Four Missouri Southern art students said goodbye with senior exhibits showcasing their diverse abilities.

Benjamin Ertel, senior studio art major; Scott Campbell, senior graphic design and studio art major; Desara Short, senior graphic design major; and Donna Culp, senior art education major, participated in the current exhibit at Spiva Art Gallery. The product of years of hard work was revealed April 10 at a reception thrown for the artists.

“For me it is the culmination of 12 years of work at Missouri Southern,” Ertel said.

The opportunity to display their works is appreciated by the upcoming artists who said it was a good way to get their artwork seen.

The displayed works are as diverse as the individual artists and their hopes for the future. In an effort to make themselves more marketable, art students at Southern are required to learn all types of form and medium. The exhibit showcases similar styles but different individual viewpoints and personality added by each artist.

“When we do an assignment, we’re expected to take all our own photos,” Short said.

“We have to learn how to do it all.”

While each of the artists has a favorite medium and particular piece, the exhibit has a little bit of everything.

Some of styles include ceramic figures, pastels, charcoal, oil, pencil, clay and graphics. Culp works a great deal with ceramics, creating mugs with the gnarled faces of old men on the sides of what she calls her “ugly mugs.”

“I like to capture human emotion,” Culp said. “I like to capture the feeling of a moment and give a personality to all of my pieces.”

Other ceramic pieces include a working lion head fountain and a four-piece series of bellies.

Each of the artists has between 20 and 30 pieces in the exhibit. Many of the pieces are for sale.

“They’re all for sale,” Ertel said. “They’re all my children, but I’ll let them go.”

For some of the students the pieces are highly personal.

Culp said her favorite piece showing is a drawing based on a piano lesson between she and her father when Culp was a child.

“‘Undone’ is my favorite piece,” Campbell said, “It’s the only one with personal meaning that I’m showing. It’s the one that I’d never sell.”

“Undone” is a large mural featuring a nude woman reclining on a couch, reduced at points to muscle and in other spots to the bone.

The exhibit runs through Friday afternoon. Campbell suggests people make the effort to view the exhibit because of its diverse nature.

“It’s the chance to see something very atypical for this area,” Campbell said.