The 32nd annual Student Juried Exhibition began Monday in the Birke Fine Arts Gallery where the College of Art and Design displayed their students’ best pieces.

Senior visual arts and painting major Tatiana Castro said she created her work “We Do Not Love for You” to represent and portray what it is like to be a gay woman.

“I wanted to approach the negative attributes of being gay, such as inappropriate propositions and people stating that gay women are together and in love to get attention or to be ‘sexy’ and display it in a way that I considered beautiful,” Castro said.

Corey Bond pushed a message about mythology and why he found it interesting.

“In mythology, in aesthetics, in Christian art and the traits of the people I see every day and how I view them in their own glory, human beings are such interesting creatures with many traits and psychological issues,” Bond said. “The zodiac is more than just a sun sign, there’s a whole chart. Every planet represents something in your being and the suggestions allow me to be creative when I get analytical with the people I encounter.”

Senior painting major Grayson Collins said his piece “Sinking” depicted a message of beauty.

“Art can still be beautiful no matter how far down you may sink,” Collins said. “That’s what I want people to take away when they look at my work.”

Karen Fry and her piece “7 of 316,120” portrayed a message of beauty as well.

“The message I want people to take away from this piece is that even though breast cancer is a devastating diagnosis, breasts – fake, not, or the loss thereof – can still be beautiful,” Fry said.

The students expressed the emotions they felt when they found out their work would be on display.

“Anytime my work is displayed I feel such a great sense of joy for what I do and how far I was able to come,” Castro said.

Collins, Bond and Fry expressed a similar excitement.

“This was my last chance to submit, so it was really nice to be chosen,” Collins said.

The exhibition requested the students submit their best work, but some felt the work wasn’t their best.

“I don’t think this is my best work, but it’s a good start,” Fry said. “I want to go into furniture making and my ‘Shirley Jean’ quilt top patterned was selected for the exhibition as well. It’s the first furniture piece I’ve made so far, and I’m very proud of it, but I still think the best is yet to come.”

Bond said he thought his work was good but would go back to change a few aspects of it.

“This is my best conceptual work to date, but I feel there were proportional issues made that I wish I could at this very second go back and fix, just because I’m such a perfectionist and take my work so seriously,” Bond said.

The exhibit will be open until April 6 in the Birke Fine Arts Gallery. The exhibit is free and open to students and faculty.

Michaela Crittenden can be contacted at [email protected].