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First and foremost, thank you to Professor Drabik for once again introducing us to amazing and talented individuals. Each time we have a guest there is a sense of awe: a gained appreciation of artists and their work. It helps me become a more rounded individual and for that I am grateful. Now onto Ursula and her work. Her very existence embodies perseverance. Moving forward from persecution, past abusive individuals, and onto a skillful mastery of cedar and copper.
While she may be reluctant in accepting the term “beauty” when describing her pieces, there is simply no easier term to encapsulate them other than beauty. All of her artwork shares a characteristic, a resemblance or feeling which invokes feelings of happiness, appreciation, and awe. The natural flow of the artwork most closely resembles nature, rock formations, glaciers, even the humungous book: all of them lovingly handcrafted by Ursula and her team. Ursula and her team manage to replicate them, and what better term to describe nature other than beautiful?
Not all mediums are as readily accepted. The mediums which Ursula has used can be strange at times. In all honesty, I could never imagine making anything from cow intestines- not dinner and much less art. Regardless, the grandeur of the artwork justifies the unorthodox (and freeing) mediums. Out of all the mediums Ursula has utilized I’m most curious about copper. How could one cut such massive pieces of copper? It is surely a more expensive medium as opposed to cedarwood. How crazy would it be if her copper pieces would get struck by lightning? (Not that I would wish that upon her but just saying).I wholeheartedly agree with your admiration of Ursula’s work, Alexander. I was amazed by their sheer size, and the amount of pieces she has produced. I understand that she has a full team working with her to execute her creative insight, but I would think to would take years for a piece to be completed. When looking at her website, it is clear that this is not the case. I think she is able to complete pieces so quickly because she has a very clear creative vision and drive.
I found her answers to the questions the class was asking to be very insightful. The response that I was really surprised by was when she was asked what the meaning behind some of her pieces are, and her choices for which mediums to use. Ursula revealed that her artistic decisions that she makes are more like “why not?” rather than having a solid meaning that she’s looking to execute. I thought this was really interesting because when I took studio art classes in high school, every decision that I made, whether it be the medium used or the placement of objects on a page, had to have some sort of justification behind it. This always led to it being a struggle for me to start projects because I was never sure where to begin. The organic shapes of her pieces reflect Ursula’s open creative vision, rather than a concrete form of how the piece will be executed from start to finish.I completely agree with both of your comments and I was similarly moved by Ursula’s work. I also found it interesting and inspiring that she so readily moves between different mediums. As you’ve both wonderfully put it, this represents her creative vision and perseverance, at large. I think it’s also indicative of her willingness to take risks and create art without limits which is a common thread we’ve seen among the visitors to our class. She chooses freedom within all her pieces and this really stuck with me because, as Katherine said, choosing to be free within art can be an incredibly difficult thing to do. In addition to her use of different mediums, I personally found the piece, “mama, your legs” an exhibition of just how much bravery and passion Ursula approaches her art with. To create a mechanical sculpture like this one without much prior experience with these types of sculptures seems very daunting but Ursula created the piece without hesitation because it’s where her vision and desire to create art led her. After seeing Ursula’s use of different mediums, I hope to be as free and open as she is with her art one day.
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