Stained Glass Pizza

Pizza and prisms? Well, let’s just say that I’m a very big fan of Gothic stained-glass windows and garlicky stuffed crust. What inspired me to create this piece was translating the idea of “culinary arts” into a literal, tangible object. I do believe that culinary arts are included within the arts because food is created with intention, it can be viewed and critiqued, ingredients and placement of food items can be manipulated and fashioned in a way to create color contrast or balance, a unique presentation, and some type of art form. I wanted to create a piece that would imitate a type of art work in that it would take the shape of the work and ingredients normally used for this food, would be manipulated in such a way to imitate the pieces used to create the piece. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to make pizza because I knew it was something that most people, including myself, would recognize and enjoy. Pizza is also circular and shareable. People can gather around the pizza, grab a slice, and chat with one another, like a circle of friends. Then the idea of creating a stained-glass pizza came from researching the origins of pizza. I found that pizza was first created in Gaeta, Italy. So, from there, I researched Gaeta, Italy and fell in love with the featured Cathedrals and Churches such as the San Giovanni a Mare church. From there I zoomed in further on the cathedrals to explore its designs and became intrigued by the circular stained-glassed windows featured in cathedrals. Stained-glassed windows have also intrigued me because of the meticulous work that goes into to creating this object and light reflected on its glass produces a prism of colors. These colors are what illuminate the cathedrals and create an atmosphere of wonder and awe (that ultimately emphasize the idea of passion, wonder, and awe of God). The circular stained-glass windows also take this idea further with the emphasis of the eternal circle, they can reflect, perhaps the eternal light and love for God? Stained-glass windows are also very recognizable and enjoyable so I wanted to combine the two recognizable elements to reflect both the culinary and visual arts of Gaeta, Italy and the Italian and Gothic culture. The process, of course, was not easy just as the process of actually creating the stained-glass windows was not easy. It was meticulous work indeed from creating the intricate stencil for stained-glass design to chopping up the peppers and placing them in strategic places around the pizza. Originally, I had wanted to replicate the Cathedral of Notre Dame’s circular stained-glassed window, but I found it to be too complicated, however, I simplified it and used it as the basis for my design. It was also frustrating baking the pizza because the oven in the WC kitchen seems to only work when it wants to work, so the baking process took longer than necessary. Yet overall, it was a rewarding process because I was able to get the results I had hoped for. Stepping back from it, I would say that my work is mainly communicating the idea of culinary arts imitating visual arts on a more literal level. That is, that my pizza is meant to be seen as not a pizza or a food item, but rather a stained-glass that just so happens to be edible. It also communicates the idea of friendship and fellowship with its circular design that encourages people to gather around and share and connect with one another just as people do when they go to church. The piece also demonstrates connection to one another in that it is divided into slices though each slice is slightly connected to one another to form a whole. It forms a body just as people congregate in a church to form a body—perhaps the body of Christ? I used red, orange, and yellow peppers to create the stained-glass and also because they are bright and striking colors. I wanted to pick colors that have an illuminative quality to them and those stood out among the other peppers and vegetables. I then used the cheese to create the design lines and sauce to imitate the concrete in which the stained-glass pieces (or in this case, stain-glassed peppers) are placed. For composition, I based my idea of another stained glass window featuring the colors red, orange, and yellow and used to guide me. In all, I am very pleased with this work because I did more research into this than I have done for past works. If I could change anything, I would use more ingredients to enhance the taste but still keep the same color scheme. I’d also make a bigger piece to be able to have more people gather around and share.

Sew It Seams

It was an inspiring experience seeing the works of Laura Hausheer, Cornelia Parker, Remina Greenfield, Elise Kielek, Samantha Nickey, KoKo Olszewski, and Jennifer Metz. Each artist created works that took a life of their own. I saw everything from paper cut images, to a collaborative quilt, to even coded photography. However it was the collaborative quilt by KoKo Olszewski that really captured my attention. The theme of her SMP, titled Sew It Seams, asked the question “what does home mean to you?” The object of her SMP was to gather student-designed quilt pieces all with their own interpretations of home and stitch them together so as to show how we all have something we love about home that is relatable. KoKo even received a little help from Professor Carrie Patterson and Children of the Village who even came in to see their work. So, the theme was home and building community and KoKo, being the head of St. Mary’s Habitat for Humanity, definitely did an amazing job at portraying this theme. Her presentation was not only engaging but it was also interactive. She utilized her space by decorating it as if it were a living room equipped with a rug, a chair and pillows. She also encouraged spectators to relax on the rug and make their own quilt piece. I, of course, took advantage of this option. I had so much fun and learned vital information. KoKo was inspired to do this presentation by her research and work within the Habitat for Humanity club. She explored St. Mary’s County and found out that there was a great deal of foreclosures within the county. Many people lost their homes in the community and we, as apart of the St. Mary’s College community, had no idea. And these many people can be considered our neighbors since the college is also within the county community. We as students are so lucky to be able to afford housing whereas the people who live not too far from us are not. So, KoKo wanted to find a way to bridge these communities, so that the students here will understand what is happening outside of the college and want to do something about it. This idea definitely correlates and even translates the title of her SMP, Sew It Seams. She, in a way, is both physically and emotionally stitching these communities, these stories, these lives, and these homes together and she is educating people about one another all at the same time. I hope see more of her work and progress in the future but what I hope most is that her overall goal of getting the students to take action and work with the county is accomplished. I’m very optimistic that it will be.

The Surrealist Experience

          For this last project, all I have to say is that it was definitely a surreal experience. We were prompted to choose an artist, write a short report, present a presentation, and create an original work inspired by the works of our chosen artist. It was definitely a heavy task but, nonetheless, worthwhile. For my project, I chose surrealist painter and thinker, Rene Magritte. Surrealism has always been something that has intrigued me and I sometimes even use it to describe my style and personality. It’s outward and different in a good way.

       For my original work, I was inspired by elements of Magritte’s style which included the obscuring of people’s faces and the fusion of two random objects together. I coupled these elements with elements of hip-hop and hip-hop culture because I wanted to communicate what I consider an important part of my personality and background. I’ve grown up listening to hip-hop having high regards for greats like the Notorious B.I.G, Heavy D, Run DMC, Missy Elliot, Jay-Z, and Eminem. I believe Hip-Hop to be one of the greatest vehicles for promoting positive social changes in communities, freedom of self-expression, and the communication and the interconnection of lives, stories, backgrounds, traditions and cultures, faiths, and ideas. It’s amazing what Hip-Hop has done for the world but it's sad that some people cannot see it for what it really is. They think its nothing but loud music and Lil Wayne, sex, drugs, and violence. Hip-Hop is none of that. It is a movement that has moved many. So, I wanted my piece to be something that reflects both my view of hip-hop and the world’s view as well. I began my process deciding to try to combine the fusing and obscuring of objects that were from Magritte’s with elements or symbols of hip-hop. In all honesty, this was probably the most frustrating project I’ve had yet because I wanted so much for my piece to stand out and somehow include hip-hop with surrealism. I went through multiple ideas from wanting to create a sculpture, to making clothing (for some strange reason) that reflected hip-hop and surrealism, to creating a large scale painting or illustration with 3-D elements. I sketched a good deal but I was never satisfied. Finally, I decided that I was going to take a large piece of cardboard to make my base for my painting and throw on anything and everything that reminded me of hip-hop and the society’s view of it, then, like Rene Magritte, I would place the objects in such a way to create a series of fusions and obscuring of facial features. I chose red as the background color for my piece because red is bold and powerful color that seems to help the piece and its other elements stand out. On a rather darker note, it’s also a symbolic color for gangs, blood and violence, pain, and pride—all elements that have been associated with hip-hop music and lyrics or have been depicted in rap videos. I then added more light and bright colors like sunshine yellow, aqua blue, light green, and electric orange as well as white puffy paint to depict my positive look on hip-hop. I also used these colors to obscure the red to an extent to sort of translate the message that people should see more of the positive rather than negative things about hip-hop because in reality, it’s music, not malice. I then added black and white etched pictures of people so that it wouldn’t be too much color. Then I went crazy. I added many 3-D elements (using cotton balls) like a Styrofoam boom box that was the head of one of the characters, gold cds, splashes of rainbow colors, and even trash (which was meant to represent some people’s view of hip-hop aka “lyrical garbage”). Even putting this together was frustrating and quite painful considering that I used a lot of hot glue to put it all together. It was also very frustrating because everything little detail and placement of objects required some thought and I kept wanting to start over or completely change my idea in the middle of working on the piece. At one point, I even wanted to throw it away because I wasn’t at all satisfied with it but in the end, it did relay most of the message I wanted to communicate and I ended up kind of liking it. However, if I could improve this piece I would first make it a little neater and clean up my mistakes. And finally, I would definitely make it bigger, bolder, and add more objects to it that related to the hip-hop culture and its own view of the world such as with themes like women, sex, drugs, violence, peace, war, politics, race, gender, friends, family, and the outlook of the past, present, and future. Overall, this project was fully engaging, fully frustrating, fully inspiration, and very surreal.