A professor’s offhand remark, “Your textbook is your security blanket,” inspired Art major Chloe Watson ’07 to hand-sew a bright red quilt made of biohazard bags stuffed with shredded biology textbooks. Watson is among five honor students displaying their artwork at the Esther Prangley Rice Gallery now through March 23.

“I let my ideas control what I work with,” Watson says of her mixed-media sculptures, which include images of Sandro Botticelli’s Venus countered by cracked eggshells and birth control pill boxes, evoking the contradiction of fertility.

Art majors Watson, Meghan Ambra ’07, Joshua Fraley ’07, Alexandra Gargon ’07 and Benjamin Kauffman ’07 will be graduating with departmental honors in May. To be eligible, students must earn a 3.5 G.P.A. in their Art courses and a 3.0 overall G.P.A.

Gargon and Ambra pursue very different approaches to abstract painting. Gargon’s drawings and paintings on manila folders and paper bags are created as a commentary on how society molds and places regulations on people, while Ambra uses color and texture to explore her surroundings. She typically works with recycled materials like scrap wood and old canvases. Even her paints are recycled – bought at a discount from an “oops” collection of colors that didn’t turn out as intended.

“I’m very thrifty and environmentally conscious, and my work reflects that,” says Ambra. “I think older materials have a history to them and a vintage feel.”

Ambra even recycled her graduate school applications, making paper airplanes out of them and stringing them from the ceiling in an installation. She has applied to schools in Scotland, Los Angeles and Boston.

Josh Fraley is also the adventurous type, exploring streets and corners with an eye toward the ironic. While visiting the Statue of Liberty, he found a plaque by her foot that orders visitors “Please do not stand on foot.”

“Where else would you stand, but on your feet,” says Fraley. His black-and-white charcoal and pencil drawings depict many such moments: a “dead end” sign in a cemetery, a “no dumping” sign just feet away from a portable toilet at a construction site.

“I’m trying to make people laugh and wonder,” Fraley says.

The observer who looks closely at Ben Kauffman’s work, bright digital poster tributes to classic rockers, will also find hidden meanings. Kauffman buries music symbolism into his posters, which feature artists such as the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Van Halen.

“I always had a thing for concert posters and color, and that’s why I went into the graphic field,” Kauffman says, as he points to his favorite work, a poster of Led Zepplin bursting with red and orange.

After graduation, Kauffman hopes to work with images in magazines or advertising.

The exhibit, “freshly picked EYEdeas,” is free and open to the public. For gallery hours and information, call (410) 857-2595.