Ana Garcia, Student Work

Tracing paper, gel medium, gesso, yarn. 

30" W x 70"H x 16"D

Zach Nichols, Student Work

Wood, paint, ink, paper mache boxes

2.5' x 2' x 2"

The idea for this piece stemmed from bee's honeycombs and the function of a beehive. On my map their are three levels and each represents the social class system similar to that of a beehive.

In process photos:

Emily Lemp, Student Work

Wood, paint, metal screen, nails, bolts.

37" x 23" x 2" 

I grew up in Long Island, New York. The materials and color are significant to my memories of the place.  The bolts represent areas on Long Island that are important to me. 

Lauren Mason, Student Work

Materials: Foam board, Paper, Tracing paper, Gesso, Gel medium, Ink, Pastels, Wood Glue

Dimensions: 26" x 18.5" x 2.1"

In process photo:

Research Images:

Adrian Colburn

Matt Shilan

Grace Bonney

Lauren Curtis, Student Work

Title: 

Pretense

Materials: 

Foam, Stonehendge paper, tracing paper, matte gel medium, glue, ink, gesso, balsa wood

Dimensions: 

17" x 10" x 4"

Statement

I wanted to map a person's insecurities. I wanted to map a person who looks like they have everything together, but are really just as messed up and unsure of themselves as everyone else. I wanted it to looked graphic and organic at the same time. I wanted the front to look sleek and put together, and everything behind it to look messy and disorderly; the paper's peeling, the wood is crooked.

In process photos. 

Research images:

Karen Margolis

Louise Nevelson

Carrie Dickens

Sarah Wesiman, Student Work

ME

Balsa Wood, Frosted Plexi Glass, Straight Pins, Tooth Picks

2 ½ ft long by 2 ½ ft wide by 5 inch deep.

This piece is about growth and the passage of time. The balsa wood represents a natural and raw feeling. The wood has a hard exterior like myself, but underneath the exterior is a delicate and soft foundation. The sculpture signifies time by the way each wooden piece darts into different directions symbolizing a form of growth. Making the sculpture provided me with periods of time where I could emotionally and visually respond to my decisions. 

Caitlin Lopez, Student Work

Fragile

packing tape, foam board, tracing paper, gel medium

18" x 26" x 12"

Artist Statement:

The artwork emphasizes transparency in order to represent the fragility of both the natural world and the man-made world, as well as the relationship between the two. Some may perceive mountains and ocean are indestructible because of their imposing size as and seemingly timeless presence, but humans can quickly destroy countless miles of forest, reshape landscapes, and change the entire system of the ocean. On the other hand, living in Florida, I have seen tornadoes and many hurricanes and know that nature could just as easily destroy the human world.

I chose to make the buildings of a small city out of clear packaging tape to emphasize the fragility of humans. The mountains are made out of delicate layers of semi-transparent tracing paper to represent the fragility of nature. The two environments extend from opposite sides of the same plane to represent their relationship. I chose to show the underside of the mountain forms in order to force the viewer to confront the hollow fragility of them. The forms also resemble craters which threaten to consume the city on the other side.

Map Relief, In Process, Student Work

Paper Folding, Christian

Foam blocks cut with scissors, Michelle

Paper Cutting, Heather

Windsor Newton Inks on Foam Board, Tyler

Sierra Thompson, Student Work

Shannon DeGiovanni, Student Work

Student Work, A Page from Map Relief Packet

Michelle Henning, Student Work, Map Relief

This segmented map relief records the layout of my childhood home as I remember it at the age of four. The map is essentially a memory space: the pieces fit together but are displayed with space between, almost as if the rooms are floating, threatening to drift away at any moment. Each piece I included in the map of my house correlates with a specific memory in the house. The childhood-crafty nature of the pieces is also related to the idea of a childhood memory; the crafting is child-like, with simple materials and shapes reflecting the boiled-down nature of my memories from that young age. 

My process began with a simple exercise to draw my childhood home with my eyes shut. I was surprised at the results of this activity because what I thought in my mind was going to be a huge, page-spanning drawing turned out to take up only one half of the page. While drawing with my eyes closed the memories of the space in my house were so spacious and the house seemed so large, yet the reality was that the lines came out repetitive, tightly-spaced, with an almost frantic appeal. I am attracted to the way the chaotic squirmy lines fill the corner of the page and decided to explore the idea of a memory space further in the actual map relief. The number I chose to associate and utilize in the map is the number 4 because that is the age I moved into the house I have mapped out, there are four members in my family (meaning four kitchen seats, four places, etc.), and four was my favorite number for the majority of my childhood. 

To make the foam board look less like foam board I gave a lot of treatment to the surface of the boards, taking a lot of time to think of ways to represent the unique floorings of each room in the house. When I was younger I spent a lot of time sitting and laying on the floors so I got to them extremely well. Therefore, the flooring of my memory house is very detailed.

To accentuate the cracks and grains of the wood flooring I brushed on some watered-down ink to the paper strips.

The swirly flooring of the utility room reflects the swirls of glues that are put down to hold down carpeting. My dad did a lot of remodeling work in the house and much of the time the floor was bare concrete with the swirls of glue hinting at the previous existence of carpet. This is very similar to how it looked.