Macey Oliver

  Room of Remorse , paper, Indian ink  Dimensions of bed without headboard: 8.5" x 5.5" x 2" Dimensions of bed with headboard: 9.5" x 6" x 5" This piece was inspired by The Metamorphosis  by Franz Kafka. The piece is a depiction of Gregor Samsa's bedroom, the place in which his metamorphosis takes place. The items in the space are cramped to reflect how Gregor felt after his metamorphosis, and the room is filled with chaotic colors and patterns to imitate the tone of the story. Baby blues and baby pinks reflect the colors of childhood and the feeling of helplessness, while browns and purples add chaos and confusion to the mix. This represents Gregor's feelings about his metamorphosis because he felt helpless and ashamed of what had happened. The piece is titled  Room of Remorse  to allude to this and to reflect how Gregor felt after the metamorphosis. Gregor himself is represented as a small black ball of swirling stress, sadness, and shame, as tha...

Nature vs Nurture This piece was inspired by the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Each object in the photo is representative of a theme proposed by the movie. In Fantastic Mr. Fox , the main character experiences an internal struggle between his domestic responsibilities and his wild instincts. This is represented by the main plate in the frame containing beans, rice, and leaves. The beans and rice are indicative of the domestic, home life and the leaves are indicative of nature and wilderness. The food items included in the setting are directly representative of the antagonists in the movie, as each one represents a specific food that the main character steals and brings back to feed his family. This character's struggle has a direct impact on his family, so there are more plates and glasses at the dinner setting to indicate family. The family's plates are broken to show that a broken domestic environment due to the main characters division between being a father and being a wild ani...

Dimensions: 11" x 5.5" x 3.5"

 

 

 

 "We Only Touch" 8.5 x 11 acrylic paint and flower petals on white paper "We forget that touch is not only basic to our species, but key to it." (Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses , p. 78).      For this piece, I was inspired by the connections and interactions that take place between two humans. We usually communicate verbally, but often times words can get in the way of truly expressing what we feel. We tend to forget that we can also use touch to convey our thoughts and feelings with others.       I began this piece by finger-painting two different colors on either side of the space to represent two different beings. I painted my fingertips and pressed them down on one side, and then painted the fingertips of my significant other and pressed them on the opposite side. I used the red for the fingerprints on the purple side, and purple for the fingerprints on the red side. This conveys that we are connected and able to understand ea...

  "Flowers and Fingerprints" 8.5 x 11 acrylic paint on white paper "... Research found that a lack of touch produced brain damage."  (Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, p. 76)      During this section of the reading, I was compelled to think about nature and how a lack of experiencing such can lead to mental illness or brain damage. As noted in the reading, human touch is vital to our well-being, but connection with our planet is also vastly important. Before starting this piece, I took a walk around my neighborhood and closely inspected different plant species, touching them and noting their differences. I was walking barefoot, feeling the raw earth beneath me. I brought many specimens back with me and decided to use them as my means of painting. I painted the flowers I collected and pressed them on the paper. I then painted over leaves to leave their imprints, and I used flower stems in the place of paintbrushes. I didn't use any materialistic o...

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