Contacts:
Department of Art, 657-2324
Dan Carter, University Relations, 657-2269

January 22, 2008

MSU Billings Student's Senior Show Features Lithography 'Fantasies'

MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — A series of lithography prints will be featured by an award-winning student artist during her senior show “Fantasies” during February at Montana State University Billings.

The senior show by Melissa Coyle will be Feb. 11-22 in the Student Gallery on the first floor of the MSU Billings Liberal Arts Building at the university’s main campus. An opening reception for the artist is Friday, Feb. 15, from 5-7 p.m.

The show and reception are free and open to the public.

Coyle, who will graduate from MSU Billings in May with a double major in art education and mathematics (secondary education emphasis), has earned several awards for her lithography.  Her print series “Fantasies” is a meditation on the complexities of human relationships.

“I challenge myself to decipher some of the hidden confusion displayed within human interactions based on having realistic or fantasy connections with certain individuals,” she said in her artist statement. “This subject conflicts me daily and one which then slowly becomes infused into my artwork.”

She said the balance of human interactions that exist nearly simultaneously on planes of love and hate – and how reactions are often inflicted on innocent bystanders – is examined in her artwork.

For more information on Coyle’s senior show, contact the MSU Billings Department of Art at 657-2324.