“All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.” Antoine de Saint- Exupéry, “The Little Prince.”

Kaitlin Leadbitter, a senior art major and digital design minor at Waynesburg University, is wrapping up her final semester with her senior art exhibit in the Benedum Fine Art Gallery.

Friday, April 4, is the final day of Leadbitter’s exhibit with one more to follow before the end of the spring semester. “Je Suis” is the title of the exhibit, and showcases a story of childhood memories, self-doubt and self-discovery.

“I ended up with the title ‘Je Suis’ because it just means ‘I am’ and it’s kind of like the whole exhibit is kind of this rediscovering and growing into who I am,” Leadbitter said.

Leadbitter, for her at the gallery took inspiration from the 1943 book “The Little Prince” by

de Saint-Exupéry, her faith and memories of her grandparents’ farm.

“The book is really adamant on seeing things from the perspective of a child,” Leadbitter said. “It’s kind of like maintaining that childlike wonder and imagination that I really wanted to like, kind of tap into and reignite in myself.”

Leadbitter was exposed to “The Little Prince” back in high school during French class.

“There’s a couple of things that my pieces are based on, and it was a story that was just like it was really impactful for me,” Leadbitter said.

Growing up on a farm about “40 minutes away from campus,” she spent many hours of her childhood helping her family on the farm, and especially with the sheep.

“As long as I can remember, we would help them birth the lambs, we would go feed the sheep and help move them from different past pens and everything. We would bale hay every summer, so that’s most of that and just growing up on the farm, and so it connected to family,” Leadbitter said.

Leadbitter grew up Catholic and uses her faith in multiple different pieces of art that were on display.

“From kindergarten through 12th grade, I went to Catholic school, and going through all of that, there’s a lot of heavy symbolism with, like Lamb of God, feed my sheep and the Lost Sheep parable,” Leadbitter said.

Ledbetter made reference to Luke 15:6, with the passage stating,  “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost,” is one of the verses.

When she first stepped onto campus as a freshman, Leadbitter wasn’t an art major and was undecided.

“I ended up in an art class with Lisa Rasmussen in my first semester and as soon as I got there, I was like ‘I have to do art,’” Leadbitter said.

From there, Rasmussen became her advisor and helped suggest to Leadbitter to pick up a minor as well.

“So, I ended up with an art major and then she [Rasmussen] suggested to go into digital design as my minor because she’s an artist and does a lot of freelance and everything and told me I need to know all these digital skills, especially in like today’s day and age,” Leadbitter said.

Rasmussen, a full-time assistant professor working in the Department of Communication and in the Department of Fine Arts, has had Leadbitter in at least one class per semester and has seen the development of Leadbitter’s art.

“Kaitlin has grown so much in the last four years! She is very creative, and she has really created some meaningful work in these last few years,” Rasmussen wrote.

Leadbitter also mentioned how much she values her relationship with Rasmussen.

“She has been like my biggest supporter throughout college. She’s taught me, like pretty

much everything I know now,” Leadbitter said.

With a month remaining in Leadbitter’s tenure at Waynesburg University, Rasmussen wishes good luck to one of her students.

“It has been a joy to work with Kaitlin over the last four years. It has been so rewarding to work such a talented student. I wish Kaitlin only the best in her future,” Rasmussen wrote.

As mentioned earlier, there will be one more Art Exhibition from April 14 – 25. Then in the Fall, there will be three exhibits. In September, from September 8 – Oct. 3, 3 Rivers Botanical and Nature Artists will be exhibiting. From Oct. 13 – Nov. 14, senior art minor Alex Solomon will have his Senior Exhibit. Lastly, a student exhibit will be from Nov. 24 – Dec. 5.

“It’s really fulfilling to see all your work together in a room and have people look at it,”

Leadbitter said.