Assiduous Adaptation

Author

Shelley Therese Caldwell, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Abstract

Growing up in a rural environment, you both witness the wonders of the natural world and learn to be resourceful with what you already have. This lesson has had a profound impact on my work as an installation artist whose practice combines mixed media drawing with subjects from nature and daily life. Drawing spider plant (chlorophytum comosum) silhouettes upon legal pad pages then displaying them alongside actual plants—each accumulated to near absurdity—exemplifies the creative impulse behind the work; combining familiar items and imagery into large-scale installations transforms the space they inhabit as well as their ordinary meaning into something extraordinary. Both in color and form, the simultaneity of artifice and authentic establishes an environment in which to immerse the senses. Allowing the audience to move around and within the work affords the opportunity for contemplation. A plant and its shadow reflect that, however banal, there is great value in the mundane items or experiences that occupy daily existence. Emphasizing the deemphasized, the work recognizes and reveals that which is often overlooked—while undoubtedly beautiful, nature is also diligent, unrelenting, and aggressively powerful.

Advisor

Liz Miller

Committee Member

Brian Frink

Committee Member

Brandon Cook

Date of Degree

2017

Language

english

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

College

Arts and Humanities

Recommended Citation

Caldwell, S. T. (2017). Assiduous Adaptation [Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/674/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.