As we reflect on this past weekend’s commencement ceremonies, the Friends of the Arts is proud to celebrate the graduating students of the David Orr Belcher College of Fine and Performing Arts at Western Carolina University and an unforgettable season across our college.
From performances and exhibitions to screenings, concerts, and productions, this year showcased the creativity, dedication, and talent of our students in extraordinary ways. Congratulations to the Class of 2026, and thank you to everyone who helped make this season one to remember. 🎓✨
Congratulations to our graduate students! They did it!
#wcusoad #wcu #graduation
Caption: images of graduate students dressed in regalia during graduation event
Hot of the press! Another edition of ten books made for Cherokee children as a tool to learn syllabary and about Mounds and dragons.
Prints were printed by introductory Printmaking students with screenprinting technique. Images are based on reasearch about Mounds and dragons, each page contains syllabary and English phonetics. Text was provided by Cherokee nativesand Cherokee learners.
Great job everyone!
#printmaking #screenprinting #bookarts #cherokeelanguage #cherokeesyllabary
Printed photos onto sheets of metal handcoated with liquid light. Sheets connected with Coptic stitch binding. The images depict the artist with several different masks to represent all the different areas in artist's life. Excellent integration of film photography, metal work and book arts by Gwen!
#bookarts #photographyliquidlight #metalwork
Image 1: Leah Spray - Leah earned this year’s Outstanding Prospective Teacher Award in K-12 Visual Art Education.
Images 2: Laura Mitchell MAT ‘99 earns Peak Performer Award for contributions to the field of Art Education. (Laura is pictured here with her former mentor and WCU professor Dr. Lois Petrovich Mwaniki (on left))
Image3: Laura MItchell with Award
Course Spotlight
Students in Introductory Printmaking have been creating Reduction Relief Prints with instructor Tatiana Potts. This process combines several layers of carving and inking to create a detailed composition.
Caption Information:
A slow panoramic video shows 11 colorful reduction relief prints with images of dinosaurs, kittens, roadways, and buildings.
#ReliefPrint #WCU #SchoolOfArtAndDesign #WesternCarolinaUniversity #Printmaking
As Photo II prepares their final projects, we wanted to take a second to look back at their VanDyke Brown prints from project 3!
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This group really challenged themselves with process and presentation. Also, all these images are documentation photographs made by the students themselves!
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Image 1: a collage by Abby made with VanDyke Brown prints of forests, buttons, botanicals, and doilies.
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Images 2 and 3: a brown toned print of the artist and her grandmother next to another brown toned print of a waterfall are mounted reclaimed wood by @camwaltersart .
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Images 4 and 5: a collage of two VanDyke Brown prints of nature with green paper and slowly drying leaves by @diana.limbo.art .
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Images 6 and 7: a triptych of colorful pink and brown portraits by @lilstersart .
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Image 8: an old doll holds VanDyke Brown prints of other dolls by Savannah.
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Images 9 and 10: a hanging installation by @allieoopsart of two grey toned VanDyke Brown prints of black widow spiders on fabric with gold embroidery of webbing are strung together with gold thread.
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#WCUphoto #PhotoArts #AltProcess #VanDykeBrown
Course Spotlight
Students in Painting 2 and 3 have been working on several projects, including literal and abstracted self portraits that combine realism and stylization. These pieces induce an emotional feeling and a sense of mystery. We love to see their work!
Caption Information:
A slow panoramic video shows six paintings, many of which combine facial features and the human figure with surrealist colors.
#Painting #WesternCarolinaUniversity #SchoolOfArtAndDesign #WCU #StudentArtwork
A few weeks ago, we shared that the Introduction to Digital Photography class was starting a restoration project to develop digital editing skills. Here are a few of those images!
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@photosfromhelene has been working to recover these images from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, and reunite them with their owners. This class graciously borrows the images, photographs them, and then digitally restores them. This helps students develop industry skills while serving their community in its ongoing recovery from Helene.
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Pictured here are eight diptychs that show a side-by-side comparison of the original image and its edited version. The results are absolutely wonderful!
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Do you recognize any of these photos? Please let us know!
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#WCUphoto #PhotoArts #Restoration #DigitalRestoration #HurricaneHelene @western_carolina
