Uncle Lumpy's Down-Home Art Blog and Pancake Emporium

The ceramics studio is always a bit hectic around this time of year–the dry date for pieces is tomorrow at 8am, and the glaze date is right around the corner. The bisqueware shelves are full of pieces, and there are lots of students in the studio currently working. Here is a small sampling of some of the unglazed (and some totally unfired) pieces (hover over each image to see the name of the artist, and click for a bigger image):

Intermediate Drawing:

Horror Vacui & Layered Space Assignment

Rachel Zeiler

Amber Troska

Jesse Kopp

Eva Richardson

…the Photography 1 class!

Their most recent assignment was to capture movement in photographs.

….the Digital Art class!

To see more of these “ransom notes,” check out digiarts.umwblogs.org, or just walk around Melchers!

Check back each Thursday to see if your work was featured by Uncle Lumpy!

More exclamation points!!!!

Naked bodies.  Finally.

After years of subjection to the insecurities and entanglements of administrative officials, Melchers has at last witnessed nudity.  Recently art student Molly Sheldon and two friends were thwarted mid-artistic expression when the police interrupted the filming of Molly’s individual study videos.  Two videos, one detailing a male nude, the other a female nude, were filmed at 2:00 am in the hallways of Melchers.  While the filmmakers took care to warn other students working at that late hour, campus police were still called, and the videos stopped.  The artists were chided, and warnings of arrest for indecent exposure thrown about the stairwell.  But while the police stopped the filming, they could not stop the statement that had already been made (with their help, no less).  Finally students stepped out of the box, out of their clothing, and into the artistic community.   A late start for Melchers, but at least students are realizing that their potential as artists is no longer confined to the encumbering weight of clothing–how refreshing.

This is not a call for Mary Washington to shed its clothing and parade itself in front of the police, but rather a recognition of an expression that is intensely important to all areas of art.  From the basic female nude so revered throughout art history to the vivacity of the nude in contemporary art, naked bodies help show both society and artists in their rawest forms–nothing hidden, everything exposed. We are not afraid as students, as artists, and most importantly, as basic human beings. Bravo, Molly.