Progressions 2006 opens at Malaspina University-College April 18

Interior Design, visual, applied and graphic art students are working feverishly to get their work done for the upcoming Progressions 2006 Student Art and Design Exhibit opening at Malaspina University-College, April 18.

Psychology and art student, Soleil Mannion, hopes her work will be among the more than 100 submissions the jury will choose to hang on the walls around the Nanaimo campus and the Nanaimo Art Gallery.

Mannion is submitting a unique project in which she has taken five men’s suit jackets and transformed the interior of the jacket into a vibrant piece of art. She was inspired by the line, "I am my landscape", found in a poem she once read.

Each jacket represents a well-known artist including Dutch impressionist Vincent Van Gogh, Canadian artist Ay Jackson and French impressionist Paul Cezanne. The inside of each jacket is a faithful reproduction of the style or work of that artist. For Van Gogh, Mannion chose a brown tweed jacket and filled the satiny interior with a swirling bold-coloured painting of a French village.

"I want to provoke feelings and moods, not just thoughts," she said of her work.

Clothing was a natural canvas for Mannion because she’s worked in theatre and has done some costume design.

"Art it supposed to be seen," said Mannion of the Progressions show. "It’s a shame when it is tucked away where no one can see it …The show is an opportunity for students to make a piece of art that is finished and will be seen. It looks different (in a gallery) and it gives us a perspective on how a piece will look."

Progressions is as much about getting the paintings, sculptures, interior designs, photographs and graphic projects out there as it is about learning how to host a show.

"This is about (the students) learning the trade," said Gregory Ball, a visual and applied arts professor.

"You have to know how to do this."

Progressions 2006 kicks off with an entertaining Opening Night Awards Ceremony at the Malaspina Theatre, April 18 starting at 7 p.m. The artwork will be on display at the Nanaimo Art Gallery and the theatre until May 8. The first-year students’ work will be displayed in the Visual and Applied Arts Building 325 until September.

For more information contact Gregory Ball at 753-3245, local 2275.