A&E
Spotlight on Senior Art Majors
By Sirianna Santacrose ’15
May 7, 2015
Sara Wortman attended New Canaan High School in Connecticut. She fell in love with ceramics in an introductory class with Professor Rebecca Murtaugh during her first semester on the Hill. Although she did not have much prior art-making experience before entering Hamilton, Wortman said, “The environment that the art department has created is one that allows you to explore your abilities without shame and really surprise yourself with what you are capable of.” Having grown up in Brazil, Wortman came to identify strongly with Oxun, an Afro-Brazilian goddess associated with the religion of Candomblé. She consequently named her senior thesis “Ora ié ié O!!,” which is the greeting one gives to Oxun. Wortman plans to always work in an environment where she can utilize her creativity in new ways.
A native of Bala Cynwyd, PA, Jess LeBow attended Lower Merion High School. Prior to entering college, she took courses in figure drawing, painting and ceramics. She specializes in drawing, and her senior art project is a collection of detailed drawings in pen and ink called “Know It All.” She credits the Hamilton art department for exposing her to new ideas, techniques and approaches. She added, “The faculty has been extremely invested in and responsive to my development and has really facilitated my growth.” For the next two years, LeBow will be working towards a Master of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania and may potentially incorporate art therapy into her work.
A Miami, FL native, Sean Henry-Smith attended the Robert Morgan Educational Center there. He was involved in community theatre prior to entering Hamilton. His interest in film led him to take an introductory photography class, which caused him to fall in love with the medium. He explained that during his time at Hamilton, “[I have] stepped into [my]self as an intellectual and artist through the countless hours spent with Professor Knight and others.” His thesis project, entitled “Virtues of the Soil,” explores identity and the landscape as a political environment. After Hamilton, Henry hopes to continue working in the arts and to explore its intersectional ties with social justice through education.
Growing up, Lesley Klose learned woodworking from her father and took many extracurricular art classes. In high school, she began to focus on hand-throwing pottery and building small clay pieces. Beginning her sophomore year at Hamilton, she worked in the Art Department and found a mentor in Professor Rebecca Murtaugh, who influenced her to turn her art minor into a major. Her part of the senior show is called “Reclaim.” She explained, “The process of harvesting clay from the earth and processing it into workable material is the basis on my hand-built terracotta forms.” After college, she plans to combine her love of both the administrative and creative sides of the art community.
Cassie Pepin attended Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, FL. There, she focused on developing her skills in oil painting and works in colored pencil and exposed herself to photography and ceramics. At Hamilton, she is a dual art and art history major. Her senior thesis, “Daydreams of a Nonexistent Pleasantville,” is a collection of prints, including etching and linocuts. In the future, she hopes to work in the administrative side of the art world while continuing to create art on a personal level.
Sarah Scalet, from Rockville, MD, first fell in love with sculpture her junior year at Walter Johnson High School. She chose to major in art at Hamilton because, “[she] couldn’t imagine taking a semester without an art course… [These courses offer] an outlet for [her] creative energy.” Her senior project, called “(Im)permanence,” is a collection of ceramics inspired by her love of nature and time spent in the Glen. She plans to live in New York City and work in an art museum after graduation.
Hailing from New York, NY, Hideko Nara specializes in painting and printmaking. Upon arriving at Hamilton, she also fell in love with photography and found the new KTSA building to be the perfect space in which to develop as an art major. Also an art history major at Hamilton, Nara will work at a gallery in New York City next year while compiling a portfolio for graduate school. “Work This Body,” her section of the senior art show, focuses on the body as a tool to create large-scale, abstract paintings.
Weconday Murray attended Eastside Community High School in New York City. She grew up in a family that encouraged making artwork as part of the daily routine, and made art until her sophomore year in high school. It was not until four years later that she came back to the discipline and decided to major in it. As she explained, “that connection I had with art rekindled; I knew I wanted to get back into the art world.” She has always been interested in abstract art and surrealism, and her portion of the senior art show largely deals with a collaboration between the subconscious and conscious. After Hamilton, she plans to continue working in the arts.
Kate Bickmore is originally from Albany, NY and attended Guilderland High School. Growing up, she primarily painted watercolor landscapes and scenes of abandoned barns. She emphasized that she has, “always been very interested in depicting the power of the natural world… Making art has always been [her] primary means of exploring and understanding how [she] relates to the world around [her].” In her senior thesis entitled “The Origin of Life,” she will showcase her specialty (figurative art and surrealist automatism in oil paintings) on a larger scale and in a brighter color palette than ever before. She plans to teach and continue painting after Hamilton.
Kaily Williams is from West Granby, Conn. She attended Loomis Chaffee School, where she took a variety of art classes but enjoyed drawing the most. She did not originally plan to major in art at Hamilton, but credits her professors for bringing out her passion for the subject: “[They] inspired me and gave me courage to follow my desired path,” she said. Her thesis project, entitled “A Daughter of Two Countries,” is mixed media; it includes fashion design, woodworking and acrylic and oil painting. After graduation, she will teach at Culver Academies in Indiana and plans to obtain her MFA in a few years.
Laura Donaldson hails from New York City, where she attended the Nightingale-Bamford School. Her grandmother taught her how to paint in watercolor from a young age, and she took classes in ceramics, photography, figure drawing and painting in high school. As an English and art double major, Donaldson has found many overlaps between the disciplines; she said, “Where words fail me, my art steps in and vice versa, or my studies simply advance each other.” Her senior thesis features a mixture of media, including painting, collage and ceramics. Next year, she will return to New York City to teach English.