MFA ART REVIEW

First I walked through the show. I found it very interesting to see the mfa students work after the fact of meeting them. I got to see some of their personalities shine through their work. I feel that is a sign of good work when you either see the work before or after meeting the person but can put the connection together that they made it. This to me, shows they put themselves into their work. I took sculpture one and in high school I took several wood shops and metal shop, I find a connection with working to build something and having an end product that is a figure in and of itself. I like that in sculpture the work gains a personality and lives as its own element. I was drawn to a few pieces of sculpture in this show.

I enjoyed Summer Baldwin's Moose Head. It looked very realistic and seemed anatomically correct. The ma

in element seemed to be cardboard and the elements of texture worked well in place of fur. I liked how the antlers were white and different textures than the head. It may have been her intent, but I didn't really care for the hanging of it, how you coul

d see the metal brace, this may have been structurally the only way, but I feel it took away from the piece because the elements used to create it, and the way it was constructed, seemedsomewhat fragile, and the metal brace is the opposite of fragile.

I also liked her Untitled (Iggy) oil painting. She had a few which all seemed to correlate to the moose head. I liked that her process was shown and it proved she had done several studies in this collection. Her work seems very carefree and seems in a fragile state. I like her hand in working. I especially like how her gentle hand is seen on the oil paintings and then carried over into her sculptural work.

Another piece I liked was Kristin Melkin's Untitled barn wood piece. It seems many elements went into this piece. She not only thought through the work itself, but also how it would be presented: lighting, etc. This, I feel, we sometimes leave until the end, and it seems she took this into account. I feel the shadows are the best part about this piece. The way the light passes through on the left side and comes through the holes on the right makes the piece very dynamic. The colors are pastel and work well against the barn wood, which has a similar state to drift wood.

I feel that many of these pieces were well done and showed great talent, which is what I was expecting to see from MFA students.