Senior Exit Show

I feel like the senior exit show is always exciting. The whole time you're working as a student, you witness the senior exit shows and it's always fun to see students' last big effort before they go. Finally being able to participate in it was exciting in different ways. First of all, even though it's an open show and not juried, it still seems like a much bigger deal to show your work in this context. It feels as though more people see your work, and are more likely to recognize it as your own instead of just some piece they liked. A lot of this probably has to do with students, myself included, finding their voice and point of view during the time they spend at Bloom.

I really enjoyed seeing everyone else's work, both during the hanging and at the reception. I've seen a lot of these pieces before from working with these students for so long, but there were also lots of new ones. I feel like photography had a pretty good showing, but only one sculpture was submitted. I actually had a few sculptures myself, but I didn't submit them because they were still in progress at the time of the hanging.

One thing I'd like to change about the show, and not necessarily this one specifically, is the space issue. I know that we're always free to pursue solo shows at the local businesses downtown, but it also feels kind of special to be part of the grown-up graduating show in the official gallery. So I think a lot of students want to participate in that show specifically. I know that 13 of us trying to show 4-5 years of work (well, at least the best of it toward the end), was very crowded. I don't have a solution for this, and the show is still great and a lot of fun besides, but it was something to maybe think about in the future.