Time Keeper

wood, fabric, poly-fill

Rrrrrruffles

Laura Nejman
Rrrrrruffles
Various Materials

My Favorite Color is Purple

Laura Nejman
My Favorite Color is Purple
Plastic and Spray Paint

Pretty Pretty Princess Patchwork Playhouse Palace

wood, fabric, plastic chandelier

For me, this piece is about childhood nostalgia.  Throughout my youth, I frequently spent time building various structures with my grandfather.  Building this piece was the first time I constructed something of this magnitude without his help.  The colorful fabrics are stretched around a wooden frame to soften the structure and make it more inviting.  My goal was to create a space that would evoke calming, carefree emotions, not unlike those of a child.  Although the space has many juvenile characteristics, it has been built on an adult scale to invite adult viewers inside.

A Series of Connections

A Series of Connections
Sean Doll and Esteban M. Pilonieta Vera
Mixed Media

29 wooden phone pole structures were spread out through the Clark Garden. Playing with the design of the grounds, a non-continuous line of twine connected all of them. The line also directed the person interacting with the garden through out the entire space.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

This sculpture began as an investigation into how sunlight interacts with clear plastic materials, specifically clear plastic forks. The forks are structured in individual tetrahedral shapes then melted together to form the shape of a dome. These pyramid structures are based on Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome Spaceship Earth at Epcot, but assembled in a chaotic way to contrast the repetitive organization of Buckminster Fuller's dome. The plastic forks surround the flowers within it to mimic the overuse of non renewable resources surrounding our every day lives. 

In Context

This piece was about the necessity of teaching aides for students with learning disabilities. The book The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss is a children's book that many students first learn to read with . To express the difficulty of learning to read with a learning disability, I removed any text that did not rhyme. I decided to leave the rhyming text intact because in my experience in working with students with learning , the rhymes are where the students direct their focus. 

The pages of the book are propped open and the extracted text and some of the more important images are coming out of the pages and are dispersed around the book. This is supposed to make the book look more interactive and easier to learn from as a learning aide would.  

Trash-tract Expressionism

Trash-tract Expressionism

Performance (on-going)

By taking pointers from Robert Rauschenberg (moment of silence...) and his art in response to the insincerity of the mark of the Abstract Expressionists, this piece was originally conceived as my own response to the new "trash art" trend and influence in contemporary art . Critiquing the post modernist conception that everything is art and we are all artists becomes apparent  when viewers pass it by as a mundane  trash can refusing to recognize it as art , and/or by unknowingly deciding to participate in this art making by throwing away their refuse and (unbeknownst to them) becoming and taking up the role as the artist. More importantly it solicits the individual viewers' own interpretation and response. When confronted with this blatant message it is up to them to interpret it. Interestingly so their interpretation becomes an outlet in which their own individual ideas in regards to art and their artistic practice (for those that are artists)  As well as the way in which they themselves view art, their subjectivity, which comes to the foreground exposing each individuals conceptions or perhaps confusions. 

“Dear President Harker, When Will We Have A Student Art Gallery?”

“Dear President Harker, When Will We Have A Student Art Gallery?”

5ft x 7ft 

metal, plastic, paint, hard wood flooring, student art

The White Cube is the new University of Delaware Undergraduate Student Art Gallery. This magnificent new space radiates with luminosity (which may just be the sun light penetrating the fragmented frosted façade and reflecting from the metal). It is the latest of its kind: Responsive Architecture!!! Two of the four walls continuously move and adapt to the surrounding conditions, while one and a quarter walls have been (sort of) built up to allow for 2-D art display. There is a vast expanse of 25 ft³ of floor space to allow for the display of freestanding sculpture(s). Keeping with the latest artistic trends this space screams “heterogeneity” and “junk-art geared to junk-bond budgets”. With all the great art being produced by the University of Delaware Fine Art and Visual Communications students it is only fair that we give them a space to showcase their work. This high quality structure not only shows how much the University cares and provides for its Art students, but also shows that it fosters “the creative solitude” by tucking it away from plain-sight.

Untitled

Untitled
Erin Dodge, Esteban M. Pilonieta Vera
2008
Wax

We all are different, but still the same. Different backgrounds, different cultures, different stories, etc. but still we all are human beings. By de-personifying many faces through repetitions and monotony, the sculptural object embodies this specific idea.
Sections of casted wax from face molds, previously made from various people, where used to create this amorphous object. Even though still a work in progress, it also is always in change, since the qualities of the wax permit it to warp easily in time.

Beep -- Circa 1989

Beep -- Circa 1989

Sheila McGinnis

2008

Fabric curtain, metal curtain rod, wooden drawers, answering machine

Using a theatrical curtain and a simple set of drawers, my goal was to showcase (but not recreate) the life of the person whom the answering machine belonged to. Taking great care to choose items that wouldn't compete with the personality of the answering machine, you are left with only the flashing light to entice you, a light informing you that there are messages. Those curious enough, bold enough, or just plain nosy enough to press "play" are rewarded with approximately 20 minutes of completely unaltered messages that were, in the opinion of the previous owner, too... something to delete. Children, grandchildren, neighbors, friends, some are funny, some sad or strange, and some completely unintelligible, but through the voices you get a sense of their relationships, their troubles, and day to day lives and how they all connect to the anonymous person who kept them all these years.

**Note: I will be recording the tape on to iTunes to make it available to anyone interested in listening to it in its entirety. I'll also be making a transcript of the messages. Under no circumstances are they to be used for any reason, except for your own listening/reading pleasure, without my explicit permission.

Anyone interested in the recording or the transcript can e-mail me at sheilam@udel.edu. Please make the subject "Answering Machine" to avoid accidental deletion.

Home – You’re In the Threads

Home -- You're In the Threads

Sheila McGinnis

2008

Metal hoop, wooden stool, black and white spray paint, embroidery thread

approx. 5' 4" tall, 5' diameter

My house started as a simple way of encompassing the space beneath the tree, staking a claim on a space individual to me. What made it a home was the process. Diligently tying the strings, watching my hands do the work, I felt peace. The continuous tying allowed my mind to confront the loss of my Uncle and my Pa. Every thread, a thought or memory, they are my family, and within them I can sit on a chair in front of a branch desk and feel at home.

Idea efimera de anticonstitucion artistica

In this sculpture I wanted to represent a justification of rebellion against the idea of what is art. Why I can't present my personal and most intimate idea, but only those things outside of me. I can't be anyone else, but myself and people can relate to that. I want to feel liberated on my creation of art. FREE ART!!!!

La identidad

This sculpture has a lot of meaning for me and the spectator who watches the piece. is a question of your true identity in society, knowing what is trying to stopping you, are you willing to go back to that? With this in question I try every possible thing not to go back to the traditionalist way of thinking with a string barrier and a shield instructed to me by my ancestors. In a sense, I use everything they thought me and new reason to overcome this obstacle.

Ostrich

Flowers

These steel flowers are organic shapes that move the way flowers move in nature.  

Mermaid

Sasha Coblenz

Mermaid

Aluminum, sand, glass

2008

This mermaid proved to be a challenge in the sense that making the foam mold was very trying. I learned so much about mold making and different types if foam bodies that it was well worth the investigation that took place surrounding this piece.  I am pleased with the end result as the cast mermaid appears to be sunken at the bottom of the sea and then perhaps placed in a museum case. 

Adam and Eve

Eve and Adam 

Sasha Coblenz

ceramics, mixed media

2008

     This work is symbolic of adam and eve's sensory awakening within the garden of eden. The quote on the crate is taken from Paradise Lost, by John Milton.  Our becoming aware has lead to our ultimate downfall and this work is meant to convey that. The fruit each have a representation of the five senses attached to them and the skin area are covered in brush-able latex to give them a feeling of actual skin. They are painted in acrylic. 

Group project 

Title: Bubble

Medium: Plastic

Date: 2008

Evolucion Organica

Title: Evolucion Organica
Medium: Mild Iron and wood
Size: 8' x 4'
Artist: Jose Ruiz Ahorrio