SPOTLIGHT: STUDIO ART POPULAR AMONG STUDENT

ALEXA GANZEVELD, KNIGHTLIFE EDITOR

The Department of Art at Wartburg College provides students the ability to communicate with discipline and imagination while understanding the visual world. There are four emphases Art and Design, including Studio Art, Graphic Design, Art Education K-8 and Art Education 5-12.

Through appreciation, experience and production, art students broaden creative and critical abilities and share new skills through creating works of art. Studio Art exposes students to traditional media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking.

The 12-credit program offers a variety of academic and studio courses in traditional and technology-based media.

“Graphic design is a medium. Just like painting or drawing. Graphic design is more commercially oriented,” said Thomas Payne, professor of art. “In more traditional art, you’re basically learning techniques but you’re learning how to make design that is more personal. Graphic design is more commercial or for a client.” Wartburg College has many settings for students to improve art skills.

Art facilities in the Bachman Fine Arts Center include the Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery, graphic design computer stations, classrooms and studios. “I think that most people are pretty flexible and that once you learn one medium, you can use those techniques and carry them over to another,” Barbara Fedeler, chair of the Department of Art, said.

A degree in studio art is not limited to a career of painting and drawing. An art degree can be used to become a fashion designer, interior designer, or comic book or children’s book illustrator.

“I just love the textures and colors I can create with them,” said Maddie Fletcher, a fourthyear art and business administration major, said. “Honestly, I love doing anything hands on. Creating is my outlet and something I love to do.”

For more information about the studio art major, go to wartburg.edu/art/.