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NEWS RELEASE

04-11-03

Contacts:
Pat Miller, Lectures Program, (515) 294-9935
Annette Hacker, News Service, (515) 294-3720

APRIL 16 AWARDS CELEBRATION KICKS OFF 'FOCUS'

AMES, Iowa - Legal train graffiti, an originally illustrated Russian fairy tale, a silver mask and oil paintings that take a behind-the-scenes look at a residence hall kitchen are among the works featured during FOCUS -- Iowa State University's annual arts week.

FOCUS is a showcase of original student work in dance, music, theater, visual arts and literature. The FOCUS awards celebration is Wednesday, April 16, at 4 p.m. in the Pioneer Room, Memorial Union. It's free and open to the public.

FOCUS, funded by the Government of the Student Body (GSB), annually supports special, creative projects proposed by Iowa State students, many of whom have majors outside the arts. Both funded and non-funded projects may be submitted during FOCUS week, to be considered in a juried competition. Projects will remain on display through April 30.

Visual arts categories include painting, drawing, weaving, sculpture, calligraphy, jewelry and photography. Dance and drama are part of the performing arts.

Artists and funded projects included in this year's FOCUS showcase include:

Mary Henson Saunders
Calling Their Names
This chapbook represents the lives of several generations of grandmothers who migrated across the southern United States in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their distinctive voices and colorful stories were unearthed through genealogical and historical research.
Advisor: Debra Marquart

Elizabeth Vogel and Marian Hanks
Russian Fairy Tale
A Russian fairy tale is the inspiration for this children's storybook, "The Tale of Tsar Saltan." The original illustrations include cultural patterns and elements from traditional Russian life, and highlight scenes from the story.
Advisors: Vera Aginsky and Chuck Richards

Monica Lanning
Dishroom Daze
A series of four, large-scale, oil paintings depict objects found in the dish room of a cafeteria on the Iowa State campus. The images create a strong sense of place, behind the scenes of a residence hall kitchen.
Advisor: Barbara Walton

Mark Kochen and Jeremy Marquis
Images on Locomotion
The artists created large-scale paintings which were photographed; the photographs were made into slides which were scanned and manipulated on computer software; and those final images were projected onto moving trains, creating legal train graffiti.
Advisor: Christi Harris

Rachel Yeising
Ephemeral Light
Abstract images and forms were created from the light and shadow in this series of six oil paintings, which use multiple layers of translucent mylar paper.
Advisor: April Katz

Jon Wollak
Waking
This sculpture is a large, wooden, biomorphic abstract exploring the aspects of animal and plant forms. The artist created a sense of movement within the piece that flows out toward the viewer.
Advisor: Paul Shao

Orchesis I
This dance concert was choreographed in collaboration with musicians, visual artists, and writers, as well as the Orchesis I dance troupe members, and explores different artistic genres.
Advisor: Amy Martin

Jason Yates
Grandpa's Adventure
A large montage painting utilizes acrylic paint with decoupage (acrylic transfers), text and images. The painting portion consists of images found in family photographs. The text comes from enlarged scans of a grandmother's journal written during a family trip. Decoupaged images include a child's drawing from the same trip. The painting is designed to evoke fond family memories.
Advisor: Barbara Walton

Orchesis II
LISTEN
This playful dance adventure explores life through dance, and is accompanied by street sounds, nature sounds, people sounds and the sounds of celebration. Orchesis II has used live percussion as well as pre-recorded sound to accompany this four-section dance work.
Advisor: Janice Baker

Matt Carlson
Out of Sight and Mind
A series of three lithographs capture images of the criminal justice system in America. The work is based on the view of justice and injustice in street crimes, court proceedings and prisons.
Advisor: April Katz

Andrea Hovan
Tough Enough? This photo display combines rugby, digitally enchanced color photographs, multiple layers of glass, and transparencies.
Advisor: JoAnn Boehmer

Kim Eichler
A Memory of Land
Three separate panels of dyed silk reflect the artist's memories of land and how those memories inform the artist's view of the subject.
Advisor: Cindy Gould

Johanna Slessor
Mourning Dove
This wearable mask is hand-formed in sterling silver, made in honor of the artist's mother who recently passed away. The train of her wedding dress was added as a personal element.
Advisor: Joe Muench

Greg Culver
Semiatic Forms
A series of photo-lithographs depicting biological elements combine with abstract multiple-plate reduction woodcuts.
Advisor: April Katz

Kimberly Baxter Packwood
Shroud
Shroud forms explore the concept of burial and mourning. What does a person do when a loved one passes away, yet there is no one to bury? This is especially difficult when miscarriages occur, where the experience is rendered as a purely clinical event. Does absence of body mean invalidation of loss? This project addresses a topic seldom acknowledged.
Advisor: Cindy Gould

Ashley Gade and Julie Kidd
Interlocking Lines, Interlocking Lives: A Color Study
Three quilts were pieced together and composed of an interlocking line design by color groupings: analogous-yellow, green, and yellow-green; monochromatic-a progression of blue hues; and complementary-blue and orange.
Advisor: Teresa Paschke

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