Waltermire painted the MU Spartan to demonstrate her development over the course of her time as an art student at Manchester.
Photo by Cami Brown, Art by Chelsea Waltermire
Senior Art Student Chelsea Waltermire Displays Work in Link Gallery
Grace Denison
Senior art major Chelsea Waltermire had her art featured in her Senior Art Show in the Link Gallery at Manchester University this spring. Her work represents a variety of media and subjects.
Waltermire’s art includes pieces named “The I of Storms” as well as “Glory Days” and many more. Each of these pieces are personal to her. “The I of Storms” is Waltermire’s favorite piece she has done. This was a drawing she did during her first-year art class that was to combine her favorite superhero with herself. “It is still my favorite piece,” Waltermire says. “I feel like drawing is my strong suit and I enjoy it more.”
“I have taken every art class I possibly could during my four years and have learned so much,” Waltermire continues. “I have ranged in every style of art, and I wanted to show that in my final gallery. Drawings, paintings with acrylic and oil paints, ceramics that are hand built or wheel thrown, fiber art baskets, photography, and graphic design.”
Not only has she been quite involved in the art academics but she also started the annual Pour Painting event on campus. When she was a first year in her First-Year Experience course, her group was supposed to put on an art event so they decided on pour painting and Waltermire hosted this event. Twenty-five people came; furthermore, April White, assistant director of Counseling Services, asked for her to host her event for last two years. In the second year, 40 people showed up to make pour paintings. Last year, between 50 and 60 people showed and they also ended up running out of supplies! These events that Waltermire hosted made plenty of time for the abstract paintings in her Senior Art Show.
Waltermire’s family and friends are very involved in her art. She has made several pieces of her nephew and of her boyfriend. The photography and graphic design boards in the gallery show portraits she made of both her nephew and boyfriend for her photography class. Waltermire also did a photo shoot with her nephew in his bedroom for a themed assignment in her photography class that she then used her graphic design skills to create the effects of him floating in space as well as making the pumpkins float in her pictures.
She did this photo shoot with her nephew because she had painted his bedroom with a space theme and she says, “Everyone loved that!” Waltermire also painted a park bench for her mother and a small child size chair for her grandmother both as birthday presents.
Last semester in her painting 2 class she created her Spartan themed paintings. “We were allowed to paint using whatever we wanted, choose whatever theme we wanted, and even set our own deadline to have each painting finished by up to the final’s week,” she said. “I chose the MU Spartan theme because I had previously drawn a MU Spartan in my first-year art class and after taking figure drawing class, it’s obvious it was messed up. I wanted to show how much I had learned since then and show that I can do it bigger and better now.”
The oil portraits featured in Link Gallery are of Waltermire and her boyfriend. She created these pieces in her first painting class at Manchester University where she had to make separate paintings relate. Waltermire says: “the painted frame matches along with the backgrounds and the outfit theme. I didn’t give them a story because I wanted to let my viewers make up their own. Same for the bear and hunter paintings I did.”
The ceramic pieces she has placed in the gallery were made during her Ceramics 1 and 2 classes. “The storm drawing and the still life titled ‘Beaute Naturelle’ were done for classes, but the other two drawings were done for people outside of school personally customized as tattoo designs,” she says.
Waltermire’s plans for after graduation include buying a house with her boyfriend and having a job that’s art related. She hopes to have her own business one day. “It will be a beautiful building that’s built to host different art activities and to also sell my art,” she says.