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Have you ever wondered about that building nearby with the gigantic nail sticking out of it? Well, this Friday, the nail building, officially known as the sculpting studio, will open its doors for the first-ever sculpture open house.
The exhibition, motivated by the close community of 15 sculpting students with high-quality work, will be open to the public Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The students, ranging from sophomores to seniors, include Ashley Alexander, Laura Giorgio, Stephanie Hare, Peter Hedstrom, Sylvia Herbold, Birch Hincks, Kevin Jewett, Laura Mackey, Kevin MaClellan, Elizabeth Maloney-Hawkins, Ashley Martin, Alicia Mullins, Randy Rackley, Skylar Richardson, and Steven Schlipstein. They will present pieces constructed from a variety of materials including plaster, steel and wood. Recently the sculpting facility acquired glass-casting capabilities that have replaced, in many projects, the traditional bronze and aluminum forms.
The open house will feature approximately 60 pieces, all class projects diligently completed by each student during the semester.
For one project, the students studied contemporary sculptors Isamu Naguchi, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, and they created plaster interpretations of their work. From there, students used their plasters to produce a wax creation then made into glass form. In a second project, the students constructed wooden boxes known as “memory boxes.” Another project involved students researching an artist of any medium and producing a metal interpretation of his or her work.
One particular student, according to Greg Ondo, adjunct sculpting instructor here at the University, researched a dancer as an unorthodox inspiration for his metallic sculpture.
Two graduate students, Tyler McPhee and Renaud Patard, will also be hosting several specimens at the open house. Unlike the other students, however, McPhee and Patard will be presenting sculptures developed from their own independent graduate studies, apart from the previously mentioned students’ projects.
Patard, a student recruited from the National School of Art in Paris, has exhibited sculptures in galleries on an international level and believes in the importance of sculpting in contemporary society. For him, it increasingly becomes “very important to make 3-dimensional projects” in a world dominated by the digital and immaterial. He said that it helps to “control your body and your work,” and “understand physical boundaries and limitations.”
Ondo, excited about the prospect of the open house that may continue in future semesters, hopes that the event will increase the connection between the art department and the remaining student body and faculty. For him, the open house provides a means for students to “see the environment where art is made and learn how they can potentially get involved.” Most importantly, it portrays “art as a communal form that can bring people from different backgrounds together,” to gain “a new viewpoint of the world.”
Bangor Daily News