Letters, Words, and Phrases

Last Professional Practices class we went to Goucher College and visited their Rosenberg Gallery.  The space itself is a little questionable, being that it is a lobby to an auditorium and all, however curator Laura Amussen definitely makes the best of it.  The show thats up right now is pretty awesome, called Letters, Words, and Phrases.  The image from above is a digital photo montage of real cloud formations- they have not been altered in any way.  Couple Susan Eder and Craig Dennis took over 2 years to gather all of the letters, numbers, and symbols that make up the piece above, titled New Cloud Roman.  

The piece above is by Ruth Bowler and is called Sedition.  All of the letters are individual blocks, numbering well into the thousands, precisely stacked next to one another to make phrases from books that have been banned in the past.  She crafted each one of these blocks and even though they vary in size they fit together to make a perfect slab.  Incredible.  That's devotion.  I believe that it also shows a great admiration and joy in the craft of the thing; it wasn't about the final project as much as it was the process and I truly appreciate that.  The image below I took while I was there; I think you can see the individual blocks a little easier in it.

This piece is actually done by my Professional Practices professor Cara Ober, as she was featured in the show.  I love Cara's work and she's just an all around awesome person and artist in general.  I'll more than likely be blogging about her soon with more examples of her work.  This piece is called Pretty Soon.  

While we were there, we learned that Goucher will be opening a new gallery over the summer months.  They built a new space and everything for it.  Laura talked about some of the shows that are planned and they sound fantastic.  Definitely will be a gallery I'll have to keep up with.