Be somewhere

I've always been intrigued by the idea of creating motion within my work. Simple dynamics in composition or figure have failed to truly capture, from my perspective, the sense of fluidity that can be found so readily in other media, such as film and animation. It seems odd to be so concerned about instilling motion into static images when there are so many direct ways to include it by simply making the image actually move. Nonetheless, motion seemed to be a missing component in my work and the conceptual value it would present seemed to be consistently out of my reach. It was in this mindset that I was given the serendipitous opportunity to collaborate with a form of art that extends beyond language, as well as beyond my comfort zone, Dance. This connection was made possible through an introduction by University of Utah faculty member Brian Snapp, to School of Dance faculty member Brent Schneider. Snapp and I had spent the semester exploring multiple concepts for three-dimensional structures. (Fig. 1) My thoughts at the time were focused on the idea of confinement and how we often box others, and ourselves, into ideas or titles that limit our potential. In addition to the sculptural aspect of my work with Snapp, these concepts manifested themselves in drawings created with the mentoring of Allison Denyer. Wanting to explore more potential in graphite, I created four drawings, titled "Before the Fall," (Fig. 2) which depicted figures confined into fundamental shapes. As I reviewed these ideas with Snapp, we discussed the idea of adding multiple figures to the compositions that would be forced to navigate around each other in a given space. Quite literally, as we were discussing this thought, Schneider walked down the hall. Snapp invited him in and he eagerly entered into the conversation and thought process. It was then that he offered to introduce me to an environment that would shape the direction of my artwork throughout the remainder of my graduate studies.