As the end of the semester approaches, students in the art department finalize thesis work and assemble their senior shows. 

With eight students showcasing their work, there will be two shows, each displaying four students’ work. 

The first show will include the works of Jaclyn Kidd, Cicily Atkinson, Bailie Broadwater, and Brooks-Elizabeth Billings.

Broadwater’s work focuses on Anorexia Nervosa, an eating disorder categorized by trying to maintain a specific weight, and sometimes associated with distorted body image. 

Those who have Anorexia often try to restrict the number of calories eaten, and track types of food eaten. Some exercise, purge through vomiting and laxative, or binge eat. 

Based on personal experience, her work explores the journey of the disorder, including the struggle and the choice to get out, as well as the road of recovery. 

“As I’ve continued to develop as an artist, I’m no longer ashamed of my past instead I’m using my own experience to send a message to society to have body positivity,” Broadwater said. 

Her art will feature ceramic works and charcoal drawings, including a triptych that depicts bones and flowers to represent stages of an eating disorder: the point of struggling, the choice to get out or stay in the sickness, and recovery.

Included among the works are Atkinson’s brand marketing campaign for OutAbout Transportation, a trucking business that transports dry good around the United States. Atkinson, who is a graphic design major has created a logo, design mockups, and a screen-printed shirt. 

“This exhibition drew my interest because it put me through the experience of working with clients and developing a design to their needs,” she said in her artist statement. “[It] also allowed me to communicate with companies on their own development processes.”

Additionally, Safety in Numbers, an installation piece by Kidd, is featured. From Feb. 18 to March 15, a series of mirrors were placed in bathrooms throughout campus for participants to mark if they have experienced sexual harassment, assault, threats, or rape. 

“It is no longer acceptable to misidentify sexual assault as something that ‘doesn’t happen here,’” Kidd said in her artist statement. “This exhibit is inspired by misconceptions or phrases like this.

“I wanted to create direct messages while maintaining humanity throughout the work.”

By photographing volunteers and incorporating the images into digitally designed posters, her work is meant to bring awareness to the issue of sexual assault.

“I hope my work stirs conversations that lead us to better society,” Kidd said. “I want to live in a world where my children don’t carry their keys between their fingers or fear walking across their own campus.”

The show also features the works of Billings, art education major, whose art is inspired by her grandmother’s stories of living in the midwest during the Great Depression. 

Her works consist of different types of paintings, and fibers pieces such as hats and a paste resist tapestry. 

In her paintings, Billings implements a vibrant color palette to express her ideas, using earth tones and primary colors for contrast.

The subject of many of her paintings are musician’s hands. 

“The hands represent the creator and how God guides me throughout my life,” Billings said in her artist statement. 

Her son Quincy is the model in several of her paintings. 

“I see my son as my creation and like a child, my art grows and evolves with time. Like my art and love for a rich vibrant culture, my son is a part of my soul,” she said. 

The works are available to view in the Spiva Art Gallery on Missouri Southern’s campus now until April 29. A reception will take place from 6 to 8 p.m., on Friday, April 26, in the gallery.