Senior art students will explore a number of themes, ranging from the dangerous appeal and deadly impact of guns to a playful, literal take on well-known sayings, during the Elmhurst College Art Department’s 47th Annual Spring Capstone Art Exhibition.

The high point for every graduating art major, the capstone exhibition requires students to create a body of work in their area of concentration, then plan the exhibition and design all of the promotional materials for it.

Evan Haase’s project explores the dichotomy of guns—their ability to do great violence, contrasted with their popularity as a recreational pastime—by creating a 4-foot by 7-foot American flag out of 17,500 spent brass bullet shells. Haase, whose area of concentration is sculpture, also will use spent shells to create representations of the states with the highest death rates due to gun violence.

“There are many in this country who enjoy shooting firearms recreationally, while others stay away from the deadly potential of these weapons,” Haase says. “This is the controversy I choose to decipher, and I want to bring [its] intensity to life through the visual arts in a neutral way that not only appeals to viewers but educates them as well.”

Kelsey Kuebler has created surrealistic ceramic sculptures, “monster figures with various deformities,” that represent the negative emotions that people cope with and struggle to overcome throughout their lifetime.

In her capstone project, Nicole Gutzmer uses a variety of media to illustrate commonly heard idioms—“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” for example, or “Break a leg”—literally. “My style embodies a cartoonish and easy sort of feel through bold color and collage elements from children’s books to depict the childlike innocence of the literal meanings,” she says.

The Elmhurst College Spring Capstone Art Exhibition runs from Saturday, May 9, through Saturday, May 30, in the Founders Lounge of the Frick Center and the Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace. The Frick Center is open daily; the Accelerator ArtSpace is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. The ArtSpace will be closed from Saturday, May 23, through Thursday, May 28, with special hours (12 noon to 3:00 p.m.) on Saturday, May 30.

A reception with the student artists will be held on Saturday, May 9 from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. in the Frick Center and from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. in the Accelerator ArtSpace. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

The exhibition includes work by:

• Stephanie Ballard, Lemont (Art Business, Printmaking)
• Jackie Belmonte, Darien (Graphic Design)
• Andres Guerrero, Cicero (Graphic Design)
• Nicole Gutzmer, Hoffman Estates (Painting and Mixed Media)
• Evan Haase, Des Plaines (Sculpture)
• Kelsey J. Kuebler, Westmont (Ceramic Sculpture)
• Byron Niles, Chicago (Graphic Design)
• Polina Roubinskaia, Elk Grove Village (Graphic Design)
• Alex Safford, Glen Ellyn (Graphic Design)
• Megan Schram, Elk Grove Village (Graphic Design)
• Capri Spielman, Sycamore (Graphic Design)
• Christine Wiese, DeWitt, Iowa (Graphic Design)