The white walls of the Dreitzer Art Gallery are covered with the works of Brandeis' senior studio art students in an exhibit challenging conventions and perceptions of color in art and daily life. Fluctuating from real to surreal and even unreal, the use of color in these works is both innovative and effective.One such work is "Dawn," an oil painting by Samantha Laub '06. This beautiful masterpiece contrasts the cool hue and high intensity of a dawn viewed through a window, with the dark, drab feeling of a house setting. The light from outdoors enters the house only by filling the bathtub and reflecting onto the curtains and the tub's metal adornments.

Compositionally, a woman dressed in black who, appearing on the viewer's right-hand side, helps create unity while maintaining emphasis and attention on the central subject. Her skin and belt are washes of warm, ruddy colors that contrast perfectly against the green of the grass and shrubbery in the view beyond the window. The bathtub's interior is lively and filled with bright blue hues, whereas the outside is dark and blends with the blackness of the house. In effect, the light-reflecting dark curtains and acutely bright metal bathtub handles create an intensely realistic and macabre tone that juxtaposes with the blurry, surreal lan of the dawn.

Rachel Hoppenstein's '06 "Blueberry Picker" is an oil painting notable for its exceptional use of color and proportion which draws from the viewer a specific human understanding. The subject has gray hair with tones of black and blue-reflective of his blueberry-picking purpose. His clothing and body are made of fair, exquisite blends of warm and cool colors, and though there exists a perfectly created shadow and highlight in the cloth, the lime and the sleeves' grass-green colors make it clear this painting is not attempting photographic realism. The sleeves, however, contrast in hue with the blueberries of the immediate foreground and the dull intensity of the background. These tasteful and attractive deviations make this piece both realistic and inventive.

Proportion and variety play large roles in creating the humanity and feeling present in this painting. Combining the fact that the berry-picker takes up two-thirds of the painting with the presence of background figures gives the subject personality and personal character.

Another fascinating work of genuine artistry is "Thunderstorm," an oil painting on canvas by Jenna Weiss '07. Although the composition seems simple, the positioning of the horizon in the bottom quarter of the canvas throws the viewer a perceptive curveball. It takes a second to figure out exactly which elements in the painting correspond with the real-world phenomenon, but once the viewer understands what he or she is seeing, the contrast of the dark sky and dark green grass next to the bright blue water can be truly beautiful. Within the clouds themselves, definition and movement are achieved through line variation. Separating the clouds are sometimes lines, sometimes color changes and sometimes other visual means. "Thunderstorm" is a beauty to look at both up close and from far away; its aesthetic nature is drawn from the creative use of the medium as well as its use of color. Although we think of clouds as white or gray if stormy, Weiss uses a spectrum that goes from dark black to absolute white, all within the same cloud body. The piece is full of movement as well; shapes flow easily into one another, as well as the attention of the viewer from different areas on the canvas. "Thunderstorm" reminds us to question how we see the world and that we often know less than we think.

Ryan's Pressman's '06 "Is There Room for One More?" is a masterpiece in many ways: It is a riddle of perspective and visual perception, as well as a study in space and composition. Since the majority of the canvas is filled by either near-white or cool colors, a few elements stand out, such as a yellow light in the toilet water, a Motrin bottle in the medicine cabinet, a pink toothbrush, the subject's skin, the red on the Colgate toothpaste tube and a squirt of toothpaste emerging from the tube. The visual trick is suggested by the title; though it initially seems to refer to the subject entering the shower, it actually identifies another woman in the bathroom. Two clues are the differing towel colors as well as the position of the women's hands and towels in relation to their bodies. Finally, in a perspective blueprint, like that used in a study of "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez, the viewer notices that the woman standing in front of the toilet could not possibly appear in the mirror from that position. This horizontal work of art, combined with the use of color and the cleverness of its purpose, is effective and artistic.

Jon Bobby Benjamin's '06 untitled work is a horizontal oil on canvas that uses phenomenal color to further his proliferation of morbid pieces. It takes place, clearly, on a cold winter's night, as demonstrated by the white snow, which juxtaposes perfectly with the black sky and the bright streetlights. A cartoonish man, eerily lacking eyes, looks away from his canvas to stare at an equally creepy dead horse whose ribs are exposed. Pieces of valuable paper fly away as the subject apathetically looks on. The colors in the painting stir up feelings of warmth and frigidity, which makes the viewer both uncomfortable and conflicted. Other visually effective parts are the reflections of light in the puddles of melted snow (again, mixing heat with cold) and the white tree trunks stuck in the background. The entire work's unsettling sense of isolation and fatality comes together with the novel approach to color mixing and juxtaposition, as well a morbidly intense realism.