Student finds healing, passion through art at WSU

Addie Harmon displayed two large paintings, reflecting her “inner world,” in the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery’s main exhibit room, while her immersive forest installation, complete with audio, video and tree branches casting looming shadows from the ceiling, had its own gallery space. 

Her art was part of Weber State University’s spring 2022 BFA Thesis Exhibition, where Bachelor of Fine Arts majors displayed their work as a capstone project. 

While opportunities like the exhibition give students experience to take into their careers, for Harmon, it meant so much more. Seeing museum guests connect with her art validated the many hours she spent creating it and boosted her confidence, something she needed after several difficult years.

“I recently went through a divorce, an abusive living situation, experienced death and loss, experienced birth and renewal, and moved three times in six months,” said Harmon, about the years leading up to the exhibition.

Harmon grew up in Springville, Utah, and lived in Logan, before moving to Ogden with her husband to attend WSU in 2018.

“My very first semester, I took Drawing 1, and it was very scary,” said Harmon, who began creating art seriously for the first time at Weber State.

She soon overcame her nervousness and developed her own art style.

“My work is precarious and frantic at times, resisting norms while also yearning for them,” she said. “I’m working to learn how to utilize passion, fury and mad dashing, as well as technique, form and composition, to achieve my weird, creative ways of expressing myself and making my inner world outer.”

A year later, her husband joined the military. She felt lonely during his nine months of training, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to see family and friends and classes were held online. When he returned, the couple discovered they had grown apart, and, after trying to save the relationship, divorced. Losing her husband’s financial support, she moved in with housemates and experienced an abusive living situation. After relocating two more times, her pet chinchilla, Cinnamon, died.

Harmon thought she’d never have the chance to study abroad, dealing with financial struggles, school stress and a shaken self-confidence. However, along with showcasing her art in the exhibition, she received a scholarship to visit Venice for three weeks during summer 2022.

“It was 14 students and two professors, and we all lived in this little apartment we rented out,” she said. “We would go to see art basically everyday.” 

At the La Biennale di Venezia, a festival featuring artists from around the world, she saw video pieces by Eglė Budvytytė and paintings by Ficre Ghebreyeusus that reminded her of her own work.

In the past, she thought traveling overseas wouldn’t be possible for her, but the trip made her realize she could go anywhere.

“It was scary, but amazing, and I regret nothing,” she said. “The world, traveling, visiting other countries, experiencing different cultures — these all became accessible, in reality as well as in my mind.”

After she graduates in spring 2023, she is considering graduate school to continue studying art, and expressing herself.

“In the art world, especially at WSU, I feel like I’ve finally found my tribe, the people I vibe with,” she said. “I feel like I can be myself here.”

Author:

Jaime Winston, Marketing & Communications
801-626-7396, jaimewinston@weber.edu

Contact:

Bryan Magaña, public relations director
801-626-7948, bryanmagana@weber.edu