With Troy University’s commencement ceremonies on Friday, the 14 graduating seniors of the art and graphic design program are using one last chance to show off their talents as student-artists.

The Senior Thesis Exhibition, which showcases final projects of students of the Troy Department of Art and Design, has been on display this week in Malone Gallery on campus.

Each of the seniors has been assembling their individual projects throughout the semester as part of their Senior Thesis class where they were instructed to create artwork based on a topic they selected.

Though each student had a midterm review and weekly advisor meetings, they were given almost total creative freedom for their works.

“I’m extremely impressed with how complex the works were this year,” Pam Allen, head of Troy’s art department, said. “I felt that it was one of our top shows and if you go and see it I think you’ll agree.”

Each of the projects, which students were responsible for from planning to gallery setup, reflects a different artistic medium and topic.

Edward Fieder, a graduating senior majoring in Design, Technology and Industry with a contract in Photography, used his entry in the exhibition, titled “Living with Diabetes,” to show some of his life through photography.

“I wanted to reflect my own experiences, fears and how I interpret things living with diabetes,” Fieder said. “I was very happy with how the work turned out and I think it’s some of the best I’ve done. We all put a lot of time into the work we did.”

As part of the required class, students had to stand in front of faculty and advisors to defend their work through a question and answer session where the observers asked about how and why they made their project a certain way.

“The class is very important for us,” Fieder said. “It shows what we, as artists, are going to have to deal with one day. We’re going to have to work to prepare a product and this teaches us to work with deadlines and serves as an important step.”

The exhibition will be open to the public for viewing until the end of the first graduation ceremony on Friday.

For those who wish to meet the artists, there will be a reception on Thursday at 6 p.m. in the gallery where people can ask questions about the exhibits.

“I think people can learn from the exhibit,” Fieder said. “We’ve got a legitimate arts show on campus that you don’t even have to pay to see and it shows what students can do.”