Further information about all the Graduates are available on the School of Fine Art web page.

Ericka Kinnear

Rather than the son following in the mother or father's footsteps, in an unusual twist Ericka has followed in her son's footsteps. Ericka's son Andrew Kinnear graduated from Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2002 and is now working for Pangolin Foundry in Stroud, Gloucster making casts for artists, including Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin. Ericka began her time as a student here in 2003.

Ericka's paintings focus on her allotment shed. The portraits of the shed, which she sees in some way as also a portrait of herself, are placed in unexpected backdrops, of Scottish mountainous landscapes in Sutherland, crops in farm fields and empty barren places. The colours are combined in a surreal way, for instance in one painting the shed is painted in olive greens and dark shades, much like a shed you would see in winter, set against a bright pale blue sky. This adds to the slight uneasiness you feel when looking at the paintings. The sheds become something other than just a shed and take on a more ghostly surreal feel to them.

Ericka won the Royal Scottish Academy's Scottish Further Education Award this year, and hopes to continue her studies in Dundee by applying to the Masters of Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, starting in September this year.

Contact details: erickasart@yahoo.co.uk

Gyl Rae

Gyl returned to the Fine Art department in Duncan of Jordanstone, after an eight-year break. Originally starting the course when she was 17, she left at the end of third year for various reasons. In those eight years, she has been the manager of Jute bar café in DCA, worked in several restaurants in Glasgow and was a Personal Trainer/Fitness Instructor based in Brighton. After doing all of these things it was then that she realised that Art was what she really wanted to be doing.

Her work for the Degree Show will be an arrangement of at least 100 pieces of wooden geometric shapes, all of the shapes are painted, with white, red, yellow and blue being the only colours used. This work is inspired by architecture she has seen on her travels to Berlin, and influenced by Modernism, Minimalism, and Constructivism, all art movements in the 1900's. The essential ideas in her work are that the shapes have exact clean lines and she uses the primary colours so as not to have any personal choice or emotion involved in the work, these same conditions are characteristic of the Minimalist movement. The shapes will be arranged as a reaction to the space being placed in relation to the space and to each other.

Gyl will be jetting off to Venice to be a Senior Invigilator in the Venice Biennial in the June this year until September. Upon her return she plans to join the GENERATORprojects committee, who are an artist led gallery based in Dundee, and afterwards hopes to continue her studies with a Masters of Fine Art in Berlin.

Contact details: gyl_rae@yahoo.co.uk

Charlotte Hannett

21-year-old Charlotte has moved from Islay to Dundee to study, but immediately felt at home. "I liked the city straight away," she says. "The people were friendly and it was small enough that I didn’t feel lost."

The work that Charlotte produces reflects the time she has spent growing up in Islay and her emotional journey in Dundee as she grows. She plays with the idea that history is continuous and forever being built upon instead of something that is completely in the past.

Her installation features a derelict house on the beach in Islay which hasn’t been decorated since the 1960’s.

Harriet Warman

Harriet Warman, 21, is from Newcastle. Her work looks at her past and how people become a living embodiment of their possessions. She found that, as she moved home several times, she became attached to only a few possessions and those would follow her wherever she went. It was these possessions that helped describe exactly who she was and is.

Her displays include a blanket which has envelopes address to Harriet sewn upon it. The envelopes are from different parts of her life and make an interesting timeline as the addresses change and the handwriting alters from that of a small child to adult.

She also has a sculptural piece of a replica of a section of wall where children visiting her home used to mark their height. The home now belongs to somebody else, but the section of wall remains with Harriet.

Vicki Todd

Vicki Todd is a mature student who came to the Art School after spending years working for Fife Council. She says, "I took a huge gamble coming to Art School and it was terrifying at the time, but I’ve loved it and I’m glad I did it. I could never go back to working for a council now."

Vicki’s work looks at the world around us and aims to remind us how astonishing Mother Nature is. Her work features close ups of flowers and plants as well as stunning representation of local beauty spots that remind Vicki of her time spent growing up in Dundee.

Elizabeth Hinley

Elizabeth Hinley, 30, is originally from Dundee, but has travelled extensively and came to Duncan of Jordanstone as a mature student.

She wanted to use her work to challenge stereotypes and prove that we can’t judge a person by initial perceptions, so she decided to ask strangers to write three words to describe themselves and the ensuing photographs form the backbone of her work.

She also approached muslim women and asked them their favourite TV programme, talked to youths in hoodies to see who they respected and discovered what makes men - and women - with tattoos cry.

"The project started because my fiancé has tattoos down his arms and often has his hair in a Mohican. Because I look quite traditional, people find me easier to approach then him."

"One day I asked him what made him cry. He told me that when he started his new job, working off shore, he had to give his cats away. People would never think, to look at him, that he would own a cat, much less care if they had to be given away."

Elizabeth’s work will be displayed at the degree show as four huge prints of people she has photographed with the words they used to describe themselves. She will also project pictures on to a space and has created hand made books with no text other than the words of the people she pictures.

If you think you had your photo taken by Elizabeth, email her on e.hinley@dundee.ac.uk or on 07940 838757.

Lynnmarie Szpak

A large photographic image of the smoke clouds that filled the air as the Ardler multi-story flats, where Lynnmarie Szpak grew up, were demolished dominates her exhibit. An unusual shape, the image is framed in a shape that mimics the floor plan of Lynnemarie’s old home.

The images are stills from a movie of the multis coming down. Lynnmarie has reversed the film so that it begins with a pile of rubble and sees the flats being reconstructed to their former structure on screen.

For Lynnmarie this represents looking back to where she came from. "Rich people have something to hand down to their children. Working class people seem to be just moved from place to place and have nothing to hand down. When the multis were taken down it was a whole community that was being demolished, not just a building." Lynnmarie says she loved the multis as a kid, but they became more threatening as she got older. A concrete window represents what she saw when she looked out the window of her home in the multis.

After leaving school, Lynnmarie worked as a cleaner for 10 years and then at the Bingo for 11 years before enrolling in a six week night-class course in art, which stimulated her passion. She said growing up she always used to think "there must be something I’m good at" but she never seemed to have any talent - until she discovered art. After the six-week course she enrolled in a College course, got her HND and found she did really well. She took a chance and applied to Duncan of Jordanstone. She was enrolled straight into second year and has been extremely successful, being nominated twice as a winning finalist in the Mercury Prize.

She says that not only has the course at DoJ helped her to find her outlet, but it has also introduced her to different people from different cultures, which she had never had an opportunity to experience before. "You become what you are where you live" she says.

Her other passion is philosophy, which she reads in her spare time. Her interest in philosophy is also reflected in her art, which explores where she came from and where she is today. Lynnmarie has an 18 year old son who is also studying art and design. As well as looking back to where she came from, Lynnmarie’s exhibit also includes art of her present. "Priceless" - consists of a series of sculptures of her Northern Soul collection, which she says is "a bit of my home today".

Lynnmarie has twice been selected as a winning finalist in the Nationwide Mercury Prize Art Competition, the UK’s premier student art competition and exhibition, which has resulted in her work being exhibited in Covent Garden in London.

She was also awarded a scholarship which enabled her to travel to Amsterdam to study. Her degree show exhibit has been sponsored by Panasonic and Groucho’s. www.myspace.com/lynnmarieszpak

The School of Fine Art

Fine Art students at Dundee enjoy working in a multi-disciplinary environment that includes painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video, computer-based imaging, installation and performance. Students are able to specialise or to work across disciplines, developing their practice with the support of tutors and in continuous contact with others pursuing their own pathways. The School's ethos of independent creative thinking linked to high standards of production equips our graduates for successful careers as exhibiting artists and in the wider visual economy where so many contemporary opportunities lie.

Head of School: Tracy Mackenna.