Master of Arts candidates formed arguments through their artwork at the 2016 Graduate Art Exhibition on Friday.

The exhibition, which will run until Sunday at the Tarble Fine Arts Center, is the product of a yearlong studio art program that guided students in creating a body of work to defend, made from different mediums.

The main galleries at Tarble opened April 16, with the closing reception for the main galleries happening from 7 to 9 p.m on Friday.

Each student had their own theme for their collection accompanied by their artist’s statement.

Gwendy Stewart, a graduate student participating in the exhibition, said every student worked with different mediums and in different areas.

Through the use of multiple mediums like photography, woodworking, cloth and crocheting, Stewart said her work conveys a sense of separation and moving out as well as the passing of traditions between generations.

“Crochet has been passed down through many generations of my family. I was taught by my mom way back in junior high, then I hated it. I couldn’t get the hang of it. I had to put it away. But I loved that carrying down of tradition,” Stewart said. “So I picked it up and started doing it again and fell in love with it.”

Stewart said she experimented with different themes, like feminism and religion, until she settled on a family theme for her artwork.

In her artist statement Stewart wrote, “by combining an old craft with a new concept, I enhance my understanding of fading memories, separation and transition between old and new.”

Some of the artwork Stewart has in the exhibit are yarn, fabric and wood multimedia pieces including “Folded Neatly Tucked Away” and “Degrees of Resolution: Fading Memories.”

Another participant in the Graduate Art Exhibition, Lindsay Reveland, said she combined mediums and history in her artwork through the use of old toys as the subject for her oil paintings in order to express her appreciation for things that do not feel “quite right.”

“There’s something about the history of old toys that kind of ties into the feeling of the ‘not quite right’ thing,” Reveland said. “Toys are traditionally happy-go-lucky and we love toys, but I have kind of turned them into something not so joyful.”

In her artist statement Reveland said, “through an attempt to eliminate the gap that lies between failure and success, my aim is to establish a deeper appreciation for the unfamiliar, the unusual and the unsatisfactory.”

Some of Reveland’s work in the show includes a piece made with oil on panel named “Barely Bearing,” and the oil, spray paint, charcoal and metallic marker multimedia piece “March of the Pigs.”

Reveland said she plans to continue creating art even after school ends.

“I know that after this show I want to keep making art,” Reveland said. “I already told my professors that I’m going to build like five panels so I have something to work on.”

Stewart said she appreciated how the program pushed her out of her “linear” ways of thinking.

“While here, I discovered where the art happens,” Stewart said. “The best thing I’ve loved out of this whole thing was that I feel like now I am more of the artist instead of just the maker, and that’s been great.”

Other candidates from the studio arts program featured in the exhibit include Ryan Arteaga, Lindsey Becker, Jeremy Chavez, Ashlynn Frey, Nathan Motsinger, Natalie Pivoney and Jacqueline Wright.

 Derek Wunder can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]