Laura Cavanagh: Perchance to Dream features two bodies of work; one consisting of imagined, collaged portraits of women who never existed. This collection of works is influenced heavily by portraiture from the Renaissance Era. The other collection consists of simple, imagined interior and exterior spaces inspired by the mid-20th century and personal memories.

Looking at these bodies of work, one might think they were created by the hands of two different artists, since, visually, they appear so strikingly dissimilar. However, Cavanagh has always been a curious person. As such, she has never stuck to just one "type" of artwork or worked in only one medium. She is constantly seeking out new materials to work with as well as ways to incorporate them. Cavanagh began her portrait series over a decade ago, when, at the time, they were merely pen and ink drawings. Those evolved into more elaborate drawings, which then progressed into even more intricate and ornate scenes incorporating fiber and paper elements.

Want to know a secret? Here it is: Applied Art—animation, design, digital photography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, mixed media, painting, printmaking, sculpture, watercolor—has always been a hub of authentic, human-driven creativity on the UM- Dearborn campus. The Stamelos Gallery Center is proud to present Best Kept Secret: UMD Student, Faculty, and Alumni Art Show, showcasing the incredible talents of our university's arts community and the marriage of talent, vision, skill, and persistence that lies at the foundation of artmaking. The works encompass a variety of media from traditional to digital and embody the unique and diverse perspectives of the campus community.

Applied Art is one of the smallest programs on our campus, but its students are majors in a variety of fields, including Art History, Biology, Business, Communications, Education, Engineering, Journalism, Media Production, and Psychology.... to name just a few. In the Art Studio and Digital Arts Lab, students from all disciplines gather to make art, to train their eyes and their hands to be sharper and more dexterous than before, to let the left and right brains make their own connections, and to critique their works together. They seek out Applied Art courses to train their intellects to be observant and flexible, to express their own ideas and perspectives, and to assert their humanity in a process of slow and practical honing of skills that runs counter to the prevailing social and economic imperatives of speed, ease, and automation. At the same time, the practice of art depends on the evolution of science and technology. Art and science mirror each other in hypothesizing new ideas, in empirical methods of trial and error, and in breaking boundaries of what was and is, to open the doors to what could or could never be.