This school year D-E has hosted several exhibits at Swartley Art Center displaying works in photography, oil, and other media by both alumni and visiting artists. 

In introducing this year’s Swartley Series to students, teachers, and staff, Visual Arts Chair Marisol Diaz explained, “Keeping with our mission as a school, our goal in the D-E Visual Arts Department is to focus both on the ‘process’ as well as the ‘products’ of any artistic endeavors, so we are so thrilled to have these visiting artists not only share their beautiful work with us, but also value when they spend time with our students in leading related hands-on workshops, ‘lunch and learn’ sessions, and artist talks.” 

To kick off this year’s Swartley Series, an exhibit by Sona Viola entitled “Modern Day Vintage: Photographic Fusion of Yesterday’s Techniques, Today’s Technology” dramatically showcased an assortment of pieces from multiple series of works over the course of eight years. Each piece represented a combination of the analog and digital world that explores the usage of different mediums in order to create a stronger message of the pieces in their entirety. Sona Viola’s love of photography and its impact began in early childhood. Creating stories and worlds behind each image taught her to expand her imagination, connect with an image, and eventually begin to create her own. She studied photography and business in school, but is mostly self-taught. She began her career working in the corporate world but after many years she left to pursue her dream of being a photographer, eventually starting a professional photography firm specializing in portrait and commercial photography. After building a successful business, Viola expanded into exhibiting her artwork throughout the New York / New Jersey area. She curated her first exhibit this year and has been recently named Gallery Director at Volition Gallery in Orangeburg, NY.

Currently in her third year at Cornell University and expecting a BFA in 2020, alumna artist Lucy Plowe ’16 is a painter and printmaker. Her Swartley exhibit, entitled “The New Sacred,” included this statement: 

“My work explores emotion and the otherworldly through intimate figurative expression, gestural mark-making, and natural motifs. My interests include visionary art mythology, religion, and cross-cultural iconography.”