Senior art exhibition 2025
Kiersten Fuhr - Photo and Graphics Manager
Each spring, senior art majors exhibit their artwork in one large show, combining different artistic backgrounds into a singular space. The exhibit is a culmination of each senior's four years of artmaking at Monmouth.
This year, four seniors, including myself, displayed their work in the Len G. Everett Gallery in the Hewes Library. The show contains a little bit of everything. Whether you enjoy football, music, portraiture, mountains, or baked goods, there’s a little something for all to enjoy.
Each senior has a slightly different approach to their artwork and the meaning behind it.
Camille Prentiss’s is a combination of oil paintings, glass work, and vibraphone music.
“My body of work is largely inspired by the sublime, the intense experiences that lay beyond conscious control. The overwhelming concept of nature and the boundless magnitude of everything our world has to offer can be formidable. However, I have found that if we can ground ourselves, we can find the beauty in the chaos. In my work I explore how different experiences have shaped my understanding of the world, focusing on nature and the connections we make to understand it, as well as the perspective that you view the world with. My desire is to invite the viewer inside the work, to give them a moment of peace, to breathe and be present within the world. I don’t use complex imagery or symbolism, instead I focus on making my work a viewer-oriented experience,” said Prentiss.
Jackson Dempich’s work is an assortment of football related pieces. Dempich said, “The art within this show has been made to put all my college experiences and my high school and younger years all together. With my two passions in life being football and art, I felt that it was a great chance to combine the two since it is my last year here at Monmouth, which is the end of both chapters, which will lead to the next chapter in my life with hopefully art and football still being a part of it. Each piece in the show is an aspect of the game and how I have seen and experienced many of them.”
Jimmy Woeltje’s work is different self-portraits made from either a combination of ink and colored pencil or oil paint. They said, “The main focus of my work is to express myself through my art, and being some of the last art I will make in my time as a college student, I really wanted to make sure I searched deep within myself and find out what truly represents who I am. The Fruits series is, in a way, it's my own mini-timeline of emotions. Each fruit represents an emotion related to love and other such positive emotions - the kiwi for growth and strength, the strawberry for self-love, and the mango for compassion. Empress goes alongside the Fruits series; the exposure of my own body in a state like this is meant to show that I have grown to love my body, no longer ashamed of my appearance. It is through these works that I have learned how I’ve grown not just as an artist, but as a person as well.”
My work is a combination of a ceramic bakery, oil paint, and textile work.
“In my most recent work, I’ve been focusing on making art that combines my art with my love of baking. Specifically, I’ve been making a number of different baked goods, such as cakes and doughnuts, out of clay. Surprisingly those two things, baking and ceramics, kind of go hand in hand. Both are extremely technical in their processes and one small miscalculation can completely change how your final product turns out. Also, you can frost fired clay the same way that you would frost a cake. Baking has always been something that I have loved to do that has always brought me a lot of joy. Baking is not only a creative process for me but also it acts as an outlet for me when I am stressed. It is also something that has allowed me to feel more connected with my family. I hope that my work conveys the joy and connectedness that we all experience through sweet treats and the memory of family.”