{"id":6584,"date":"2017-04-02T15:53:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-02T19:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2017\/04\/06\/found-sculpture\/"},"modified":"2024-07-24T15:34:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T19:34:53","slug":"found-sculpture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/found-sculpture\/","title":{"rendered":"Found sculpture"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday morning, April 1, visiting artist Mark Grote meets a group of students in the sculpture studio for a seminar on creating sculptures from found objects. Tables are littered with everyday items and bric-a-brac such as nails, drapery pins, yarn, fabric pompoms, and small Styrofoam balls. One table holds a pot of molten wax and paper cups full of multi-hued powdered pigments.<\/p>\n

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Rowan Griscom and artist Mark Grote<\/p><\/div>\n

Grote invites the half-dozen students to play. He instructs the group to take ordinary objects and make them look like something else. \u201cCreativity,\u201d notes the artist, \u201cis just rearranging the old into something new.\u201d All the work he\u00a0and his students create today and during the two weeks he is at Furman will be exhibited in a show April 6 at the Thompson Gallery in the Roe Art Building.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

True Inspiration Artist-in-Residence Program<\/strong><\/p>\n

For two weeks in late March and early April, Grote, an accomplished professor of sculpture at Loyola University in New Orleans, held lectures, classes, and workshops in his chosen medium. This\u00a0rare opportunity is part of Furman’s\u00a0True Inspiration Artist-in-Residence Program made possible by donor True Harrigan.<\/p>\n

Grote has been working with sculpture for 47 years. He majored in photography with a minor in sculpture at the School of Dayton Art Institute in his native Ohio, and went on to earn an MFA in sculpture at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1992, he won a Fulbright Fellowship to the College of Art & Design at the University of Plymouth in Exeter, England. His work, which focuses on found objects, appears in myriad collections, including the Mobile Museum of Art in Alabama, the Dayton Museum of Art in Ohio, and the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson.<\/p>\n

Rowan Griscom \u201917, an art major\u00a0with a focus on graphic design, appreciates having a new perspective on creating art. \u201cWith artists in residence, we benefit from how different everyone\u2019s work is,\u201d Griscom says. \u201cThe more exposure to different artists you have, the more your education benefits from it.\u201d For Bethany Knapp \u201920, it\u2019s all about relationships: \u201cTo be able to interact and build a relationship with an artist in residence is what Furman is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Izzy Michell \u201919 laces yarns of varying textures onto the head of a small plastic racket. Her boyfriend, Nathaniel Desantis \u201919, a political science major who came along for the fun of it, is working on a smaller piece. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty awesome to have Mark here,\u201d Michell claims. \u201cHaving contact with a visiting artist gives me access to new ideas. It\u2019s an experience that Furman offers and a lot of other schools don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Izzy Michell \u201919 transforming a plastic racket into a work of sculpture<\/p><\/div>\n

By noon, the wall at the back of the room displays an eye-catching kaleidoscope of miniature sculptures. You have to look closely to see that these pieces are fashioned from common household objects.<\/p>\n

Grote hopes that the things he says during his short tenure at Furman will resonate with some students who will apply his advice to their work. \u201cIt\u2019s scary to work in front of people, but it\u2019s exhilarating at the same time,\u201d states the artist. \u201cI have one of the best jobs in the world\u2014working with young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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