Explore the imaginative world of ‘Terabithia’ in the student creative showcase

By Leah Keith

Every spring, the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery presents a student creative showcase featuring work by senior art students. The theme of the exhibition changes each year, with this year’s exhibition titled “Terabithia,” open from April 13 to May 19.

“Welcome to Terabithia, a place that doesn't exist on a map but in our hearts and minds,” the exhibition’s introduction reads. “It is here that impossibilities are made possible and dreams do come true. A place where we seek refuge in our imaginations as we cross over into a new chapter of life. We invite you to take Terabithia in your hearts when you leave. It’s mine, it’s ours, it’s yours.”

I had the pleasure of talking with the student artists about their work, so journey with me into “Terabithia” as we learn more about this beautiful exhibition.

Allyson Buetow ‘24 (Studio Art major with a focus in Graphic Design)

Q: How would you describe your artistic style and how it developed during your time at St. Kate’s?

A: With my artwork, I love color. I love bright colors, and it’s really hard for me to stick with a three-piece color palette. I also love animated things like cartoons, and I grew up on Cartoon Network, so I pulled a lot of inspiration from “Adventure Time” and “Courage the Cowardly Dog.” With my photography too, I know my pieces that are in the show now are super dark or they’re black and white, but I have found that I really like taking pictures of bright things as well. I don’t really have a specific art style — just as long as it has color in it.

Q: What’s your favorite piece from your body of work, and what does it mean to you?

A: Even though I really do like digital art, I think my favorite pieces are probably my photography ones. Before I came to college, I never dabbled in photography. It wasn’t really my thing or something that I found interest in. But my three “Alone” pieces were probably my favorite just because around that time my grandfather did pass away. [I] pulled that feeling in and walked around campus at nighttime in the rain to just get pictures of how I was feeling. So yeah, those ones are probably my favorite.

In the future, Buetow is interested in starting at a major company and working her way up, emphasizing her graphic design abilities. She could also see herself getting into contract or commission work on the side.

Savannah Franklin ‘24 (Studio Art major with a concentration in Photography)

Q: How would you describe your artistic style and how it developed during your time at St. Kate’s?

A: I kind of describe my style as fantasy-esque. And I also sometimes like a bit darker and just more muted colors as well. I don’t really know when I really developed — it kind of just happened.

Q: What’s your favorite piece from your body of work, and what does it mean to you?

A: For me, I’d say my Guatemalan scenery photos. I’m adopted from Guatemala, so just having photos from Guatemala, it’s just a nice memory to have. My other favorite would probably be my “Snake with Flowers” because I just love snakes. It was actually kind of fun doing all the scales, and I really like just how it turned out.

After graduation, Franklin will be looking for internships and working from there. Eventually, she would love to do freelance work.

Jade Lent ‘24 (Studio Art major with a Graphic Design concentration and minor in Integrated Marketing Communications and Design)

Q: How would you describe your artistic style and how it developed during your time at St. Kate’s?

A: I would describe it like a folk tale, possibly a printmaking style almost, but I largely do digital illustrations. I can’t pinpoint the time where I got into the style, but it was definitely in college. In high school, I had always struggled with finding a style to stick with, but at some point, I fell in love with the look of printmaking and linocut. I wanted to be able to do that digitally, so I looked up a lot of artists on Instagram and digital illustration art that almost have a textured look to it, like a graininess that I wanted. So I basically just experimented with that until it worked out in my favor.

Q: What’s your favorite piece from your body of work and what does it mean to you?

A: I would say my favorite piece is kind of a series of three, and they’re not done in my classic illustration style that I usually do stuff in. They were digital paintings, so they kind of look like oil paintings. For the three in the series, I have one where I did a painting of my sister and I on my bed and we’re watching a show on the computer. There’s one of me sitting on the dock by the lake I lived on. The third one was my sister and our dog Atlas. At the time when I was making them, I was super homesick, so I kind of just wanted a reminder of living in the country and being by nature again. Even though I didn’t do those in my signature illustration style, I think they’re definitely my favorite in the series.

Lent will be working as a graphic designer at a small print shop in their hometown of Glenwood, Minn., after graduation, and she looks forward to working with the old printing presses at the shop. After the internship, Lent would be open to commission work or freelancing or any job related to the arts, such as working in a museum or gallery.

Caitlin O’Malley ‘24 (Art History and Studio Art major with concentration in Painting and Photography)

Q: How would you describe your artistic style and how it developed during your time at St. Kate’s?

A: I think a lot of my work tends to be a bit more minimalist, especially my blind contours. I also do a lot of photography as well, but that tends to feel less minimalist than my other pieces. All of my work tends to involve people in some capacity, and through my practice I try to capture the spirit of my subject and how they're perceived to me. I don't know if that's necessarily a style, but that’s the best way I can describe my artwork. My art has always been broadly focused on people, so through the years I have refined that interest, resulting in what I do now.

Q: What’s your favorite piece from your body of work, and what does it mean to you?

A: I don't know if I necessarily have a favorite piece, but I'm really attached to my blind contour series. It's something I've been developing for almost two years now. When I first started, I was really bad because of how difficult it is. But I worked really hard consistently — every day doing them to work on those skills and to get better at them, because it was a really fun challenge. The whole point of blind contour is you don't look at the paper, so it's really like you're focused in the moment and connecting with the subject that you're drawing. It's okay if it doesn't turn out right, like if the hands are really small or the head is huge, because there's kind of a beauty in that imperfection.

O’Malley plans on attending a master’s or Ph.D. program related to anthropology after graduation. Eventually, she wants to work as a museum curator or in an auction house with Oceanic art.

Sofia Osterlund ‘25 (Studio Art major with a focus in Ceramics)

Q: How would you describe your artistic style and how it developed during your time at St. Kate’s?

A: I’d say my style is organic — it’s very go with the flow. Especially in my carvings, people were asking me if I would trace out what I was going to do before I carve, which I

don’t. I just kind of go where the tool takes me, and I think that’s kind of evident in a lot of what I do, especially in my jewelry. I make my jewelry and some of the wall hangings out there have elements from on the beach. What I find is what I do and what I see is what I do. So it’s just organic, and it's from all around me.

Q: What’s your favorite piece from your body of work and what does it mean to you?

A: My favorite pieces are my water bearer series, or the vases I have up on the wall, because for one, I am in love with the lake. I grew up in Duluth and getting to like to stay around the lake my whole life was important to me, so being able to bring that into my artwork meant a lot. On top of that, doing those vases really helped me push myself into learning glazes and how that all works and diving deeper into ceramics and the different things that happen at different temperatures. It kind of got me back into chemistry, which was weird for me because I’ve never been a STEM person, but it requires a lot of math and chemistry.

Inspired by her time working as teacher’s assistant in ceramics, Osterlund wants to pursue a career in community education after she graduates. Osterlund can also see herself going back to school for her MFA and being a ceramics professor.

Gisselle Quintanilla ‘24 (Studio Art major with a concentration in Graphic Design)

Q: How would you describe your artistic style and how it developed during your time at St. Kate’s?

A: I don’t have a definitive art style because I use so many different brushes with my digital illustrations. But most of my inspiration comes from cartoons I grew up with, animes or just general illustrations I see from commissioned artists. So, I got inspired by how I feel and what feels comfortable. Initially, I was more drawn to the smooth look of the line art and the contour lines of other artists’ and illustrators’ works, but now, as I continue my artistic journey, I began more with different styles and looks, and one day, I hope to have a definitive art style that people will recognize.

Q: What’s your favorite piece from your body of work, and what does it mean to you?

A: I guess it’s a tie between my “Bunny Lupe” painting because I’m a rabbit lover and have two rabbits and my “All Eyes On Me” animation. So we adopted my rabbit, and they said it’s a boy. Then we had another boy rabbit. Long story short, our rabbit is a girl; she got pregnant and had babies. Yeah. In my painting, I just kind of represented her as like, Our Lady Guadalupe, and it’s been my favorite painting ever since. My “All Eyes On Me” painting was more a representation of how I deal with anxiety. So like, when I first started creating that piece, I was experiencing really terrible anxiety and felt like someone was staring at me. That’s why I had eyes and representations of what it felt as a person with an anxiety disorder.

After graduating, Quintanilla wants to pursue a career in graphic design, either in marketing or commission-based graphic illustration. One day, she would love to work on her webtoon, comics and animations.

Justice Randolph ‘24 (Art History major, minoring in Studio Art with a concentration in Drawing and Painting)

Q: How would you describe your artistic style and how it developed during your time at St. Kate’s?

A: What is my style? I have podcast audio, three videos, three sculptures, five paintings and then five essays. So honestly, I don’t necessarily think I have a style, but I kind of have my signature — my headphones. I wore those at the opening, and then I also have my headphones in my acrylic painting, and then I have the wire sculpture. On top of that, all three videos had music in all of them. So I think that’s kind of something that I embrace more so in my work as like a signature more than a style.

Q: What’s your favorite piece from your body of work and what does it mean to you?

A: I have one that’s stacked canvases — it's called “Absent,” and so that’s one of my favorites. My piece is just meant to talk about how I’ve always felt being in academic spaces. I’m neurodivergent, so I don’t really understand anything the same way other people do. So I’ve always worked smarter and ten times harder than most people. For me, in that piece you can see my eyes are closed and my ears are covered by my headphones because I’m just not paying attention. I’ve been able to do that for a really long time and just be able to get by. Which always made me question how valuable academia is if I can do that and also be an honor roll student. I feel like I’m pretty good at paying attention while also not being there, so that was my meaning for.

Originally coming to college as a Psychology major, Randolph would be interested in getting her master’s in counseling and pursuing a career in art therapy after graduation. She could also see herself attending school in a different country.

On May 2, join these artists in the Visual Arts Building from 12-1:15 p.m. as they talk more about their creative work. Special thanks to Nicole Watson, the director of the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, for her work with these students and role in the exhibition process. Thank you to the entire art department for your support of these artist scholars.