Seniors in the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program work on a senior project each year that they display as an exhibit in Gallery Three in the Fine Arts building. This year, five seniors will showcase their unique art in exhibits running now through the first week of May.

Io Palmer, associate professor of fine arts and the undergraduate coordinator for the BFA program, schedules students’ shows and meets with them multiple times throughout their last two semesters to see how they are doing and how their pieces are progressing for the senior project.

Palmer, who was trained at the University of Arizona as a ceramicist and is now a mixed-media artist, said the goal of the senior project is to guide senior BFA students to create work using any type of medium that not only reflects what they have learned in college, but work that has conceptual integrity and deep thought behind it.

“The creative part is what [the students] bring to the project,” Palmer said, “and that is something that can’t really be taught, we can only guide them to understand and cultivate their own artistic voice.”

BFA seniors create art over the period of a semester or a year, before their thesis committee members and faculty in the department judge the pieces. However, this project has no guidelines or rules, and it is entirely up to the students on what they wish to create.

“There is not really rules [for the senior project],” Palmer said, “because in the arts, we are most interested in the creativity, and that’s what we try and guide students in understanding.”

Each student also receives mentorship from a group of two or three full-time art department professors, depending on the media the senior chooses, and then those committee members guide and meet with the student throughout the semester.

Palmer estimated that each student usually works on their project in their studios for at least 10 hours each week, but the time all depends on the student and their medium. Classes for BFA seniors are also flexible in that they give students the opportunity to work on their project pieces in class and to develop their own voice outside of professor-designed projects, she said.

This project gives students the opportunity to focus on their work in their own time, as well as craft skills to potentially utilize at graduate school or working in the art field.

“[BFA students] are really taught to problem solve and use materials in creative and interesting ways,” Palmer said.

Victoria DeLeon, a senior double majoring in BFA with a specialization in interdisciplinary arts and in apparel, merchandising, design and textiles (AMDT) with a specialization in merchandising, also sees many benefits to the senior project.

DeLeon said that while a lot of people don’t understand what it means or takes to be a working artist until they try to become one and struggle, this project forces students to work on deadline like real-world professionals and grasp the concept of art-business.

“[The BFA senior project] taught me how to deal with that nervous feeling of being a working artist,” she said.

DeLeon aims to highlight the connection between her fine arts and AMDT background through mixed-media pieces using fiber arts and soft sculpture, she said. Hand sewing and crotchet techniques will run throughout all her pieces, but the exhibit will also showcase her stitch-work and different fiber textures she created.

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As for her inspiration for the pieces, DeLeon said “it’s hard to give out information without giving too much information, because I want people to come to the shows and see for themselves.”

However, what she could disclose was that her collection has a lot to do with her past, growing up in Chicago, and the emotions she felt being raised as the child of a teen parent. DeLeon said she was inspired by the stereotypes and stigmas associated with teen-parenthood as well as the human being’s correlation to the world.

“This project is mainly focused on the marriage between fiber and human relationships,” she said. “So how are we affecting the economy? How are we affecting other individuals? How are we creating those relationships?”

Over winter break, DeLeon started working intensively on the pieces for her upcoming exhibit, while her fall semester was dedicated to research, sketching, and finding meaning for her art.

“What’s really frustrating about the art-making process is that it never stops,” DeLeon said. “I’ve literally had nightmares where I felt like I had to wake up and go make some art.”

These dreams and nightmares have inspired some of the works she will showcase in her exhibit, while other pieces are dedicated to her friends as homage.

Some days DeLeon works on three different pieces at a time because she said that is how her mind works best, “like a cloud” staying busy and constantly shifting focus.

“I am the type of person who cannot sit down and work on one individual piece at a time,” she said, “because I know as an individual I will get bored.”

The senior hopes her showcase will give people a glimpse of her identity, her past and her unique thought process.

“[The exhibit] is like I am inviting people into my home-space, or I’m inviting people into my mind-house, if that is how you want to look at it,” she said.

DeLeon will host her BFA senior project exhibit called “Home: Body: Economy,” consisting of 10 to 12 pieces and one large installation, from April 16 – 22.

Art shows like this one are vital to the culture of a town like Pullman that is far away from the city, because interesting things and cultural events do happen here that merit reflection, Palmer said.

“I think that it is really important to support students and see the unusual and interesting things and ranges of ideas that they have,” she said. “The arts not only beautify a town, but they also help you understand these deeper questions about political issues, social issues and environmental issues.”

One of Palmer’s favorite senior project exhibits a few years ago featured a bathtub that the senior student placed in the middle of the gallery. Around the bathtub, the student created a serene installation using hanging fabric pieces and red yarn wound around the entire space.

“Each show has its own strengths. But what I respond to is the variety of ways that [the BFA students] create,” she said. “And [the bathtub and red yarn project] was a really impressive piece. I mean it was immersive, it’s like you walked into another environment, a soothing, calm environment.”

Alongside DeLeon, four other seniors will showcase their BFA projects in Gallery Three: Shalaya Cunningham from April 2 – 8, Bryce Howell from April 9 – 15, Christina Segreleus from April 23 – 29, and Victor Adenso from April 30 through May 6.