Shannon Tomanovich

Catbox

2011
Sharpie on vinyl, pvc pipe, zippers, thread and two cats
27" x 24" x 24"

Earlier, I traced people on sheets of vinyl. I may have been trying to preserve something. That is a common use of plastic today. It protects food from air, furniture from humans and humans from humans.
The transparency is what attracts me to the material. The ability to see through it and record what is visible. The Catbox was the first time I constructed something specifically for a tracing and in the future I would like to custom build shapes specifically for the subject to be traced. With the cats I tried to figure out what it is about this process that I am so drawn to. I traced the cats multiple times over the course of a couple weeks and I think it lost something in that. It wasn't a rush to save something that was going somewhere else. With people you cannot keep them under plastic for long. It was a rush to compromise how much they are willing to stand being traced. The cats liked it though, they had plenty of air and they liked the attention. The cats movement made for a nice element. In my next vinyl piece I will use a specific human subject in motion.

Old Eyes
2011
Plastic
20" x 45" x 3"

Marcel Proust wrote, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." I seek those eyes as well as new landscapes and this piece was just another failed attempt to find them. I see it as hopefully subtle and beautiful if it is given the chance. My reasons for using the plastic are the same. The transparency and, to some degree, the cheapening of a first-hand experience. I melted and carved images from my sketchbook of people on trains, a black dog's leg, a cat's face, a horizon line, measurements and symbols from maps and navigational instruments. I may revisit this sometime elsewhere.

Susana Cortez

Untitled
Susana Cortez
Metal rods, fabric, clay slip, drawing transfers and monotypes
Spring 2011

This piece was inspired by the current violence in Mexico. About the way it is spreading throughout the country and is becoming more brutal over the years.

Mike Gates

Guillotine

10' x 12' x 36'

Light rail, wood, steel, paint, string, screws, spackle.

This work started originally on the vertical steel saw cutting a piece of light rail into thin strips on a whim. Intrigued by the process and the end result of thin slices, I began to investigate things that were also attributed to slicing and cutting.

Let them slice their cake too, Marie.

Melissa Carr

externalized pain

casting wax, glass, cables, ink

25''x9''x5''

Melissa Carr

Heart of Glass

Glass, Adhesive, Wood, Fabric, Dirt

8''x 9''x4''

Melissa Carr

Little Houses

metal

dimensions vary

Shannon Tomanovich

Leftovers (part B)
Sharpie on vinyl
40" x 60" x 10"
2010

Leftovers (part B)-detail

Leftovers (Part A)
60" x 40" x 10"
Wedding dress, ceramic, sharpie on vinyl
2010

These works seem to make suggestions regarding their subjects. The transparency of the plastic is the most important aspect of these works. The drawings on the vinyl were traced directly off of living people. Part A revolves around the dress, my Grandma's discarded wedding dress from 1963 and suggestions of someone being trapped inside it.
Part B is a colorful plastic depiction of a friend of mine. A 22-year old girl, the same age my Grandma was when she was married in that dress.

Susana Cortez

"It is Culture"
Metal rods,fabric, clay & intaglio prints
32" x 28" x 72"
Fall 2010

This piece came together by combining two projects. The intaglio prints of a female figure which represents an allegory of indigenous young girls & an amorphous shape that came from a dream. This piece was inspired after I came across an article about how now in 2010 there are still several towns around the world where females' rights are not respected. Once a girl reaches the age of 12 or reaches puberty her family will exchange her for an animal or money.

Mike Gates

Matches

Installation - Covers approx. 3' x 8' of floor space.

Steel, sand, matches

This piece is a study on different kinds of deforestation both natural and man made.

Tia Fay

Susana Cortez & Sarah Freitag

The Gallery
laminated cardboard and wood
7' x 20' x 7'


The idea of the gallery started after a small talk among us about the exclusivity of galleries. We wanted to respond to their exclusivity by creating our own gallery using found materials and displaying our own work to the general public.

Shannon Tomanovich

Scroll
card ribbon and ink on newsprint
10' x 18' x 24'
Scroll was inspired by these card ribbons. The process of collecting the material has been slow going for a few years now. The manner in which I installed the piece emphasizes the visual and tactile characteristics of the ribbon material. The ribbons change the light and the light changes the space. They weave to show different colors of the spectrum in different layers. The systematic ink drops on the newsprint scroll are the result of an experiment. I used cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink to dripped row after row from each step of a twelve foot ladder five times.

Mike Gates

Verticals

122" x 12" x 6"

MDF board, wood, glass bottles, sand, screws

This piece is the result of using two forms of the same material to show the movement of time by making use of it's natural properties. The firmness and solidity of glass can be manipulated to have a wax-like liquidity, while the ever-changing motion that sand has can be frozen in time to almost imitate a solid.

Alex Phillips

"untitled"

Alex Phillips

Steel, Yarn, Beads, Spray Paint

67" x 30" x 16"

Fall 2010