KYLEE LARY
PHOTOGRAPHER
CARTER HELMER
STAFF WRITER
9/25/2023
For many years, Clack Art Center has held a student art exhibit at the beginning of every fall semester. Any art piece completed by a student enrolled in an art class throughout the previous school year is eligible to submit work for a chance to be showcased.
This year, the gallery showcases numerous pieces of work in many different mediums. On display, there is photography, charcoal, clay and metal sculptures, oil paintings, watercolor and much more. The art center is open every day of the week to view the art on display.
One student who is currently displaying their art is Corey Zeneberg (‘24). Zeneberg is a fourth-year student who majors in both Art and New Media Studies. As a new media major, Zenerberg was already interested in film and thus photography. It wasn’t a hard decision to take a photography class where he discovered a newfound passion for photography.
Within a month of being in the class, Zeneberg applied to double major in Art alongside the New Media Studies major. In the last two years since declaring his second major, Zeneberg has found inspiration in his own life experiences.
“My art is extremely sentimental to me,” said Zeneberg. “I focus a lot on my own self-discovery and experiences. It’s a very visceral feeling when I’m able to capture an image that accurately expresses what I’m trying to get across, even if other people take it in a different meaning. To me, subjectivity is what thrives in art. I like people being able to converse about what a piece means.”
Zeneberg shared that the self-portrait he had showcased was titled “Fear.” It was inspired by a photo they took three years prior to the creation of the charcoal recreation. The self-portrait depicts Zenerberg’s experiences with digitization and the characterization of his own fear.
Brooke Rafko (’24), is another student whose art is being displayed in Clack. Rafko decided to submit a series of photos which she felt represented the fog you feel when you have chronic pain.
“I have a muscle condition called Congenital Hypotonia and chronic back pain,” said Rafko. “My project is based on a series of photos [that tries] to depict how pain impacts [my] studying. I decided on specifically focusing on the cognitive dissidence that happens when you’re in pain and you’re trying to focus, it is very frustrating, and I had been experiencing that recently when I decided to do the project.”
Rafko’s series was entitled “Fibro Fog,” after Fibromyalgia, a sort of umbrella term for chronic pain and brain fog.
Having an illness that affects her everyday life is a large struggle for Rafko and something that she has been able to draw a lot of inspiration from. She is very passionate about sharing her experiences so others can understand what it means to be plagued by chronic pain.
Every artist is inspired by a myriad of things. Even though they have lived different lives with varying struggles, both Rafko and Zeneberg have been able to draw inspiration from their own unique experiences.Every work of art has its own story which may mean different things for different people. Because of these factors, every piece of art is unique in its own way. This is especially true in the art displayed in the Clack Art Exhibit.
