CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - With her creations displayed publicly for the first time, Wilson College freshman Sherri Peters stood in the small gallery Wednesday and admitted she had just that day decided to switch her major to art.
"It's always been my passion, but I don't know if I had the confidence," Peters said.
Often at 3 a.m., with her 4-year-old asleep and studying pushed aside, Peters experimented with sketching and collages, finding that art required a certain vulnerability. The new major, Peters knows, will continue to explore that, but the decision is liberating.
"I'd rather have rejection than regrets," she said.
Peters said her professor, Philip Lindsey, has taught her to not tear up work if dissatisfied, but rather to continue to modify it. Upstairs, Lindsey was demonstrating that practice during the seventh annual Wilson College Arts Day.
As people moved through his studio, Lindsey lamented that he couldn't perfect the background in an untitled portrait of his wife as St. Zita, the patron saint of Lucca, Italy. Lindsey had replaced the scene behind Zita several times, and on Tuesday attempted to paint a drape there.
