Wyoming inspires student artwork

Studio Arts Wyoming Field Study Exhibition

Frick Fine Arts Building,… Studio Arts Wyoming Field Study Exhibition

Frick Fine Arts Building, University Art Gallery

Gallery hours 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday

Opening reception Wednesday from 4-6 p.m.

Exhibit on display until Feb. 28

Sometimes a change of place can be tremendously helpful, both intellectually and artistically. At least, that’s the philosophy guiding Pitt’s Studio Arts Wyoming Field Study program.

For several weeks during the program, art students were in contact with the geology, ecology and archeology students who were also onsite in Wyoming, as well as other visiting faculty and students, creating a think tank-esque environment.

An exhibit featuring the artwork of the four studio arts students who participated in the program last summer — Ben Danforth, who graduated last December; Ellyn Womelsdorf, who graduated last April; and current students Nick Reynolds and Rob Hackett — will be on display from Jan. 12 to Feb. 28.

Chair and associate professor in the studio arts department Delanie Jenkins said both groups benefited from sharing meals and living together.

“It’s nice to have that kind of back-and-forth dialogue about ‘Oh, what did you guys do today?’” Jenkins said.

The concept of having art students work alongside science students goes back to the beginning of the Wyoming program. A Pitt faculty member requested that his son, a studio arts student at Yale, be allowed to spend a few weeks on the site painting.

Ed McCord, director of programming and special projects at Pitt’s Honors College, said, “When I saw that in action, that wonderful young painter working alongside our students of geology and ecology, that just seemed like dynamite to me. It was a great reflection on the synergy between arts and science.”

The site’s facilities consist almost entirely of a dirt road and a fence, but that’s hardly what the students focus on. The 6,000 acres of sage prairie offer a quarry of dinosaur bones, 360 degrees of art-inspiring sky and the opportunity to interact with students from all different disciplines.

“We were able to develop friendships with people we probably wouldn’t have ever crossed [paths] with where our majors confine us in the University. It helped to make my work better by having people outside the art community be able to contribute and give their insight,” Reynolds said.

Womelsdorf affirmed the strength of this pairing.

“It was nice to get [science students’] interpretation of your work when they would visit the studio, or to learn new things from them when they returned from their daily field study. We all got to share our different interests and discover how the two worked together in this experience,” Womelsdorf said.

Jenkins said this sort of interaction is one of the aims of the Honors College.

“The thing about the Honors College is that it isn’t discipline specific. They like to be interdisciplinary,” she said.

Similarly, the Wyoming Field Study program is not media specific: The exhibit will feature paintings, sculptures, photography, drawings and more, completed both during the field study and afterward.

Reynolds will have three sculptures created from found materials featured in the exhibit. On his pieces made from railroad spikes, he said, “The interesting thing about it is that it’s just big clunky metal, but when you brush by it or bump it, it makes a light, delicate noise.”

Reynolds had initially planned on doing exclusively watercolor painting of the natural scenery but was inspired during his drive to Wyoming by the many cars sitting in fields “slowly becoming one with nature.” He captured the phenomena in a series of three photographs, which will also be part of the exhibit.

Womelsdorf described her ink drawings appearing in the exhibition as “works with colorful, ephemeral backgrounds that are grounded by a black silhouette of one of the many icons of the Wyoming landscape, such as a wind mill or pronghorn antelope.”

The exhibit is entirely curated and assembled by the four studio art students. Jenkins said that the students’ involvement with creating the exhibit was crucial.

“You’ve got to be involved with the show and take ownership and authorship of how you want it to be,” Jenkins said.