Courtney Wuensch draws on life, imagination for senior art exhibit

Courtney Wuensch has always been passionate about animals and art. Growing up on a farm near New London, Ohio, she helped care for horses and raised goats to show. And wherever she went, whether on the farm or hiking in the woods, she “always had a sketchbook in tow.”  

For her senior Independent Study project, Courtney combined her two loves, creating a series of 30 fanciful drawings and soft ground prints of animals from barn owls and herons to meerkats and, of course, goats. An exhibit of her senior work will open April 6 in the college’s art gallery.

In one drawing, robed and hooded anteaters sit working at a long, wooden table, an image she says was inspired by a group of women sorting plants at a greenhouse where she worked last summer. In another, a frog and vulture are paired. The vulture’s uneven eyebrows and deep wrinkles exaggerate his already sinister appearance, while the frog’s placid expression and corpulent figure suggest the serenity and wisdom of Buddha. The contrast, Courtney says, is meant to suggest two different paths open to those with power: benevolence vs. greed, wisdom vs. corruption.

Each finished piece represents many hours of work in her studio (every senior art major gets a private studio in Ebert Art Center), from first sketch, through revisions, to careful preparation and etching of the copper plates, printing, mounting and framing. But there is more to Courtney’s I.S. than simply the artwork. She also has written about the creative process: the meaning of the images, the reasons for her choice of media, other artists who have influenced her work. And next month she will make an oral presentation on her work to two members of the art faculty

“The narrative has been the hardest part,” she says. “This is not just research data, this is my life.”

Like every Wooster senior, Courtney worked one-on-one with a faculty adviser on her I.S. project. Marina Mangubi, an associate professor of art, met with her weekly to review the work in progress, suggest readings that would help put that work in context with some of the major influences on Courtney’s style, from contemporary to northern Renaissance, and offer ideas about different papers, inks, and techniques to try.

The ultimate goal, Mangubi says, is to help each senior studio art major produce a body of work for a professional caliber solo exhibition.

“In a year, an undergraduate student has to grow into a full-fledged artist and Courtney is well on her way,” Mangubi say. “She has done very, very well and I’m excited to see where she’ll go from here.”

Courtney, who hopes to pursue a career as a freelance artist and someday own her own studio, agrees that her Wooster experience has helped her grow as an artist.

“I was praised and encouraged and taught to be more expressive,” she says. “Now I’m much more free to be gestural than I was in high school,” she says. Sweeping her eyes across her studio, she concludes simply, “I love this art center.”