{"id":19619,"date":"2023-02-22T12:32:04","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=19619"},"modified":"2023-02-22T12:32:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:32:35","slug":"melody-barretts-senior-art-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/melody-barretts-senior-art-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"Melody Barrett’s senior art exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Gretchen Sims<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest addition to the senior art exhibits in the Werner University Center is blowing viewers away with its stunning colors and cohesive designs. Artist Melody Barrett is the mastermind behind these breathtaking works that currently grace the second floor of the WUC.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When discussing her series, titled \u201cFinding my Artistic Voice,\u201d Barrett addressed the following topics:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> What does art mean to you?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: <\/b>This is a complicated question, and honestly I\u2019ve been struggling to find an answer because art means many things to me. It\u2019s the act of creating, and also the act of observing something others have created, or that mother nature has created. I can see the art of a tree or landscape as easily as that of a painting or sculpture or other medium. Art is something that touches my soul, makes me stop and pause and really look and feel. It\u2019s one of the things I\u2019ve loved about being here at WOU and working in the Galleries. I love seeing what other people create, what they are giving voice to and how they express themselves and the world around them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What first got you interested in art?<\/b><\/p>\n

A:<\/b> Two things really influenced me. The first of which was my mother. She sewed and crocheted and made a myriad of drawings and crafts throughout her life, yet never thought of herself as an artist. She looked at what she created as being \u2018crafty\u2019. It wasn\u2019t until very late in her life that she painted just a few paintings and I was amazed at her talent. I think that is why I viewed my early artistic endeavors as \u2018just playing\u2019. I\u2019ve always been creating something but thought \u2018being an artist\u2019 was something others did, not me. The second was when I was about 12 years old and my family went to Seattle. At the public market I bought two posters for 25.00 each which was an outrageous amount of my allowance to spend at the time. The first was a surreal image by Dominique Appia entitled Entre Les Trous De La M\u00e9moire. In English Between the Holes in the Memory. It captured my attention and I felt it spoke directly to me. The second poster was a copy of an art exhibit poster, I can\u2019t remember what city now, but it was a pink vase with pussywillow branches out of the top and the faint image of a bird in the center of the vase. Those were my first wall art type purchases, and they went with me everywhere for 20 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What would you like others to take from your art?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: <\/b>I hope that everyone who sees my art can find something in some piece that they like, that touches them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What inspires you?<\/b><\/p>\n

A:<\/b> Nearly everything! People, places, events, definitely other artists!<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What is your \u201cwhy\u201d? (what makes you the artist you are today)<\/b><\/p>\n

A: <\/b>So many things, but it might just boil down to curiosity and the desire to continually try new things. My art is an expression of thoughts, feelings, ideas I have kicking around inside me in an external form.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the month of February, Western students and members of the community can come to see this display themselves. Be sure to check it out before it’s gone.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":19620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}