Editor’s note: photos are from students in COMM 1318 Photography 1. Featured photo by William Wilson
One student’s trash can become another student’s masterpiece. Proof of that is on display now inside the Christine Devitt Fine Arts Center on the Levelland campus.
Photography students from COMM 1318 Photography 1 recently went to look for it. They found art projects that are not exactly obvious at first glance down the front windowed lobby or the long classroom hallway.
But art from students in Art 1312 Design II are in the building, hiding in plain sight. Five or six pieces hang from the ceilings, attach to walls, or twist around poles.
Professor of Fine Art Kara Donatelli explains what she instructed students to do.
“Using found objects,” she says, “create a sculpture that has a strong sense (visually and psychologically) of movement and direction, using only lines.”
The first piece, made from inside- out Coke cans and wire, is just inside the building’s front windows.
Another piece flutters overhead, above the main hallway doors.
Farther down the hall, fat stretches of yarn trail behind vinyl LPs and wrap around a corner.
At the far end of the hall, a red, Solo cup cross between a roller coaster and serpent hovers overhead.
In another spot, a stack of books is stuck to the wall. Pages are frozen in place.
Similar recycled art projects went on display from the same class several semesters ago.
Instead of red Solo cups, a student that semester used soda and beer cans. At the same time, another student chose to feature books.
“I chose what I did because I have got a love for books,” student Jude Haragan said. That included an “extreme overflow” of sci fi and old library books that she says were going to be recycled anyway.
“So, I thought I might as well use them,” she says, “to show movement of line through a big old pile of books falling over and what that would look like.”
One of Donatelli’s art pieces is also on display inside the long, glass case in the main hallway.
It features a fist clutching a chain covered with a spray of streamers. A lot of it is obviously made using paper. She says she likes to use recycled materials in her creative work.
So, what’s next for these art students?
Donatelli says all of the studio students are working on a show for the Fine Arts Fall Showcase that happens on Thursday, Oct. 16.
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