Author: Michael Duncan

Title of Event: Samek Student Art Exhibit
Date & Time of Event: Sunday, April 24th, 4 pm
Location of Event: Samek Art Gallery
Type of event: Self Guided Tour

After watching 60 minutes’ worth of Art21 videos, I walked away with a few gained insights and ideas. This time around, I focused on watching videos of artists who used 3D sculpture as their form of expression and excluded performative pieces. One very intriguing concept I appreciated learning about was the idea that the past is only remembered through the 5 senses that we used to experience it and that to accurately represent it we must accurately represent these 5 senses. I also really appreciated the desire to produce pieces that do not scream a specific interpretation right away but rather slow down the interpretation response and allow anyone to take away important topics from the work. Finally, I want to touch on a more physical technique that was brought to my attention that I would like to incorporate into my work technique which is the act of splitting workpieces systematically into simple geometric shapes and focusing on these regions one at a time.

I intend to borrow the use of holes and sheltering to express vulnerability within my work.

For the final project, I wanted to focus on the paradox of how as we become more comfortable in various situations we become more vulnerable at the same time. I chose this topic mainly due to the fact that it is something I am faced a lot throughout my life. I feel like almost all the aspects of my life are met with this same paradox, and I am often left on the side of putting walls up to avoid this vulnerability or being ignorant to this vulnerability until eventually I am left wounded. 

This problem is often caused by people becoming too relaxed after they have had the same outcome over and over again. When they continually receive the same outcome over and over again they begin to forget what dangerous outcomes are also possible, they begin to believe that their familiar outcome is the only outcome. This false sense of security then leads people to put their guards down and start taking far fewer precautions than they did at the beginning, making them more susceptible to the unlikely but harsh outcomes.

Ten tangible people/places/things that are associated with this are:

1.) Free Soloing

2.) Not putting in protection

3.) Not studying hard for exams

4.) Not wearing a seat belt

5.) Not wearing safety glasses

6.) Swimming alone

7.) Drinking and driving

8.) Driving fast

9.) falling in love

10.) Growing Close to people

Title of Event: Angela Meckley, Senior Student Art Exhibition

Date & Time of Event: Friday, March 4th, 5-8 pm
Location of Event: Holmes Hall
Type of Event: Art Exhibition