An MFA metal student and fine arts teacher displays her colorful collection of welded copper sheets entitled “Autotelic” in the Gatov student gallery this week.
Elise Priess, a native of France, showcases her 10-piece senior MFA show as her final requirement before graduating.
“I work with enameling and black-smithing,” Priess said. “It’s a very gentle process. It is just the right amount of heat and the right amount of pressure.”
Priess said that she draws inspiration from where the metal comes from. She finds depth, color, texture and inspiration in aerial photographs in mining sites, where metal welding takes place.
Seven of the copper sheet pieces are displayed in the gallery and the other three are smaller brooch pieces worn by Priess, her husband and daughter.
All seven of the floor pieces displayed have a weightless, air-like quality. Some were designed to look as though they had been whisked away by the wind.
The type of metal Priess focused on for her show was copper. She added colorful glass powder to this reddish-orange sheet to create the bright pink, purple and yellows in her pieces.
Priess also uses transparent glass powder on the sheets and lets the flame and copper go through its natural process of oxidation to create greens, blues and darker colors.
The colors and textures of the pieces show the direction in which the artist was trying to take her collection. Priess took pieces of hard-hitting copper and turned it into something calm and bright through the use of colors and the manipulation of metals for texture.
“Autotelic” shows how the artist manipulates the copper with fire. Priess said it’s as if she is drawing with fire. Once she is satisfied with the sheet, she adds texture to it with the flame and finishes with the wax.
After she finishes the sheet, she creates the rod that will hold up the sheet depending on the weight of the sheet and the form she wished the entire piece to be.
The artist then buffs, files or sandblasts the colorful, texturized pieces of sheet metal to remove any sharp edges and makes them completely soft to the touch and wearable.
She takes pieces of the large sheets of copper after she has gone through her entire process and makes small wearable pieces from that.
Some of the featured floor pieces also show movement and weightlessness, while other pieces are firm and resembled an actual stand.
The rod is the last part of the piece in order to accommodate the sheet, which is the main focus. The 10-piece collection took three months to complete.
Preiss said the collection only took three weeks but there was a lot of planning prior to it. She made multiple small scale wire models.
She said her artwork is meant to be enjoyed by all, which is the best thing about being in such a large university. People of all majors are exposed to her art.
“I don’t want to impose anything on anybody,” Preiss said. “I want people to wonder how, why and what material it is. I want to spark interest and curiosity from the audience.”
She hopes to set up a studio in her home after graduation to continue making art that pleases her audience.
“Autotelic” will be on display in the Gatov Gallery until March 22 at 5 p.m.
The student art galleries are open Sundays from 5 – 7 p.m.; Mondays through Thursdays from noon to 5 p.m.; and Wednesdays from noon to 7 p.m.
