This year, Covenant’s art majors presented their senior projects for the first time since the pandemic hit. With so many COVID-19 precautions in place, there was no way for others to be able to see all the work that these students put into the last project of their college career. Two art seniors, Shelby Farrar ’21 and Bennett Sunder ’21, shared how they felt about the process of making their project and presenting it to the student body.
What was your project?
Sunder: For my senior project I chose to illustrate a 184-page graphic novel called “Ariel’s Lantern.” It was the story of a young mouse named Ariel trying to find her way through a dangerous and unfamiliar land. Its themes draw from my personal struggles with anxiety and searching for biblical truth.
Farrar: I created eight large-scale digital illustrations that were arranged in two horizontal lines of four. The top row represented the stereotype of the Southern White Evangelical in four stages of life (young, teen, adult, old) with cut-out faces to represent that this is a mold pushed onto women. Below these empty doll-like forms are four large illustrations of women in the Bible of the same age groups that push back on these stereotypes (Miriam, Esther, Deborah, and Anna).
What inspired you?
Photo from Covenant College Art Department
Sunder: I’ve been playing through “Dark Souls” [video games] over these past couple of years, and I found that it created an incredible and oppressive atmosphere of helplessness. Having previously experienced and appreciated the same phenomenon in “Shadow of the Colossus,” I wanted to replicate it in a story of my own. When I was studying in Spain last February, I had brought along a very small sketchbook that I could fit in my pocket, so I began drawing a story about a mouse traveling through a misty land with objects and relics far older and later than her. When I was sent home last March, I lost focus on the project and abandoned it for a good while. During Christmas, however, I began thinking about this mouse again facing obstacles much larger than herself and how much I wanted to turn it into a fully-fledged story and world.
Farrar: Growing up, I felt like I had to fit into a certain mold in order to be a “good Christian woman” and I didn’t realize until college that I was holding onto a lot of anger and sadness because of this. I wanted to show that being a good Christian woman can mean anything God calls you to be and placing women in these culturally-based stereotypes only hurts their spiritual walks. Ultimately, I wanted my work to both uplift women and open a conversation to how the Church can better serve the women in its congregation.
What was the process like doing this project during this year?
Sunder: Fortunately for me, because my project did not require a large amount of studio space, I was able to create my project in a way that was relatively unchanged from how I would have envisioned it any other year. However, I do think that the way that Covenant had functioned this year nudged me to pursue a more independent senior project, but I don’t think that my creative process would have been significantly different if I produce it any other year.
Farrar: It was very cathartic in many ways. I think being allowed to do a project for a year over something you’re passionate about is a huge growing process. It has some pain—sleepless nights, tears, anger, etc.—but in the end you find out so much about yourself as a person and it really shapes you moving forward as an adult. Also, this has been such a good year of questions and discussions for our generation that I think laid a good foundation for my project because it came in a time where many people are ready and willing to engage in conversations about things.
Did COVID-19 make anything different?
Sunder: I think that being forced to leave Spain by a cataclysmic worldwide panic gave me a better understanding of going up against something that was so huge that you felt powerless. I definitely was able to work on it more thanks to the online nature of J-term classes. It allowed me to draw pages of my book during class more easily without any negative consequences to my attention.
Farrar: When I began researching my project in the fall, I realized that because of Covid, I wouldn’t be able to talk to as many women as I had hoped [in order] to gain more knowledge on the stereotype I chose to portray. Additionally, I had hoped for a larger turnout for the show but that was impossible due to restrictions. While understandable, it was still disappointing as my project was originally meant to be seen by a large crowd from diverse age groups and backgrounds in order to have a more robust conversation.
Was it worth it?
Sunder: As somebody who has never had anything published before, holding the finished copy of the graphic novel that [I] wrote is extremely gratifying, and is incredible motivation for me to revise it to eventually get published. It was worth it.
Farrar: 100% yes. I remember the past four years being anxious about my senior Capstone because it seemed so daunting, but this year working on it has been amazing. I’ve learned so much about myself, the Bible, and women that I’m so thankful for. This project truly has shaped my artistic practice and I didn’t regret one moment of it.