My Thesis Exhibition: Invented Heirlooms Part 1

My MFA Thesis Exhibition was March 8th-19th. I began installing the show on Friday the 5th at about 5pm. I have amazing friends that came out to help me with the install and thanks to them, the show was completely hung by about 11pm. Then I had the rest of the weekend to prepare (okay, freak out) about my oral defense on Monday morning. The oral defense was Monday morning at 9am. At the defense was my thesis committee, Becky McDonah, Tedd McDonah, and Nancy Serwint (filling in for Clare Verstegen who is on sabbatical). My out of area committee member was Sam Chung. In addition to the committee there were about ten graduate students in the audience. The defense lasted about an hour, after which the committee sent me out to deliberate. They talked amongst themselves for about 20 minutes before calling me back in to let me know that I had passed, and to discuss more about the work and exhibition with me. We talked for about another half an hour and then it was all over.
Basically what we talked about was the general theme of the work, how the different pieces worked together as a group, and what I planned on doing next. We talked about display, materials, and my motivation behind the work. There were no questions that were unexpected or that threw me off guard, which made me very happy. In the next post or so I will include a more lengthy description of the ideas behind the work in my show.
Below are some images of the installation (taken by photographer Josh White). In this post are just images of the wall pieces, and the spoon collection. I will be posting the rest of the show tomorrow. View all the photos here.

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more tomorrow!

YUMA Symposium 2010

Every year I go to the Yuma Symposium in Yuma, Arizona. The symposium has been held for the last 31 years. This was my 7th year at Yuma, and possibly one of the best years so far!

Presenters this year were:
Jennifer D Anderson • printmaking
Sam Chung • clay
Arthur Ganson • sculpture
Zig Jackson • photography
Becky McDonah • metals
Bruce Metcalf • metals
Stephanie Metz • fiber
Pete Pinnell • clay
Betsy Schneider • photography
Lisa Slovis • metals
Patrick Stafford • wood/multi-media
Dale Wedig • metals

My favorites are below:
Arthur Ganson showed videos of his crazy, amazing, hilarious, kinetic sculptures.

Sam Chung demonstrated how he builds his forms from slabs of clay.

Becky McDonah did a demonstration on using the hydraulic press, and techniques for pushing the form farther.

Bruce Metcalf spoke about the writing of his book, "Makers: A History of American Studio Craft", which is scheduled to be released this summer. I am really looking forward to reading this book. I would love to teach a history of Craft class someday! Stephanie Metz is a fiber artist that does a lot of needle felting. This "Natural History of a Teddy Bear" series was strange and fascinating at the same time.Lisa Slovis did a pewtersmithing demonstration on how she constructs one of her vases.Patrick Stafford talked about his work. I really liked the furniture he did with etched metal elements like the tops of these two tables below.Dale Wedig did a demonstration on using indoor ceiling tiles for mold making and casting. He was able to get fairly complex forms in a very low tech way. Im excited to try this with my 3D Design students.

Besides the presenters, there was plenty of fun to be had at the pin swap

These were my pins this year, little glass tubes with red silk and pearls.
Every year the grad students at ASU make a group piece to donate to the auction. This year we made a planter and this happy young man was the winner. Ironically he purchased our piece last year and didn't even know it.

Oh yeah, and of course we all had a blast at the campfire.

Bob Ebendorf Workshop

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take a workshop from Bob Ebendorf down in Tucson. The workshop was called, "Jewelry as Personal Adornment." Bob taught us all kinds of creative captures, prong settings, etc. for joining alternative materials and found objects to metal. He has taught metalsmithing at East Carolina University for several years and shared a wealth of knowledge with us. I had such a great time getting back to basics and revisiting a technique that I hadn't done in a really long time. Bob has so much energy it was a non stop weekend of demos and entertainment!

Bob brought tons of awesome samples for us to look at!

Below are the pieces I brought to play with. Thanks to Lora Hart for the costume jewelry pieces and Katie Poterala for the antique drawer pull. I ended up only making something with the drawer pulls, I'm saving the costume jewelry for the perfect idea (an idea I don't have yet). I'll post pictures of the pieces I made with the drawer pulls as soon as I am able to photograph them.

Oh, and I had to include this picture because it is the view from the PCC studio in Tucson. Aren't they lucky? I love Tucson, its so beautiful!

Anyway, it was a great weekend and I had so much fun at the workshop!

I passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just passed the oral defense of my thesis exhibition. Whew! I'm glad thats over with! See you all tonight at the opening reception!!! Here is the info!

Layout

I install my thesis exhibition tomorrow. Wish me luck! And don't forget the opening on Monday! See here for info!