You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

Gallery features 'a sense of place'

By Lyndel Owens '10
December 6, 2007

When a senior art class at St. Olaf College was told to create work centered on "a sense of place," they generated pieces illustrating everything from literal places to how their own mental state is a sense of place.

Art340ShowA
A bronzed balloon by Margaret Page '08.
Their work can be viewed beginning Friday, Dec. 7, when it will premiere in the Dittmann Center student gallery. It will remain on display until Jan. 3, and an opening reception will be held Thursday, Dec. 13 from 3-5 p.m. The gallery is free and open to the public.

Guided by Professor of Art and Art History John Saurer, the group of 15 seniors in Art 340: Topics in Studio Art created work centered on the theme "a sense of place." Throughout the semester, the students developed their own responses to the prompt.

"There are 15 students in the class and 15 entirely different solutions and approaches to the problem; and to me, that's the beauty of a studio class," says Saurer.

Laura Olson '08 says the range of responses the class generated is notable.

"Our senses of place run from more literal places to very conceptual places," she says.

Reflecting on his aunt's declining health, Alex Walton '08 says he "finalized on the idea that my mental state was a sense of place, a meditative sense of place. So my pieces came from the idea that problems of the mind and in life can rise and fall like waves; waves come from the ocean and then reside back into the ocean."

Saurer chose a theme that spoke to him with the hope it would also inspire his students. His two previous studio classes have focused on "segues" and "parts of the whole."

Students are expected to be self-motivated since Art 340's freedom prepares students for their senior studies class, in which they have predetermined themes or assignments.

Maggie Matson '08, who made rubbings and a series of small drawings, says, "Topics [in Studio Art] greatly prepared me for senior studies. I was forced to take problem solving into my own hands. By setting my own deadlines and creating my own projects and imagery, I felt a lot more involved with the work I made this semester."

Drawings, prints, paintings, sculptures, ceramic work and installation sculpture are popular mediums in this year's work. Yet most of the students are embracing a variety of media with the thinking that a compilation of materials more truly reflects their intentions, a prominent trend in the professional art world.

"I think the class' ability to work in an artistically interdisciplinary way has made our show diverse and a lot more interesting," says Matson. "A lot of us have incorporated a mixture of media, and they flow together so well that it is coherent."

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.