Student Work on Display in "Concealment and Diversion”

 Basket weaver Alexa Rivera, visiting from Vermont Studio Center, joined faculty member John Umphlett's Intermediate Sculpture course c-u:s s / cover-up: sublimate situation for a day to share skills and techniques related to working with rattan reeds specific to fabrication of baskets and vessels. 

The following week, the class was asked to use these new techniques directed at an extended project prompt. This second part of the students project was meant to use the newly learned skills pushing up against a personal response to the words "concealment" and "diversion."

The resulting student works are currently on view in the Barn East Gallery through December 4.

"Having Alexa Rivera come in to do a weaving workshop was so helpful for my making process," said Maverick Yarger '27. "Weaving is something I didn't have a lot of experience with, but with the tools she gave us, I was able to make objects responding to the theme of concealment and playing with temporality, with additional context of the historical and social significance of weaving as an art. I will continue to use the skills I learned and play with weaving materials like rattan in my future work as well."

Continued Yarger, "Throughout the course, John has given us so many opportunities to dive deep within ourselves and grapple with difficult or abstract concepts through a series of open prompts and unprompted work that have allowed me to further my technical skills and feelings about myself as both a person and a maker."