St. Edward’s University artists shed blood, sweat and tears to put on their senior art exhibition.

The exhibition, titled “Hustle and Flow,” features a variety of artwork students have been working on since last semester and will be featured in the Fine Arts building until May 9.

“I cannot explain how difficult it was for a lot of these artists to get their stuff out there. There’s tears, there’s blood, I’m not joking there’s legit blood, and people breaking down. So we’re on a hustle,” artist Jeffery Miles explained.

Although there is not a theme for the artwork, each artist expressed different emotions having to do with difficult circumstances in either their own lives or globally. There also seems to be an unintentional message of juxtaposition among some of the artwork.

Alexandra Robinson, an assistant professor of art at St. Edward’s, worked closely with the students with the initial proposal of the project and later with the creation of the artwork.

“If you’re a senior then you’re graduating. Your life is going to drastically change. Maybe you have no idea what that will be, or you’ve been defined by this thing and all of a sudden you’re confronted with the thing at the same time.” Robinson said. “So I think that makes sense, the juxtaposition.”

One of the examples of juxtaposition is Miles’s series of paintings entitled “Royalty”. His paintings feature playing cards with kings and queens of other cultures on them rather than the cliched pictures we see on the typical Bicycle brand cards.

“A lot of times we don’t picture these cultures as queens and kings, usually we think of, you know, England or Buckingham Palace. So I figured putting them in this setting would be pretty nice,” Miles said.

Another piece of art in the exhibit that works with a comparisonal relationship is a series of 36 handmade plates created by artist Jessica Foster. The artwork entitled “Dining and Disease” features plate settings with different food-borne illnesses engraved into the plates.

“The idea came from social justice issues, and I’m really interested in issues in third-world countries,” Foster said.

Some of the other pieces in the exhibit feature a digitally-drawn graphic novel, a charcoal and wheat paste painting painted directly on the gallery wall, a study on painting skin pigments and hundreds of shiny clay and glass hanging ornaments.