Mandy Schlabach, a senior art major, was exposed to art at a young age through a Waldorf school. The Waldorf method is an educational philosophy which emphasizes introducing all students to different art forms as an integral part of early education. Building on her experience in Waldorf education, Schlabach has since identified art as an effective way to express issues, break down barriers, and release emotions. “I believe art can move people,” Schlabach said. Schlabach has enjoyed experimenting with various kinds of artwork, including acrylic painting, ceramics, and jewelry-making, though she is currently focusing specifically on watercolor painting. The fluidity...

By Chelsea Risser • September 4, 2014 • Arts

The Goshen College Art Department welcomed Scott Dooley, chair of the Art Department at Wittenberg University, on Wednesday, Mar. 5. He is the Eric Yake Kenagy Visiting Artist for the 2013-14 academic year. Wednesday’s lecture was made possible by the Kenagy Endowment to Goshen College. The Eric Yake Kenagy Visiting Artists Lecture series has included printmakers, potters, sculptors, painters, jewelers and others from all over the United States and the world. For example, during the 2001 visiting artist lecture, GC welcomed Robert Ebendorf, a jeweler who uses recycled products for his work. In 2008, Chinese painter and printmaker Hung Liu...

By T.J. Keiderling • March 5, 2014 • Arts

I like not knowing where I’m going or what lies ahead. The excitement in the unknown is what drives me to create. Whether the final product will be a success or a flaming piece of crap is beside the point. The process is an addiction– it is where I learn and where I can experiment with new ideas. It is where I stumble in the dark trying to figure out what to do. Focusing only on the end goal destroys the fun and makes a much less satisfying end result. Not knowing where I am going awards me unlimited possibilities....

By David Pauls • November 4, 2013 • Arts

My favorite medium is clay. I feel like I am still becoming an artist. With clay, my hands seem to do the work and my mind follows along. It wasn’t originally a conscious decision to try to be an artist. I realized art was something I did in order to keep sane amidst the stressors of everyday life, so I figured the most practical (and personally satisfying) thing to do would be to make it a vocational goal. I created the bottle this past May while experimenting with different forms and firing techniques. I was inspired by a photo of a...

By Maddie Gerig • October 13, 2013 • Arts

You may recognize some familiar campus spots in Daniel Buschert’s drawings, which will soon be on display in the Hershberger Art Gallery as part two of the senior art exhibit. “Stairwell Distortion,” one of Buschert’s favorite paintings in the exhibit, depicts the over-emphasized distortion of the hand railing at the east end of the KMY Connector. Buschert explained how the familiar scene of the steps and ramp gets distorted as the hand railing, which he has painted on the front of a Plexiglass sheet, is curved and presented on the backdrop of the game room, which is painted on the...

By Luke Zehr • April 3, 2013 • Arts

Like many budding artists in schools around the world, Laurel Woodward found herself utilizing the margins of her note growing up. “It wasn’t only sketches,” she said, but doodles and lettering, too. Woodward’s early love for drawing has led her here, preparing for her senior show as a fourth-year art major. Perhaps because she had always enjoyed sketching, she said, “Figure Drawing sophomore year was a class I fell in love with.” Woodward found the intimacy of figure drawing to be a subject full of potential. Drawing has always been her preferred medium, and sketching her favorite style. But as...

By Lewis Caskey • February 7, 2013 • Arts

Bluish-green rings stain the skin of Mandy Schlabach’s middle finger on both hands. She has removed the thick copper rings and fingers them, pointing out where the metal didn’t solder properly. “I messed them up but I can wear them anyway,” Schlabach said, smiling down at the jewelry. Schlabach, a sophomore, has a wide resumé with the arts.  She has dabbled in acrylics, ceramics and most recently, jewelry making. Her passion, however, lies with watercolors. As an art major she gets to try a variety of mediums, but her concentration is watercolor painting. “I enjoy watercolor because I enjoy how...

By Elizabeth Derstine • December 6, 2012 • Arts

For Mohammad Rasoulipour, a senior art and Bible and religion double major, art is a medium through which simple questions about societal constructions can be questioned and reinterpreted. In his latest piece, Androgynous Male, Rasoulipour attempts to create a portrait which includes a male model with feminine qualities. Through changing certain facial qualities and accents, he is able to construct a picture that catches the viewer off guard, presenting a portrait that is comprised of square jawbones (a masculine trait) and smaller, thick lips (a feminine trait) side by side. “Everyone has qualities of feminine and masculine,” Rasoulipour said. “Showing...

By Steph Swartzendruber • November 29, 2012 • Arts

Alex Pletcher’s arms swing about excitedly and his speech tempo picks up as he shows off pictures he has been taking on his iPhone. With one finger he flips through a leaf covered in delicate crystals of frost, a spider the size of his palm with tiny baby spiders enveloping its back and road kill. His energy is palpable as he exclaims, “I want to find ones to impress you!” Pletcher, a junior, may be best known for the pictures he has taken for Goshen College. The GC website is plastered in Pletcher. Pletcher has taken the Photo Communication 1...

By Elizabeth Derstine • November 1, 2012 • Arts

Shelby Burge, a junior biology major, based this drawing on a picture of her and her grandfather. The piece took Burge several days to complete and won third place at the Defries Garden Show with the Goshen Painter’s Guild. Burge included “In Loving Memory” in the drawing’s top corner because the photograph that inspired the drawing was taken a week before her grandpa died of cancer. Burge finished the drawing a few months after he passed away. Drawing, which she has been doing for 20 years, is Burge’s passion. Though she is not majoring in art, Burge took all of the...

By Sara Albaba • October 18, 2012 • Arts

The popping color and dramatic lines of homemade stencils that litter the floor of David Pauls’ dorm room provide sharp contrast to the man himself. Pauls, a first-year, is all worn-flannel and soft voice. Pauls doesn’t need to be loud because his passion for art speaks for itself. Even though Pauls has been creating his own art for the past two years, he is at first shy to call himself an artist. After warming up to the idea, he stated that “an artist is someone whose art is more than just a hobby,” which for Pauls is true. Pauls’ favorite...

By Elizabeth Derstine • October 4, 2012 • Arts

Jess Sprunger, a junior art major, finds inspiration in all things, but on her recent S.S.T. experience in Senegal, the bright colors and elaborate fabrics especially inspired her. Sprunger was so inspired she brought many pieces of the beautiful fabric back with her to Goshen. Although Sprunger is still unsure of what she wants to do with the fabrics, she said she may sew them into quilts or bags. Many Senegalese women wore dresses made of similar fabric, Sprunger said. She assumed the women in Senegal expressed themselves through the particular designs and colors of the dresses they wore. Sprunger...

By Sara Albaba • September 20, 2012 • Arts

Found objects including unusable computer parts and things people typically throw away are among Ida Short’s mediums for creating art. Short, a sophomore, typically uses these objects to create jewelry. Her favorite piece is a pair of earrings fashioned out of PCB board. Besides creating jewelry, Short enjoys printmaking, specifically with silk screens. She strives to promote recycling through her jewelry and her printmaking, and focuses on social justice and political issues. Short’s love of art developed her senior year of high school, when she had a “crazy art teacher, who was really enthusiastic, who gave me the art bug.”...

By Hayley Brooks • September 10, 2012 • Arts

Summer Hasan has a unique perspective on religion that she’s begun to explore this semester through painting. Coming from a “mixed faith” family, with a Christian mother and a Muslim father, Hasan’s series of paintings focuses on women of faith, an expression of Hasan’s interest in learning about multiple faiths. “Religion was never something that I considered to be black and white,” Hasan said. Most paintings feature women wearing a head covering of some sort, something that “kind of connects these ‘opposing’ religions in a way.” Hasan had never spent much time on painting before enrolling in an upper level...

By Andrew Shenk • March 28, 2012 • Arts

Though Ann Hostetler’s career has led her to teach in the Goshen College English Department and pursue a personal interest in poetry; her own years as an undergraduate student at Kenyon College were focused around a major in art. Despite her busy workload as a professor, Hostetler has still found time to draw and paint. “While I’ve taught here, I’ve taken a few classes from Judy Wenig-Horswell and John Blosser,” said Hostetler, “and that’s been really fun. When I paint I usually work in oils; I don’t like acrylics. Once I took a watercolor course, too.” Although she thinks her...

By Anna Ruth • March 15, 2012 • Arts