Smith exhibits art at PRCC''s Moody Hall

POPLARVILLE – Sophomore art student Kelly Smith work is on display at Pearl River Community College through Wednesday, April 18.Approximately 30 pieces are on display in the first floor gallery of Moody Hall on the Poplarville campus.Smith will graduate with an associate degree in May. Her exhibit is the first exit show hung by the PRCC art department.Now that we have the space, students who are graduating have a chance to put a show up and exhibit their work, said art instructor Charleen Null.Smith started painting less than two years ago when she transferred to the Poplarville campus after a semester at PRCC Hancock Center.I didnt think I had the talent, but I started painting and one day it just clicked, she said. I just fell in love with art and the art started selling. I decided to follow my passion.Two of the pieces on display were commissioned by the PRCC math department – one is a painting of a seashell, symbolic of the shell method in integral calculus; the other is an abstract piece. Smith says she has no favorite in the show.I love them all, she said.Smith, who lives in Ocean Springs, recently won an award for her use of color in a painting of an Indian. She will transfer to William Carey University to work on a bachelor degree and hopes to teach art.