#mfaprogram

[sarahmoonartroom]

artist statement (March 2023)

It starts as a daydream. A place I would rather be.

My work is rooted in my fascination with the phenomenological.

My practice is expanding beyond just painting on canvas, where now, exploration in sculpture and technology is facilitating this space-rock, psychedelic pop, magic carpet ride.

I am inspired by the ephemeral and visionary space we visit in our heads when we hear our favorite music or flashback to a sweet memory. Essentially, the moments on Earth that successfully subvert the melancholy and take you on a fantastic voyage.

My existence is heavily influenced by fantasy-world-building internet societies like Webkinz World and Club Penguin. Ever since I was able to hold a crayon, I have been escaping for hours at time to construct my own psychedelic reality. 

With an innate fluorescent color palette and attraction to the artificial, craft materials like glitter glue, acrylic paint, and papier Mache effectively allow me to explore scale and material intuitively.

My hope is to can create an accessible space that invites viewers to escape reality and envision a future that is as radical and abundant as the work itself. I want to turn the white/cube gallery into a sort of amusement park. To create experiences and push the absurd.

We are all made of stardust.

 Minute specks of glittering dust that hold together to create this infinite crystal universe of wonder, delight, pain, humor, and exploration.Join me in filling the void with glitter. Let us spray paint its insides neon pink, coat it in resin, and negate the space between the wonderful and the repulsive. 

[nonafaustine]

I thought yesterday I would leave her with Nana and go by myself. Then I thought no she should be there it's about creating memories. To know who her mama is and was. She chose you and you're her guide on this earth. The lessons begin here and now.

I had never set foot in that place before. The architecture is NYC iconic, but felt intimidating, cold, so upper crust. That's not for me. Who knows where fate is going to take you. One moment you're sobbing in the ladies bathroom of your MFA program and the next moment you're walking into the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum cause they want you to speak about your work, your journey, your struggle, your truth. I have to thank this little girl who inspired me to find myself again. No matter what don't you quit! You are strong daughter.

[printmatrix]

Super cool prints, screenprinted by the Print Media MFA students, will be up for sale at our Open Studios next Thursday! Dec 7 from 5-8pm. Snacks, drinks, art and good times! Print design by 2nd Year student Travis Geoghegan @travisgeoghegan ---- . . . #printmedia #mfaprintmedia #pnca #printmaking #prints #printstudio #printportland #portlandprint #screenprinting #screenprint #screenprints #openstudio #openstudios #mfa #mfaprogram #mfaportland #mfaprintmaking (at PNCA - Pacific Northwest College of Art)

[instapicsil3]

Sneak peek of tonight's MFA closing reception at the Surplus Gallery 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Featuring artists Shelly Cournoyer & Justin Smith. . . . . #thisissiu #mfaprogram #blacksmith #metalsmith http://bit.ly/2IsdDqk

[instatrack]

Sneak peek of tonight's MFA closing reception at the Surplus Gallery 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Featuring artists Shelly Cournoyer & Justin Smith. . . . . #thisissiu #mfaprogram #blacksmith #metalsmith http://bit.ly/2IsdDqk

[carriejonesbooks]

What Was It Like To Get a MFA When You Are From Maine and Have Social Anxiety

If you guys don’t know, Vermont College of Fine Arts offers a master’s program specifically for writing for children and young adults. This is a very cool thing. They actually accepted me and I got a degree there. Eventually, I was even awarded a Distinguished Alum degree at a surprise event in D.C, which was ridiculously cool and a great line for my obituary.

But when I started? I didn’t…

[sarahmoonartroom]

Alison Hiltner Lecture (February 22, 2022)

Wowza. What a week at art boot camp. Joseph Norman, my undergraduate drawing professor, would always encourage us to exhaust yourself chasing your dreams and basically explained that in order to make your dreams a reality, you need to go to bed EVERY night completely exhausted exercising your talents. And every night, when I crawl into bed around 11:30. I am most always sore and drained from making, talking, dancing, teaching, and listening all day erryyyyday. I love alllllllll it allllll. I never want to leave sometimes.

Anywho, this past Wednesday we had visiting artist for our MFA Lecture series..... Alison Hiltner.

Hilter received her BFA from Kansas and her MFA from University of Minnesota, home to the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices.

Listening to her was totally engaging, inspiring, and hilarious. Not only did she show us plenty of images of her work, process, installs, and processes..... but she totally unlocked a few memories in my subconscious (will expand on this later... maybe)

Her work boiled down seems to take an ordinary object and turn it into an entire fantasy world. A cotton swab with earwax turns into a weird etherial forest, cultivating life from earwax. Through anthropomorphic, interactive installations, Hiltner uses materials like hot flue, rubber bands, and balloons to create choreographed sculptures and time based media.

She pulls inspiration from the natural world, referencing media like The Secret Life of Plants and Planet Earth.... Personifying flowers, and exploring curiosity in the natural world with her own personal flaiiiiir.

"I want people to experience that intense pulsation that makes every living creature alive"

She went on for an hour and I wrote everything down, sweet tea, coffee, and prozac pumping through my blood I was fixated since I had been up for 48 hours listening to this lecture (its midterm Szn okay)..... but essentially she proposes the question.

"How do I bring my crazy mind to life?" she asks.

How do we make the world we want to exist a reality. She said she's inspired by things that are real, that are other world from the deep sea. How does one create a playground to invite people into to wonder? this was absolutely crazyyyy for me and unlocked a whole new memory. When I was younger I was also was obsessed with sea creatures, specifically the Loch Ness monster.... which you can read about here, in the website I create for him when I was in elementary school. I consider this a an archival piece of art from my subconscious.

She closed by acknowledging that collaborating with others and listening to how differently people see the world is mind bending.

...

After listening to Hiltner talk for about an hour, I had laughed plenty and seen about a hundred slides of her story and work. It was lovely and engaging.

Sophia Hatzikos , a colleague and friend of mine, acknowledged Hiltner's refreshing spirit by asking about her emotional experience with the process.

Hilter admitted that besides the 10% of excitement, inspiration, and energy you have at the beginning of a project, and the 10% of satisfaction at the end of making a piece, its pretty much a brutal, chaotic process. Things go awry and there are lots of tears, this was totally reassuring and inspiring to hear.... as I was crying earlier this week in the bathroom over the stressful amount of paper machie I have assigned to myself for the semester.

Thats THE TEA, I enjoyed getting to know #AllisonHiltner and seeing her work.

Until next time space blog!

Sarah Moon (www.moonart.co)

[instapicsil3]

Sneak peek of tonight's MFA closing reception at the Surplus Gallery 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Featuring artists Shelly Cournoyer & Justin Smith. . . . . #thisissiu #mfaprogram #blacksmith #metalsmith http://bit.ly/2IsdDqk

[carriejonesbooks]

I am a distinguished alumna! No... Seriously!

I am a distinguished alumna! No… Seriously!

A few years ago (in June) there was a Vermont College of Fine Arts party at American Library Association’s conference that I was completely stressed about? It was at Tami Lewis Brown’s House. Katherine Paterson was there and I had no idea what I was supposed to say if I actually met Katherine Paterson.

I mean, what do you say to someone who wrote THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA?

1. You made me…

[theherbertschool]

Latest documentary by MFA student Kurt Sensenbrenner: A light-hearted short on the youngest member of the Hempstead Bridge League, Will Scripps.