Raspberry Monday 2021
By Makenzi Johnson
The 49th annual juried student art exhibit, “Raspberry Monday,” was on display in the Johnson Gallery from March 29 to April 20. Art and design students submitted their artwork, varying from paintings, sculptures, digital media, photography and more, to a panel that decided which pieces will be on display. Various awards, including the Raspberry Monday Award and others, are given out to students as well. The art exhibit is an opportunity for students to display their art for the public, jurors, staff and faculty, students and guests. The Clarion asked some of the “Raspberry Monday” participants to tell us about their pieces and the inspiration behind them – here’s what they have to say:
Malakai Holloway
“Breathe”
Painted print with embroidery
“This was made a couple days after George Floyd’s murder. A few days after I had some time to grieve and process it, I knew I wanted to make some art about it. I titled it “Breathe” because no doubt, that’s a direct correlation to the case, to the murder. But there’s something so empowering about [the woman in the painting]. She’s breathing; she’s free. I made this piece because African Americans, we have barely any time to breathe. People are always looking at us differently, looking at our skin color before looking at us as a person. She is the ultimate ‘I’m breathing; I’m free; I don’t have a care in the world.’ Her head is up; she’s elevated. It’s a reminder that everyone needs to breathe every once and a while because we’re all holding our breath.”
Annah Chriske
“Transverse CT of Abdomen”
Painted print
“I took this from a CT scan, basically if you were getting cut like a transverse. I’m a biology and an art major… Here’s just some fun organs, your spine, your liver, your two kidneys, a bunch of your hollow digestive organs, and then your pancreas… I love anatomy and human physiology, how the body works altogether, how we have this amazing system and how it’s so intricate. It’s just so crazy that we can run and do stuff. I wanted to make something that was maybe kind of gross, or like your inside organs are gross, but turn it into something beautiful.”
Amy J Harr
“Postcard from another home”
Photos
“I made these right after I got home – I had been living in Italy for two months studying abroad, and then I got kicked out of the country…I went through the trauma and the stress of leaving due to the pandemic, twice, and I got home and had all of these pictures and all of these experiences and I didn’t know how to deal with them… A lot of it was an expression of what I was losing, the stuff that I was remembering and the experiences I had lost that I never got to experience… When I was [in Italy] I did not like it there; I hated it because I felt like I wasn’t where I needed to be, and then at the end, right when I got home, I felt like I wanted to stay there longer because it was challenging and I liked that.”
Hannah Hobus
“Take notes”
Digital art print and watercolor
“I was inspired by my own culture – I’m half-Korean, half-white, so that was super big here. It was really heavy on me with the pandemic and everything going on that I felt like I had to express it, which was super cool… I was thinking of the stuff happening in Minnesota, especially with George Floyd, and the solidarity between people. I think it’s so cool that we have this shared experience, yet with so many different cultures and backgrounds. It’s amazing how people are coming together despite a pandemic.”
Halle Ritgers
“A slow understanding”
Painted print
“I had been working on another series that I was starting to get fed up and annoyed with, so this was just a free piece I decided to do on my own time, not really thinking too much about what I’m doing in other classes or other series… It’s not necessarily a sad, somber piece, but I have been reflecting a lot on lament and understanding pain and those sorts of things in your life and how those things can still create beauty in your life… I think the color tones reflect the things I was feeling at the time.”
Josh Vana
“Wolf”
Sculpture
“What really drives me as an artist is pushing past my own limits. So I don’t do a project if I think it will be easy; I do it because I think it’s not going to work. As a Christian artist, if I can complete the dream on my own, it’s like, ‘Oh I can take a step, but if I need God to complete the task it’s no longer me that completes the things; I can give homage to someone else.’”
Ava Raisanen
“Corn Dog”
Painted print
“I’m really interested in nature and animals; I also like to bring my humor into my art. I had this idea many years before, but never did anything about it. I got this big canvas from my pastor who told me to do something with it, so I just played around and had fun with it… It’s really fun to see how people react to this painting, whether I know them or not – it’s cool to hear what they have to say about it.”
Brandon Barnaal
“Doors, Agra, India”
Digital art print
“This is from my India trip during J-term. I went with Textura, and basically there was this endless corridor that I approached. It really captivated me, this idea of not being able to go beyond the group and explore what was present because we had to stay together. But there was something beyond really calling me; I wanted to pursue it. Specifically with this piece, I gave this allure of a rainbow and a kind of monochrome background to draw you into what is beyond the front door. I wanted to distort this front door because I only had a vision of what was in the front; I was never able to depict what is behind, what is beyond. That is what this drives from, my own exploration of this space that I physically couldn’t enter.”
Abrianna Marsh
“Sanctuary”
Bronze casting sculpture
“I was drawn to the idea of deer being these harmless, defenseless animals that kind of turn to the woods for protection. Growing up and watching the deer in our yard… we had an albino doe in our area (Frederick, Wisconsin) for maybe 20 years or something, and my mom was telling me about this one time when my older sisters were younger and one of them started crying. The deer was in the yard and kind of stood there and looked concerned almost, like, ‘Oh, is everything okay?’ I feel like [deers] are these ethereal beings.”
Maddie Antikainen
“Twisted momentum”
Wood
“This piece was originally done for one of my classes; it was about implied motion. I thought this was a good way to resemble that, even though it seems like progress isn’t always happening in our lives, that something is always happening and you can see it through the little, intricate pieces when the whole piece comes together.”
Gissele Oliviera
“Youthful tears”
Sculpture
“I wanted to focus on people’s insecurities and see them on display. I had a girl in my class come up to me about another art piece I am working on currently, and she goes, ‘I walked in and I saw your piece and thought, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a human body. But I had to take a step back, and I looked at it and thought that it’s so normal to me because that’s what I see in the mirror, but I don’t see it represented in art.’ She was almost in tears; I was like, ‘Oh my gosh; that is so cool,’ because that’s what I want – I want people to be like, ‘That looks like me,’ but it’s being appreciated as a work of art instead of just a human body.”
Eleanor Carlson
“On the seventh day”
Painted print
“This was a meditation on the Sabbath… every seventh circle is complete. I used India ink and a stencil. You’re starting a gesture; it’s going a little more, a little more, a little more, but it’s never complete or whole until the seventh day, the seventh circle. It’s a meditation really, pretty minimalistic in that regard. Kind of just, ‘Okay, what does it mean to go through my week? I’m building on it; I’m working; I’m also being spent more. Yet on the seventh day, that’s when I can be complete and whole and rest.”
Aimee Kuiper
“Brown eyes poetry series”
Photos and Poetry
“A lot of these photos come from a really crazy part of my life, so it was really good to look back on it and see it as positive despite the crazy and weird… [The poems] are all part of a series I started, “The Brown Eyes Poetry Series,” in reaction to how there are so many stories and poems of blue-eyed people or green-eyed people. I really, really wanted green eyes as a kid, and so those first couple years at Bethel I was like, ‘No; my eyes are so cool and I should write poetry about them and about other people’s eyes because it’s so amazing.’”
