Page 20 - the NOISE MAY 2016 Edition

MOViNG FORWARd
Michael Davis presents a new body of work StORy By
tRaNSItIONS BRING hOPE & RECOGNItION FOR GRaDUatING SENIORS
“Allegory of Conformity” in the Northern Arizona University BFA Student Show.
NiKKi cHARNSTROM
Acelebration of achievement and transitions is applauded in this year’s Northern Arizona University BFA Student Show. This opportunity to showcase personal work in a gallery setting gives students a glimpse into the life of a professional artist. As the students are
preparing to graduate, this show symbolizes more than an exhibition of their work. It embodies who they have become as an artist, their growth, and the direction they envision for their future. Christopher Taylor, curator and manager of Beasley Gallery and painting instructor,
facilitates the artists in the process of installing their artwork.
“There is kind of a mix between sculptures, ceramicists, painters and printmakers. Most of the
disciplines are represented in this show,” he explains.
As an instructor to many of the students, Mr. Taylor enjoys seeing how they negotiate their
ideas in a gallery-like environment. Through encouraging them to display their work and playing a part in the kaleidoscopic moments leading up to graduation, he finds joy in teaching. “It’s always exciting to see when they get very serious about the work,” he says. “when they
start asking the professional questions like ‘what do I do next?’ that’s exciting ... teaching them how to hustle — that’s the life of an artist.”
while encouraging the artists, his goal is to not pressure them too much, but instead remind them this is only the beginning of their future and to have fun with it.
Dick Beasley Memorial scholarship recipient of April 2015, Michael Davis exposes the reality of impermanence and illuminates our unique sense of self-identity perpetually threatened by culture in his series of sculptures, “Allegory of Conformity.” Through these bronze, steel and copper casts of a woman’s figure, he presents the viewer with a subliminal connection towards the life-size art before them. Further challenging the viewer to “contemplate their own sense of self, and the very real effects forced cultural conformity has had upon it.”
essentially, he challenges the viewer with these questions,“Is she falling apart or is she putting herself together? Is she growing?” The holes left in certain places of her anatomy represent the unfinished parts of her as she is stitching herself together with the needle suspended from her limbs. As the components of cultural socialization are destroyed, the remaining remnants of her original being begin to resurface. A once elegant human being is now “disfigured and scarred” from the pressing expectations of the world around her.
“I see her subjectively suturing herself together. she’s changing. she’s being conformed,” Mr. Davis expresses.
when she is lying on her back she is in a proper, pondering and sensual state. Her arched back mimics the common portrayal of women in art. In a sitting position her form is much more rough, flawed and unrefined. This look is from the intentional integration of burlap texture into the molding process. After countless experiences of trial and error, 11 weeks of work, 15-hour days, and sacrifice — the work has impacted Mr. Davis in a powerful way.
“This whole experience has been changing me. I’m not the same artist I was ten weeks ago,” he confesses.
The artist owes much of his success with “Allegory of Conformity” to June Beasley. without the Dick Beasley Memorial scholarship, he would not have had enough funds for the roughly $1,600 worth of bronze alone.
“All of it [scholarship] went directly to the work I produced. I literally would not have been able to do it without her. I’ve produced a series of work I envisioned in my head everyone else can finally see too. she afforded me the opportunity to make the art I truly knew I could,” Mr. Davis concludes.
studio art major, Earl Petznick uses the idea of memory and experience to carry his work, Vessels and Void, a sculpture with an abstract and almost surreal human shape. It represents space enveloping the body by creating a sense of presence with a hollow form and projected imagery.
“you can’t capture all of your experience, you can only experience it, and then beyond this you have recalled memory. This is about projecting my fragmented past,” Mr. Petznick expresses.
The shape of the sculpture has evolved and developed over the past two years until the artist found the form he had imagined. Constructed of wood and lined with sheep’s wool, this life- like presence welcomes the viewer to step into its protective shell. By using the wool from his family’s sheep, this sculpture has a material memory of it’s own.
Although the creation and development process of Vessels and Void was hectic, it resonates with the theme of an anticipated experience, soon fleeting, only to become a distant memory. Mr. Petznick hopes his sculpture “inspires curiosity” and captivates attention even for a brief moment. If anything, he wants the audience to relate to the concept of fleeting memory in their own way.
soon-to-be studio art graduate, Lindsey Western pays tribute to Flagstaff with her northern Arizona landscape screen print series, “Coconino national Forest.” Inspired by the national Park’s vintage posters, she recalled places she visited in the past important to her in the upper part of the state: Devil’s Bridge, west Fork in Oak Creek Canyon, Mount Humphreys, sedona and Fossil Creek.
“I have grown to love Flagstaff and my whole theme is to thank Flagstaff for getting me into different hobbies. since coming to nAU, I’ve picked up rock climbing,” she explains.
After moving from southern California five years ago and experiencing Arizona, Ms. western has found an appreciation and a heart for the various landscapes of the state. with this in mind she has created these screen prints mostly from memory and researching her fair share on color shades.
“I’ve used different Google searches to figure out the color tones I should use, like this rock color should be a little bit more orange and how do I de-saturate that,” the artist describes.
In deliberate hues and simple graphic-like images, Ms. western represents northern Arizona in roughly nine to twelve colors in each print.
After graduating, she plans to be more intentional about making time for rock climbing and traveling; further filling her head with more images to print of the places she loves and the world she adores. “I need to get outside again,” she exclaims.
Ceramics focused studio art major, Tolley Rippon mimics an ancient Japanese form in his geologically inspired, large-scale ceramic vessels. “within actual rock formations what normally happens is there’s a difference in the actual chemical composition of the rock so it forms a crystalline structure, so when the rock actually breaks, it breaks along flat planes because that’s the crystalline structure of whatever particular rock it may be. so I mimic this with the cutting of the surface of pots,” he explains.
His piece, Caverns resembles a Japanese form used for carrying water. Although his ceramic vessels are not meant for carrying water, they are made to represent history and correlate with the same thought process of age in geological formations.
“what they [the vessels] are talking about is the relation from that form to something that also carries water in nature ... you go into caves and it’s dripping from the ceiling or there are pools of water flowing through the cave. so you look down into this [Caverns] and it becomes this blackness, this cavern within it,” Mr. Rippon describes. “Also this sense of tranquility and peace you can get in those moments from being in something so monumentally huge is what I am trying to convey through these pieces.”
The student exhibition will be open from April 19 to May 13 every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10AM to 5PM. Beasley Gallery, 1115 south Knoles Drive, is located on the second floor of the Performing and Fine Arts Building. 928-523-4612, nau.edu/CAL/Art/
| Nikki Charnstrom has been bitten by the motor-bike bug. Beware..
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20 • MAY 2016 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us