Soulinda Somvong | Assistant Multimedia Editor
On Friday, Oct. 14, the Buena Vista University Art Gallery helped celebrated the University’s 125th anniversary by holding a reception for an alumni art show. The show, titled “BVU: BA-MFA” ran from Sept. 21 through Oct. 16 and featured art made by four art alumni who had gone on to earn their Master’s degrees — Dan Perry, Bre Kathman, Kristen Tripp and Nicole Nee.
Tripp, who studied sculpture at Wichita State University in Kansas after graduating from BVU in 2011, made the trip back to Storm Lake for the reception on Saturday. Tripp’s pieces in the show were clothing and furniture shapes sculpted from wire. She said her work is designed to have people start questioning things about their own lives.
“I want them to ask themselves a question like, ‘Can I sit on that? I don’t think I can’t,’ but then they really question that they can,” Tripp said.
She also noted that her artwork always has a personal element to it.
“The art work that I create, there’s always a piece of me in it. There’s always everything that I’ve been a part of,” she said.
Tripp also offered some advice to current art students here at BVU.
“Always work through your doubt. Sometimes you have a tendency to freeze when you have a lot of doubt, but that’s the worse time to do that. Just keep on moving and making stuff, always,” she said.
This show was the first of two alumni art shows that will be featured in the BVU Art Gallery this year. The next show will open in late October.
