How one identifies and the road that has lead them there can inspire creativity, and for students like Ben Morrison that is exactly what happened.
“Identity comes in to play big time in a lot of work that he is doing,” said Jeremy Wiedle, Morrison’s boyfriend and a 2013 alum with a journalism degree. “A lot of his work is the way society told him in terms of what masculine is, and how to be a man. A lot of his work tackles the notion of what it is to be masculine.
Morrison and six other BFA art students will have their work on display during the Passing Through art exhibit. The exhibit aims to showcase the work of these students and their different mediums.
Passion is a key to what inspires Morrison, and it shows through his artwork. He also takes themes from his past and shows how they have shaped him into the person he is.
“His pieces kind of tackle what he was told in his youth,” Wiedle said. “About what made him a man, and what made him masculine, and how they kind of came in to context with who he actually is; that he is a man but not necessarily by societal terms.”
Morrison has had the dream of becoming an artist since before he stepped on to this campus.
“I decided I was going to do art as a major in high school,” said Morrison, a senior studying art. “Taking photo classes interested me and I was always involved in the arts, and I just continued on to help lead me to the right route out of the many different areas of art that I was interested in.”
Morrison is experiencing some pre-jitters but is he is fully prepared.
“He’s nervous, he’s stressed, but its going to come together well.” Weidle said. “It requires so much dedication and a lot of hard work is going into it. A lot of thought goes into this process that’s not conveyed in the work itself.”
With Morrison being the projectionist that he is, the pieces that will be in the show are pieces that he has been working on for about two years, and some longer than that.
“He’s been playing with the thought behind it, and expressing the statement he wants to with the pieces. He’s ran multiple test prints because they just weren’t quite right and he’s still putting the finishing touches on things but it makes for a very talented person and a worthy product,” Weidle said.
What: BFA Thesis art exhibit
When: Monday-Friday
Where: Seigfred Hall 536
Admission: Free and open to the public
