on display on the third floor of Beardsley. The show opens on Sunday and runs for week. This exhibit will feature art from her painting and sculpting classes this semester. In both of these classes she worked from life, focusing primarily on the figure. She found the process of asking all of her friends to pose for her very interesting. “You get a wide range of reactions,” Yuhas said. She also enjoyed seeing how her relationships with her models affected the final art. This exhibit can be viewed in Beardsley at any time.
