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.
The Senior Art Shows of Allison Bishop and Alicia DeWitt will be held today in the List Gallery from 4:00-6:00 pm.
Alicia DeWitt’s work consists of oil paintings and three-dimensional paper sculptures. Oil painting was her medium of choice because “I loved drawing and I also loved color,” said DeWitt.
Her need for interesting subjects to paint led to her creation of paper sculptures and quickly fell into molding paper into simplified versions of biomorphic forms to serve as models.
DeWitt’s show also features a series of gorilla studies in oil paint. The studies were done from life as well as images, instrumental to DeWitt’s understanding of the form. She was especially interested in primates because of their similarity to, yet vast differences from, humans.
Allison Bishop’s show consists of ceramic forms. Bishop has worked in clay since the 8th grade and has chosen the wheel as her medium for most of her time at Swarthmore.
This year, on the other hand, Bishop has “started experimenting with sculptural forms as well as integrating what you can throw on a wheel”, striving to achieve a “balance between strictly functional and strictly sculptural pieces”.
She enjoyed playing with change, and seeing her pieces move. The ones she finds most successful are the ones that are most dynamic, pulling you along in directions as you look at it.
The students in the studio and Professor Grider have both been essential in pushing her out of her comfort zone. She says that figuring out how to let go of standards she set for herself was a huge part of her project this year.
