Sculpture

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/180175

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Open Access
Abigail Galvin: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Galvin, Abigail, artist
The artist's statement: Through documentation or metaphor, I seek to understand how both our sense of agency and our sense of restriction are deeply tied to an awareness of our own bodies. The result of this process is two interrelated series of work. On one hand, I use abject elements of the body to analyze issues of identity and control. On the other hand, motion and interaction explore an ecstatic sense of freedom and connection. In all of the work, the human body is focused on as an interface where these conflicting senses merge and create tension.
Open Access
Amy Fromme: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Fromme, Amy, artist
The artist's statement: My artistic practice fuses my roles as both an observer and a translator, providing an opportunity for a conversation between what can be studied and how to best use materials to imitate, alter, and reconceptualize the observable world. I am constantly absorbing facets of the world around me, be it by reflection of body language, inquisition of the diverse qualities of the natural world, or delving into the meditative attributes that musical synesthesia can endow. Intentional observation is the root of my motive to create. My production begins by transforming observational interpretations into an inventory of ideas. My creative index is then further refined through my relationship with music. I often experience synesthesia, which allows a space for auditory stimuli to work in collaboration with visual imaginations. This phenomena motivates me to translate my sensory experiences into sculptural artwork. Once I have honed a concept, I assign materials that will honor my idea. To represent a gestural theme, I may select a steel rod as an armature. While a steel rod may appear rigid, the slightest bend creates a possibility for an individualized expression. Each material decision plays a role in the final product of my work, bridging the gap between ideation and formation.
Open Access
Calliandra Bevers: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Bevers, Calliandra, artist
The artist's statement: The planning of a sculpture begins in my sketchbook which is often filled with a few drawings and then an overwhelming amount of words. It's a place where I have conversations with myself, writing down feelings and questioning my decision-making process. There are pages of poetry and reminders of who I want to be. Intentionality is something I continuously keep in mind, aiming to create works that represent and provide recognition of this current version of myself. The idea of words influenced me to collect community narratives to explore the shared conversations amongst us. Through various forms of communication, such as written, verbal, anonymous, or face to face, I encourage the public to respond to questions through introspection. These prompts strive to surpass the usual "How are you?," that is often followed by an automatic, not-fully considered "Good," to uncover deeper connections. Once the questions were asked, I didn't know what to expect. To my surprise, the quantity of participation was abundant. This shock was quickly followed by the quality of the feedback, which was thoughtful, respectful, and more often than not, noted intimate life details. This collaboration with the public was insightful as many replies overlapped, revealing muted conversations that thread us together. Expanding my knowledge of materials and tools is important in my artistic practice. Sewing has been a medium in which I’m investigating the boundaries of what materials can withstand being stitched. The methods of sewing that I have experimented with, whether that be by hand or use of the sewing, embroidery, or quilting machine, all demand my attention. I gravitate towards materials that have already had a life. My work is a product of my environment in which I benefit from the people, places, and things around me.
Open Access
Chelsea Gilmore: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Gilmore, Chelsea, artist
The artist's statement: Inspired by plant microbiology, these sculptures depict various organic and biomorphic forms taken from a microscopic perspective and translated as a macrocosm in physical space. This collection of work is an embodiment of transformation. There is a sense of decay and entropy while at the same time growth, aggregation, and accumulation. The dynamic existence of both chaos and order in nature allows sculptural material to transform in the same manner. The work takes on an anthropomorphic quality with a life of its own. I am attracted to the potential of the many. My practice is informed by material itself and its texture when repeated and multiplied. In nature, as well as machines, systems consist of a very specific configuration of repetition and multiples. By changing the pre-existing system and order of the objects I acquire, I create a new rhythm based on a reconfigured repetition. My process is methodical and based on detailed handcrafting, research of biological and mechanical systems, and transforming objects with a playful, ordered, and formal approach. I focus on creating forms that have an internal skeleton and a skin where the base and structure are paramount. When seeking out supplies, I look for commonly used objects that exist in mass quantities that have already served a utilitarian purpose. I give a new life into the materials by recontextualizing their form and disassembling them down from their core properties and purpose.
Open Access
Cicelia Ross-Gotta: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Ross-Gotta, Cicelia, artist
The artist's statement: Performance art creates an immersive experience for the viewer from which they cannot disengage. It places the viewers back in their body as active witnesses or participants in an experience that is unfolding around all of us. In my performances, objects are altered through intentionally unrehearsed action, allowing for a blurring of the distinction between performer and audience. My interest in creating a sense of shared experience stems from my parents' occupations. As Presbyterian chaplains, they were adept at establishing connectivity within their congregation in impromptu and unconventional places. However, while they were focused on communing about god and Christianity, my interests are secular, and focus on themes of gender, identity, the body, skin, and spirituality. These themes are explored through layers of video, sound, physical action, object, installation, and interactivity in a single work. The materials vary from steel to wood, fibers to found object, dirt to paint and performance to video projection. Integral to my process, this accrual of layers creates depth, texture, skin, and ephemerality. The triad of object, action and artifact act as an additional layer and guiding framework for my performances. Object is simply the initial thing that I make. Action is how the performance alters the object and creates new meaning. Artifact is the object transformed, what remains after the fact, pregnant with history, displayed in conjunction with video documentation of the performance. The shared experience of the object transformed engenders another transformation: from a space that is simply co-inhabited by the audience, to a space that is held by a moment of community.
Open Access
Courtney Diedrich: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Diedrich, Courtney, artist
Open Access
Devan Kallas: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Kallas, Devan, artist
The artist's statement: My works are tied together by the line of intimacies and are deducted by the space of neglect. They take various forms and range in topic but all stem from a sense of self and emphasize importance of the temporary. I am motivated by the boundaries of a contemporary self, pushing and poking at the limits of comfort, if it's not made with an uncertainty it is not made at all. Most recently my art has seeded from a politically charged idea and manifested itself with a poetic movement. Each piece has a specific motivation and intent; I believe each is made with purpose not just simple aesthetic appeal.
Open Access
Dominic Cutilletta: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Cutilletta, Dominic, artist
The artist's statement: Making things has always been my way of expressing myself, with a physical manifestation, or tangible objects being the result of my understanding and interactions with the world. I am making work that puts me into my own world in which I can do anything I want, and essentially draw in metal in a way that will hold up over time within a 3D space. I think the confrontation sculpture creates with the viewer, often interacting directly with each other is a very powerful and relevant aspect of sculpture that’s helped my body of work land where it is. I’m constantly focused on my emotions resulting from the situations we find ourselves in as humans who form relationships with one another and things around us that can’t be seen, but experienced. The relationships and connections I've formed with the beings and things I've experienced throughout my life is a driving force in preserving memories through sculpture. I've chosen to represent this through metalwork and welding specifically to satisfy my appetite for irony in that it’s one of the processes holding, or connecting much of the world around us together. I want to accentuate and display a material of which I love with formal concepts reminiscent of a creepy whimsical fuzzy dreamscape memory.
Open Access
Duncan Parks: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Parks, Duncan, artist
The artist's statement: My work addresses ideas and themes of analysis, the way we inhabit space and interact with domestic objects, the distortion and growth of forms, automation of process, and the use of craft processes in contemporary art. In the fall semester of 2012 I started working with the idea of deconstruction. This approach now underlies the majority of my practice. I was working with the image of a potted house-plant because it represents a dull vernacular facet of a domestic environment. A banal starting point proved important to exploring the way complexity develops as something is taken apart. Converting the domestic object to hand built polyhedra dislodged its immediately recognizable state. While the new object was considerably less complex than a houseplant it presented the information of form and composition that would normally be overlooked. I am fascinated by the way form and concept breakdown. The process of analysis produces a simplified version of the original idea, while simultaneously providing a more abstract and complex understanding. My work seeks to address this idea of reduced complex ideas of processes down to tangible objects and collections. This also mirrors the role of consciousness; consciousness - being aware - is a matter of simplification; to be aware is to be aware of something; this something is always a reduced version of what is really perceived by the direct senses. Systems also play a large role in my work. My process requires some kind of process in place to move forward. I invent varying levels of rather trivial systems to explain each aspect of my work and studio practice. In this way the works have a conceptual space they reside in. It provides a point of reference for analysis how the work functions. The use of systems also directly relate to the way I look at growth, decay and distortion of forms. Each piece starts with a simple set of rules to guide a number of processes. In some cases these rules relate to material concerns or technical processes. In other cases they restrict the way a concept can be used to guide decisions. These processes are repeated to expand the work and altered to accommodate the way the project develops. The use of systems to explore growth and decay relates to my interested Matt Shlian folded paper work. In a formal and technical sense it relates to work I have made in paper. Conceptually his approach interested me in how it addresses systems and repetition. He creates work because he is not sure what the result will be. It's a necessity to explore a process to experience the unknown result. It also ties into the idea of generative art. By using a simple set of rules and a large scale of iteration. In the piece Permutations I used an orthogonal grid and four rules to direct the form of drawings. By using the set of rules each drawing progressed or stopped. To explore all the possible permutations each drawing was traced after each mark was added. This allowed the drawing to systematically expand into all the possible forms the grid allowed. My interest in the use of craft processes really addresses how the hand of the artist is present in my work. Work made through means of digital fabrication and automation should be considered a collaboration between a person and a machine. Each must bring different attributes to the work for successful work. This is the point where digital fabrication becomes fascinating because it results in work that neither an artisan nor a machine would be capable independently. Craft also applies to the skill and precision to work in meticulous detail. This relates to way I look to Marco Maggi's work. He approaches each piece with an extreme sense of control and the ability to dictate each mark on the piece. He also use materials that are not that are not traditionally considered fine art mediums. I am extremely interested in the way process can transform material. That's not to say I am not interested in transformation of form, concept or idea. I don't know why. It's the ability to transform the blank into the object, or the drawing; this process that occurs between a work being a collection of raw media and a support to the creation of a work. It also relates to the idea of imbuing an item with value and personality through handling or manipulation I am interested in the meaning and form of domestic objects and the narrative they create. Domestic objects also express this idea of transforming something ordinary into an object of value through handling. Building a narrative of objects also provides a challenge because it is telling a story but removes all the typical signifiers of storytelling. It forces the viewer to better consider the way the objects express meaning and interact. The way we occupy space is fascinating. By existing we create form. To see is to create what is seen. The space, people, objects, and architecture and the space they inhabit and do not inhabit are constantly building compositions. Do Ho Suh work in fabric architectural spaces addresses ideas I am interested in. His work looks at how architecture functions when removed from primary setting. Normally a house separates the inside from the outside, providing shelter for its inhabitants. By constructing the house from silk it loses this function of protection and simply addresses. It looks at the significance of the structure and how it changes when dislodged from its ordinary environment. The house without its standard function becomes an expiration of space. My working process functions in a variety of ways. I am in a constant dialog between form, technique and concept. The work typically begins as an exploration in one of these three. I normally start a piece with a processes in mind. Each work evolves out of an overgrown experiment of technical approach. I work through the technique to explore what kind of feel or personality it gives to an object. While my work addresses a wide variety of idea concepts my approach of systems and aesthetic sensibility give the pieces continuity. Through analysis, deconstruction, and material experimentation I seek to understand the way ideas and concepts are connected.
Open Access
Emily Somer: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Somer, Emily, artist
The artist's statement: I create sculptural narratives about relationships, human psychology, and emotions with clay. I collect from a variety of sources. They consciously affect my design decision or unconsciously influence my imagination. Shakespeare's long-lived popularity is due to the universal subject matter of his work: violent political transactions, social conformity, sexual identity, and gender. 21st century pop music contains similar, repeating themes. The reason for this popularity is the inclusion of, sometimes cheesy, conflicts and emotions every living human has to, or wants to, deal with. The most distinctive themes are forming interpersonal connections and losing that connection. I focus on creature forms because it is easy for humans to empathize with these forms. Humans love when puppies happily greet them. A yellow lab being euthanized is a huge source of grief. My work exhibits the opposite of the minimal aesthetic. The creatures I invent are cute. Cuteness creates a protective impulse. My sculptures capture power through this phenomenon. Instead of displaying a cold dominance the pieces work on two psychological levels. While a small dose of cuteness inspires calm and contemplative feelings a larger amount can evoke harmless expressions of aggression. After finding inspiration, I begin my creative process with sketches. The sketches that are most vivid tend to be derived from personal experiences. The sketches reference a specific emotion or word. However, my sculptures are more universally applicable than autobiographical. I want to be straightforward in my explorations of the moral and ethical issues we all face as quirky humans.
Open Access
Hannah Chatham: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Chatham, Hannah, artist
The artist's statement: I experiment in combining different materials and processes to create unexpected forms. Sculptures of fused wax, wool, and metal explore traditional techniques and new connections. Life-casting allows for self-objectification with a sense of humor. Plant, animal, and human anatomy blend together, playing between ironic and erotic.
Open Access
Hannah Steiner: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Steiner, Hannah, artist
The artist's statement: Cancer cells are complex growths that produce enormous physical, mental and emotional damage. They are a manifestation of the sublime- the combination of terror and beauty. This contradiction is seeing the beauty in what destroys. Translating that experience into sculpture is the foundation of my work. My sculpture is a means of understanding ideas through material manipulation. The material and subject matter have contradictory associations. Fabric has a connection with comfort and the aesthetic of everyday life. Textiles are captivating and demanding Formal characteristics of composition, line, intensity, and form are another framework. Through these techniques, the domestic setting is also evoked- comfort and familiarity. They pose a challenge to organize a material into a rigid or pliable sculpture. Sewing, quilting, embroidery, dipping, modeling, stiffening, ribboning are techniques used to realize this contradiction. This challenge transforms into an entire embodiment of endless pursuit.
Open Access
Jenna Phillips: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Phillips, Jenna, artist
The artist's statement: The more I observe the world around me, the more infatuated I am with the extraordinary similarities that all life forms seem to share, and drawing these connections is a process that is very important to me. I find the grotesque and disgusting parts of human anatomy uniquely beautiful and I am compelled to compare them to aspects of nature that are more universally seen as beautiful and interesting. These natural patterns are gifts hidden within our own bodies as well as the animal and plant biology surrounding us. As an artist I am interested in the idea that many biological phenomena in our world both look and function a like. The human brain has a wonderful tendency to pick up visual information and put it into a context that makes sense to them. Likewise our world works in a series of systems known as the systems theory. System theory is the transdisciplinary study of the abstract organization of phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or spatial or temporal scale of existence. These drawings were a study of comparing universally recognized plant and animal bits and comparing them to parts of our own bodies that may be recognizable to some but not necessarily identifiable. My paper and color choice was made to focus the viewer on the patterns and not necessarily the form. I enjoy the task of creating new anatomies and morphing different creatures into new forms that are neither dead nor alive but merely existing. These unifying factors have become less representative of the anatomy it comes from but rather works with other anatomies to show the elaborate decorations naturally given to us and our surrounding world.
Open Access
Jeramy Smith Robertson: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Robertson, Jeramy "Smith", artist
The artist's statement: "In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed"-Charles Darwin. I make sculpture that look at human interactions in a critical and satirical manner. With the hope that my audience will think more about the effects of their actions on nature and each other. I want to shine a light on political and societal issues, like military policing by the USA and the debate on gun rights, highlighting the implications of the choices individuals make on a global and personal scale. I do this by comparing mousetraps to handguns and turning the Afghanistan war into a drinking game. I use familiar iconography to present loaded political issues so that discourse can form around a subject.
Open Access
Kailee Bosch: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Bosch, Kailee, artist
The artist's statement: My practice as a maker began at the lathe. As a child, working in my fathers studio, I learned to make small functional objects: spinning tops, bowls, and the like. I grew up making and thinking about round wooden objects. While this history of woodworking is it at my core, I have expanded my vocabulary of materials and processes. In this body of work, I am focusing on three materials: wood, clay and bronze. I’m interested in wood for its continual push at precision, movable only with the right technique and tools. Clay is different. It is extremely pliable with the ability for endless additions and subtractions. It can be manipulated with the simple touch of my hand. Bronze, has another character. It is not easily moveable in its solid form, but when heated it transforms into a beautiful, viscous liquid that can be cast into endless shapes. Each of these materials is important, as are the process, craft and craftsmanship that give them form. I make both functional objects and speculative designs, playfully and with precision and rigor. I am interested in parts that make up a larger whole, connections, modules and systems. I think about the advantages and disadvantages of a given way of working, how the process gives shape to formal elements. I am seeking an interplay between traditional ways of making that value the hand and newer technologies that allow for precision, and repeatability. I am inspired by the Bauhaus, ideas of everyday design tied to craftsmanship and functionality. Works such as Marcel Breuer’s tubular steel furniture influence and inform my practice. Each of my works rely on both my hand as the maker, alongside a range of tools and machinery: computer controlled machining, 3D printed connections, laser cut extruder dies – the marks of each of these processes are recorded in the work. The result is a variety lines, layers and textures, as the hand turned wooden spindles, bronze cast connections, and cut and manipulated clay pieces, each display marks of the maker. Space and installation are also important; the interaction of objects with their surroundings. My designs respond to architecture and the body. My works build and reflect upon each other, with each material, process, and piece informing the next.
Open Access
Katherine Foster: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Foster, Katherine, artist
The artist's statement: My work focuses on infertility and sexuality. Balancing work as an artist while actively filling the role of a homemaker is important to me to feel like a whole person. My work reflects these roles and concepts through material choice, form and the use of multiples. Burlap symbolizes the female as having a utilitarian purpose, childbearing. The unraveling and aging of materials show disintegration surrounding fertility. Organic forms reinterpretations of things which typically cannot be seen, hang lifeless and massed. Nylon leggings are representative of feminine beauty. My work is produced through processes traditionally seen as women's work, such as sewing, embroidery, weaving and crochet. I use multiples of similarly shaped objects to explore spatial relationships and create tension. Of personal interest to me are the spatial relationships between the multiple objects and how that forces an interaction, this includes with the viewer.
Open Access
Kelee Hamilton: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Hamilton, Kelee, artist
The artist's statement: My interests lie in the vastness of nature/sublime as represented in modern science and the awe-inspiring complexity and scale in technology. Planetary scientists often reference the need to study the cosmos in order to better understand ourselves. I have attempted to manipulate my materials to replicate scientific mysteries and facts found in outer space. After all, what I find most compelling about outer space is the mystery itself. I focus on scales large and small based on nature as the most sublime object, capable of generating the strongest sensations in its beholders. I want to share a sense of awe and wonder that I feel when looking at or researching our universe. I want to share a sense of awe-inspiring and grandiose. The portion of nature that I am most interested in is outer space. Astronomical science has always been a strong motif in my work because of our connections to the universe. As put by Carl Sagan, "Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."
Open Access
Kelsey Gruber: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Gruber, Kelsey, artist
The artist's statement: My work explores the phenomenon of death as a portal. I transmute antiquated objects into something new through various types of preservation. I let most of my materials come to me through happenstance, or what I believe to be fate. This implies that the materials have died in some way, whether it be a literally dead specimen or a metaphorically dead object: one that is obsolete, or has been given up by its previous owner. I take these objects and I conserve their liminal attributes in a way that protects, honors, and holds as sacred. I use vinyl plastic furniture wrap to preserve larger found objects that associate to the daily home (chairs, fence). I custom "tailor" the plastic wrap to each object and hand-sew the wrap along with the "ruined" parts of the found object; perceived brokenness. By honoring the broken parts, the pieces are given a new meaning and new life through preservation. For more natural materials like the wasp nests and dead flora, I apply coats of clear protective spray enamel to harden their structure and in some cases to add shine. This elongates their lives and "freezes" them in the state of death - this state becomes a portal to rebirth. By combining notions of overgrowth and death with preservation and protection, my work creates a liminal yet everlasting portal. This transformation shifts our common narratives around death into something continuous rather than something that is final. I have been curious about death from a young age, and I needed to come up with a way that I could connect with death in a factual, but meaningful way. Death does not only exist in the cessation of life: it exists in creation and all throughout life in terms of rebirth. Death is not an end, it is in fact a cycle that is as close to us as our waking lives. Between these moments of constant death and life is where I find the fibers of creation; the poetry of existence; the honey and the egg.
Open Access
Kevin Moore: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Moore, Kevin, artist
The artist's statement: My art merges video games with the process of digital fabrication. Computer aided design software allows me to construct 3D models or objects, similar to the way objects are built for video games. These programs have become more accessible and user-friendly. I can deconstruct a 3D model and create templets to rebuild the form into physical sculptures. The faceted surfaces relate to the look of older video games and technology. The choice in materials and the fabrication process are vital components of the finished piece of work. I use paper and metal, with paper, the process is like origami or paper folding. I have explored evoke different emotions through the use of repetition in form and changing the scale. Within metal, the process is more industrial, cutting, welding, chasing, and finishing. In this investigation of the physical and virtual, the use of metal adds another layer of permanence. When I was a kid, I was immersed in virtual worlds, wondering what it would be like to walk alongside weird creatures, friendly characters, or experience the vast digital world.
Open Access
Mandy Kaufman: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Kaufman, Mandy, artist
The artist's statement: I highlight the way that leather can be used as both a fabric and as an armor to show the different ways that we interact and give meaning to the world's oldest material. My work is heavily inspired by Brutalism and how this style of architecture highlights the strengths and inherent qualities of concrete. In the way that architects such as, Le Corbusier used concrete and its capability to create massive, clean, reduced structures to show the beauty of concrete as a medium I strive to extend this philosophy to materials that I use. My work with leather shows the inherent strengths of this ancient medium. I use leather as a material to explore the lines between concepts like masculinity and femininity. I explore the poetic irony of a heavy, masculine material used to make a light, feminine form. I also explore the lines between different forms of life such as plant life and different animal life from mammal to reptile and human and the relationships we have, to each of them and how those relationships should change.