Cultural Event: Ann Marie Gardens

Ann Marie Gardens offers a place where nature and art can come together. Many of the pieces that you can see walking through Ann Marie are permenent pieces but there are also a fair portion of artwork that is loaned to Ann Marie Gardens so that it can be displayed for the pulic to come see. The artwork that is displayed there exists with the nature that surrounds it not on top of it. Ann Marie Gardens bring art and nature back together and shows how the environment can enhance the function of a piece. Most of the artwork also reflects nature itself in some way. The garden serves as almost a meditative space and the artwork that lives there supports this purpose. The Council Ring was constructed to serve as a place for reflection and refuge as well as a place for artists to gather and present their work to one another. The Surveyor's Map moves in and around the trees and reflects that zigzagging path of memories. This piece offers another way for viewers to experience the wonderful way in which art and nature work together to enhance the purpose of a piece.

Cultural Event: Proof

The play "Proof" revolves around a girl and how she is coping with the death of her father. The girl spent that last couple of years caring for her father who was a well known genius of the Math world. At the end of his life he seemed to slip away into a state of insanity. The girl fears that the same fate awaits her for she has inherited her father's genius. The play seems to reference the beauty of mathematics and how it all around us and how there are still mysteries in mathematics waiting to be explored. Though the play also seems to look at the fine line that exists between genius and insanity and how maybe to achieve great things you have to be a little bit insane. One sometimes needs to think outside the box in order to see things as they really are.

Artist Lecture: Mark Cooley

Mark Cooley's work is somewhat based in the political world. He focuses on ideas that surround the US Government and foreign policy, the linking of the Government and corporations. A descent portion of his work as been installation and interactive pieces. The interactive process allows viewers to think about the subject they are presented with in a different way and really start communicating their thoughts on the work. Some of Cooley's work such as that found in the "Bad Dreams" collection are meant to remove the viewer from the outside world and transcend their current state of being so that they may interact directly with the art. Cooley's work really seems to concentrate on providing viewers with a different way of looking at the world and the things that go on within it. It also seems to attempt to bring people together so that a dialogue may take place and release an abundance of ideas and various point of views. One of Cooley's projects titled "Calling America" asked viewers to keep a journal and call into a site to leave a message. This project was very interactive with the viewers and it was actually the viewers who were the work. They transformed from being viewers to being subjects. This project also provided a common ground for people from all over to share and communicate. Cooley's work seems to work as an information tool which provides viewers with a new way of looking at the things and as a place from which conversation may grow.

Artist Lecture: Melissa Dean

Melissa Dean spoke about the focus of her art work and some of the things that drew her to the subject. Dean concentrates mostly on consumer products. She displays the images in such a way that she strips away the function of the product and leaves only its form behind. Dean takes the outline of the products and overlaps them so that in the end each piece is barely identifieable. By doing this she is in a way showing the overwhelming effect our own consumerism has in our lives. This process has become a way to look at people and to use objects as a way of representing a person. It also shows a persons own taste and how minimalist or extravagent they are. Dean uses her work to not only explore how objects can be abstracted but how they are absorbed during our everyday lives and how they represent the saturation of visual media.

Puptopia Web Page

http://www.smcm.edu/users/aamiller/PuptopiaWebPage/Index.htm

Web Page Layout

Web Page Photo Collage

Photo Collage: http://www.smcm.edu/users/aamiller/WebCollage2.jpg

Ten Word Association:
1. deafness
2. Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL)
3. utopia
4. hereditary
5. island
6. isolation
7. american sign language
8. Pet friendly
9. Dog of the Month
10. vacation for pets