With the sun and showers of the spring semester comes the anxiety and stress of finals, but perhaps none are more harrowing than seniors’ capstone projects.

For six graduating art students, their capstone “Remains” is a labor of love that far outweighs the pressure. Courtney Childers, Jessica Harris, Nathan Fouchs, Jared Holley, Ashley Taylor and Tanya Abbett’s collective show will showcase their artistic offerings April 18-21 at Marshall’s Visual Arts Center.

“Remains is our biggest grade of the semester,” said Childers, a ceramics major. “In this class, we had to do an artist statement, a reflection on ourselves as artists and our time at Marshall, photo document all of our pieces and we get graded on our talk and display at the gallery. Tanya Abbett thought of the name, ‘Remains.’ A lot of our concepts are about memories, or the remains of things that follow a particular person. It lends itself to being disturbing, but really touching.”

While Childers, Fouchs and Harris work with ceramics, Abbett is a photographer and Taylor works with graphic design. “Remains” is shaping up to be a diverse representation of the young artists’ lives thus far. Patrons should expect a range of four to 10 pieces of art by each student and are encouraged to view the show as openly as possible.

“People need to come in with an open mind,” Childers said. “There are some pieces that may be unnerving, or that will provide a little bit of discomfort, but there are also a lot of pieces that are really positive and reflect being a creative in the Huntington area.”

Each artist represented in the show will make use of unusual materials, ranging from hair, glass, fire and blood.

“I’m using a lot of unconventional surface; I’m doing flocking, and I’ve developed my own glazes that drip,” Childers said. “I made a clay body that folds in on itself. Jared is using hair from his mother for super personal pieces and they’re going to be great. Nathan is also doing a performance piece and he is using oil drums as his pedestal.”

Lukas Hagley can be contacted at [email protected].