By: Lauren Austin
Milligan alumna Carrie Theobald Buell displayed her life to Milligan last Saturday in Derthick Art Gallery through her multimedia art exhibit entitled “My Neck of the Woods: in a can and a brush.”
Buell graduated from Milligan College in 1997 with a degree in fine arts. She currently lives in Nashville with her husband Garrett Buell where they own and operate a photography business together.
Buell’s exhibit portrayed everyday life through the lenses of her artist friends, including filmmakers, photographers, jewelry makers, card illustrators, writers, and painters.
“These are my friends and my community. I wanted to share my life with people,” Buell said. She hoped to answer a question many art students ask when graduation looms closer, “How do you take this major and make it work in life?”
Buell’s inspiration for her exhibit stemmed from being asked to speak to the fine arts colloquium class for the third semester in a row. Buell wanted to bring a panel of her artist friends to speak to students about life as an artist after graduation, but because that would be an expensive trip, she instead took photographs of friends and interviewed them in order to display their lives through her art.
Adam Derrick, freshman fine arts major from Boone, N.C., walked through the exhibit on Friday with the fine arts colloquium class to get a sneak peak and talk to Buell, and he returned again on Saturday to speak more with her.
“Talking to her really gave me insight into what being an artist is like,” Derrick said. He said the exhibit was very interesting and got him excited about learning new artistic mediums.
Nick Blosser, assistant professor of art and one of Buell’s former professors, said Buell’s work “demonstrates crossing over a lot from one artistic discipline to another.” While classes at Milligan tend to divide up artistic disciplines, Buell pulls them together in her multimedia installations in a personal way.
The artwork featured in the exhibit ranged from wedding pictures taken the week before the exhibit back to a few pieces from Buell’s college years. The exhibit highlighted people from her life, or what she referred to as her “neck of the woods,” through photography and paint, the mediums that are represented in the exhibit’s title “in a can and a brush,” respectively.
“My art is my community. It’s watching beautiful, not just fine, art come from the sweat and tears, from crushed dreams and broken hearts—seeing it burst forth from those who thought it was finished, said and done. This kind of beautiful artful redemption is what stirs me forward,” Buell wrote in an explanation of her exhibit.
At least 50 students, alumni, professors, and members of the community visited Buell’s exhibit from 12:30-2 p.m.
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Buell displays artwork at Milligan College « honey from the rock (13 years ago)
[…] Buell’s exhibit portrayed everyday life through the lenses of her artist friends, including filmmakers, photographers, jewelry makers, card illustrators, writers, and painters. […]