The University of Tennessee at Martin Fine Arts Gallery welcomed two senior exhibitions titled “Sabotage” and “Human Nature” for open display from Tuesday, Oct. 20 through Saturday, Oct. 31.

Mickela Stewart, a senior studio art major from McNairy County, produced a very intense and personal array of art in her exhibition “Sabotage.”

In each of Stewart’s paintings, she portrayed two identical versions of herself, where one was usually portrayed to be at odds with the other in some sort of “self-sabotage.” One figure would try to do what was good, while the other would act much more aggressively.

“It was mainly inspired by like this internal struggle that I’ve always dealt with between like this good and bad version of myself, where I feel like I’m always kind of pulling myself down a little bit and this other version is trying to do better and pull myself back up,” Stewart said.

In her art, Stewart usually presented herself in a provocative manner, where one version of herself would be physically harming another version. This is most apparent in pieces such as “Headlock” and “Seeds of Change,” which displayed her wrestling with herself and burying herself.

She also used a variety of rich, dark colors to portray every scene. They helped bring depth to the creepy and unsettling subject matter behind the art. One particular piece of art was “Over and Over,” which showed her dual personalities as two parts of a leaf that were oppositely colored.

“I would say ‘Matchpoint’ is probably my favorite one, the big one with the blue walls and the yellow doors. I just really enjoy the perspective and the coloring on it a lot,” said Stewart.

When she first began her time at UT Martin, Stewart was torn between many different on-campus activities, such as playing with the Aviators Marching Band while being a studio artist. Despite this, she eventually started to develop her own artistic identity.

“I was kind of just sticking to projects that we were given in class and things that I had to do, but the past two years I would say I’ve kind of grown into having my own style of sorts,” said Stewart.

Jason Stout, Stewart’s mentor and the faculty advisor for the League of Striving Artists (LSA), noted her natural talent and also how much she improved and grew once she became more committed to the subject. He even acknowledged her as being one of his top studio artists.

“We really, really worked on how she could kind of balance her time to be in the studio more, to develop the already amazing talent that she had, and right around her sophomore and junior years she really kind of got into that,” said Stout.

Stewart’s artistic journey is nowhere near over, and has plans for what she wants to do with it in the future.

“I’m going to be applying to grad schools, seeing where I get in. I also want to do tattoos,” said Stewart.

Kylie Smith, a senior studio art major from Trenton, Tennessee, also displayed her exhibition titled “Human Nature.”

Her artwork did not include any human characters but focused more on the juxtaposition between nature and manmade items.

Stout provided good insight behind Smith’s artistic vision.

“It’s a real interesting kind of duplicity of how she likes nature and how she’s very curious of people, and how those two things can cross over, but with the absence of the actual human presence there,” said Stout.

Every piece of art displayed simple, everyday objects in ways that were lifelike. In paintings like “Metal Drum/Mossy Ground” and “Step Ladder/Vine,” Smith executed a stunning display of shading by applying different shades of green to correlate with shady spots and the sunny areas in the grass.

Smith also included an astonishing amount of detail, to the point where the viewer could make out every groove in a step stool and every blade of grass or moss on the ground.

Whether she drew a picnic table, a camper or a brick path, every subject of her art looked identical to a real-life location, even though they were made with color pencils and alcohol markers.

In her artist statement, Smith made it abundantly clear that producing her art was no simple task.

“Alcohol markers create a challenge for the artist, as any marks made cannot be completely undone or covered up, meaning you have to be careful and deliberate with each mark,” Smith said.

Stout praised Smith for how she determined the theme of her exhibition.

“She’s been able to find a narrative within what she’s interested in as an artist, with what she looks at, and what she thinks about, and that really led into how she developed her senior show,” Stout said.