Apr. 27—Getting students ready to put their art on display isn’t new for Laramie County Community College art instructor Daniel Maw. But for many students, preparing for their first gallery showcase is a major milestone.
Until May 5, a collection of more than 100 pieces by Maw’s students, many of whom have not had their work exhibited in a gallery are on display at the LCCC Esther and John Clay Fine Art Gallery. An opening reception will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. May 1. A small group of Maw’s higher-level art students spoke with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle about their art and what it means to put their work on display.
Ashley O’Connor, an LCCC student who would like to become an animator in the future, has four sculptures on display in the gallery, including an abstract “self-portrait” about her growth as an artist.
“This is a self-portrait. I mean, it doesn’t really look like it, but, in spirit,” she said. “That’s just me growing as an artist and getting back into art after a long time not being in it. … I feel like I’ve always had a hard time articulating words properly … doing art is how I perceive or show people how I feel my emotions.”
O’Connor’s classmate, Moss Archiquette, uses their art to grapple with their identity. With multiple pieces that incorporate both two- and three-dimensional elements, they said they use the medium to try and elicit darker emotions from people.
One of Archiquette’s sculptures involves a series of frames with blue strings stitched across each of them, intending to simulate the constraining feeling of an ocean as someone gets closer to the bottom.
“I definitely wanted this piece to be kind of haunting,” they said. “… It’s just about that feeling of being underwater, like falling down into water. When I presented this to the class, one of my classmates was like, ‘I have a severe phobia of deep water, and that’s triggering that for me.’ I felt bad for making them feel that way, but also felt like I achieved something.”
Archiquette also has a piece that involved making a mold of their arms and chest, which is then attached to a wooden panel with a painting of their body. This piece, they said, was about Archiquette’s relationship with their body as a nonbinary person.
“This piece has more meaning than all those other ones,” Archiquette said. “It’s called ‘A Gentle Curse’ and the ‘Gentle Curse’ is my own body but, specifically, in the context of being trans, nonbinary.
“You can see my thumb digging into my skin and, when I was casting, I was gripping as hard as I could to try to convey some of that pain and discomfort.”
Sarah Baynard has five pieces on display at the gallery, she said, including some photos and paintings.
“I just like doing what I do; I like doing art stuff,” she said. “It’s calming. It’s something that I go home to do for fun, stuff like that. I also like conveying different messages in my work. I don’t really put them in shows, but I do have some work that conveys struggles that I’ve been through, and struggles that other people have been through.”
Baynard grew up in Cheyenne, and said she’s been pleased to watch the city’s art scene expand as she’s gotten older.
“As a kid, I never knew about Cheyenne art stuff,” she said. “Now we have Arts Cheyenne and the First Friday Artwalk. There’s more opportunities for people to get out there a lot easier. It’s been easier for me to put my work in shows the past few years.”
Jaclyn DePalma also grew up in Cheyenne and sees the world through cars, which comes through in her work. On top of a set of vehicular-themed paintings, DePalma is also displaying two longhorn skulls that she has decorated, one of which she found on a friend’s farm.
“That’s a lot of what my art is. I find cars that I like because my dad’s a collector,” she said.
One piece of DePalma’s artwork on display is also made for charity. Featuring a piston, a wrench and a longhorn skull, the painting was made for a car show run by the Angelina’s Dream Foundation, a charity set up by the parents of 15-year-old Angelina Harrison, who was killed on Dell Range Boulevard last year.
“I stayed up all night the night before,” DePalma said. “I got it done right before the show.”
Overall, DePalma’s affinity for painting vehicles works as a vessel for her emotions.
“I’ve drawn wrecked vehicles for when I’m really, really upset. If I’m having a hard time, I’ll draw a completely crushed vehicle. … That’s really how I portray a lot of my emotions, just the overall view of what that would look like.”
Maw said he enjoys watching emerging artists grow, and facilitating that growth as they move on beyond his classes.
“It’s a lot of growth and trying to feel comfortable doing that with people,” he said of the environment he tries to cultivate in his art classes. “I guess, also, build some kind of community. (There’s) a lot of one-on-one conversations. … You’re gonna have to be critical of each other’s work, and evaluate how they’re doing.”
Maw said his affinity for art came from his chaotic Midwestern upbringing as one of many brothers in a small town in eastern Iowa.
“Good luck finding any time to try and carve out your own space,” he said. “I’d find that time and was like, ‘I just gotta create my own world, be here, doing this, just get lost in it.’ There’s something pretty comforting in that.”
On the topic of the gallery, in a news release for the event, Maw said showcases like this one are meant to foster community support.
“The arts can bring communities together like nothing else, and gallery exhibitions and receptions are opportunities to demonstrate the importance of the arts,” he said.
Samir Knox is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s criminal justice and public safety reporter. He can be reached by email at sknox@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3152. Follow him on X at @bySamirKnox.
