‘I was showing a vulnerable piece of myself’

The 21^st Annual ArtsWorcester College Show opened with a public reception on Wednesday, Feb. 12, and features 79 works from 60 Massachusetts undergraduate students, including 17 Clarkies, in mediums ranging from wire sculpture to intaglio print to oil painting.

ArtsWorcester received more than 250 submissions, settling on a selection of work by students from Clark, The College of the Holy Cross, Anna Maria College, Assumption University, Framingham State University, MassArt, Quinsigamond Community College, and Fitchburg State University. The show was judged by Deborah Santoro, director of the University Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Lowell,

Clarkies on view include Emma Brackett ’25, Amelia Clark ’26, John de Andrade ’26, Sophia DeMeo ’28, Owen Dominguez ’27, Ethan Doyle ’25, Annabelle Edwards-Stoll ’25, Sofia Guzman Farias ’25, Oliver Hamlett ’26, Abbie Hart ’25, Rachel Harvie ’27, Amatista Keller-Angelo ’27, Una Kenneally ’27, Charlotte Moriarty ’25, AJ Orringer ’25, Vivian Paiz ’27, and August Waggener ’26. While several of the artists are studio art majors, others study psychology, biology, and geography.

Dominguez is showing the photo “Pickup in the Park,” part of a larger series of photographs about people in Main South.

“I began to get involved closely with the people playing basketball at University Park. The man in the picture is someone I talked to often and actually played basketball with as well as photographing him,” Dominguez says.

Orringer, who is exhibiting “busted knees,” a painting, and “untitled (self-portrait),” graphite on paper, says they are excited to share the power and emotion of their work. Pain is a palpable part of “busted knees,” which depicts scrapes and bruising.

“I realized that I was showing a vulnerable piece of myself that most female-bodied folk are conditioned to hide away, even things as simple as surface-level pain,” Orringer says.

Waggener is thrilled to display their photo “Portrait of Carter.”

“I’m so happy to showcase my passion for black and white film photography,” Waggener says. “I’m honored to have been chosen along with so many of my well-deserving peers for this show.”

Edwards-Stoll is exhibiting “Kids Bathroom Toilet,” a wire-sculpture toilet featuring water-like yarn attachments.

“There is a duck learning to swim in the memory of my childhood toilet. The toilet is leaking from the bottom and flooding the space,” Edwards-Stoll explains. “I do not know how to swim well. Maybe I should jump in the toilet. Maybe my rubber duck will teach me to swim before I drown.”

Several Clarkies were named prize winners during the exhibit’s opening reception on Wednesday. Moriarty won third place for “Inner Child,” acrylic on canvas, and honorable mentions were awarded to Dominguez for “Pickup in the Park,” digital inkjet photography; Edwards-Stoll for “Kids Bathroom Toilet,” a work of wire, fiber, and brick; and Hart for “take the early train home (cold),” an airbrush aquatint etched in copper plate print.

The show will be on view from Feb. 13 through April 13 at ArtsWorcester at the Davis Art Gallery, 44 Portland St. in downtown Worcester. For more information and to read juror Deborah Santoro’s bio, visit the ArtsWorcester website.

Author Abbie Hart ’25 is featured in the ArtsWorcester College Show

My print, titled “take the early train home (cold),” is part of the exhibit, and I am excited to be able to display my work alongside my artist peers. My piece is an airbrush aquatint etched copper plate intaglio print featuring a street scene from Malmö, Sweden, where I visited last March. I had decided to go into Malmö alone for the day, as my grandparents had lived there for a time, and my grandfather had recently passed. Creating this piece was creating a piece of remembrance for him, and immortalizing this place we had shared, even though we were never in Sweden together. He may have walked the same street, but he will never know that I did, too.