Silhouette

Issue date: 5/11/06 Section: Front Page

Media Credit: Lyndsey Born Jeanne Gregory (left), Scott City, Kan., and Armando Minjarez, Garden City.

A toilet, the Statue of Liberty, and animal remains were only a few of the artistic interpretations displayed on campus yesterday. Ceramics and sculpture instructor Brian McCallum's Three Dimensional Design class was given a creative opportunity to put together an installation/performance art piece.

"This was a way for the students to bring their art for a campus viewing," McCallum said. "What they did was up to them. It was very open."

Several students in the class choose to express their feelings about society through their work. "Tree of Pain", put together by Daniel Arras, Riudoso, N.M., was just an ordinary tree filled with poetry, personal struggles, and animal remains hung from barbwire and chains. Arras stood by the tree all afternoon asking people who walked by to add their examples of pain and struggle to his project.

"There is no way people can walk by something and not read it," Arras said. "My hope was that people would come by and feed the tree with their problems."

Arras wasn't the only student who put strong feelings into their presentation. Erin Culver, Garden City, chose to use a simple design to portray a deeper meaning. Culver took a small tree, covered it with foil, and then gave it some "perfect" leaves.

"I chose the tree because they are natural beauty and the foil represented industries," Culver said.

Culver said she wanted the viewers to realize that humans are beautiful and don't need all the materialistic items.

"My tree looks absurd, much like the people that manipulate their bodies," Culver said. In the prospect that they will be happy with the 'new' them and realize that it's the imperfections that make us who we are."

Along with these serious topics was the "Immigration Reform". Unlike the other students Jeanne Gregory, Scott City, Kan., and Armando Minjarez, Ulysses, Kan., chose to use more of a comedic approach to this controversial issue. The two also did a live performance.

"We chose to do a live performance art project because we thought it would be more interesting," Gregory said.

Gregory dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and Minjarez wore a sombrero and serape. In the performance they sat at a table playing cards and eating.

Continued...

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