Art Show - Rachel Heck

I thought the art show was very well laid out. The displays looked great and none of the pieces overpowered any other piece. All of the art work was outstanding, but my favorite piece was one of the silhouettes from another PCA class. The silhouette was wholly a nature scene. The outside of the figure was a peaceful, bright and sunny day. On the inside (it was not a different image entirely, but instead a continuation of the outside scene), was a dark version of the sunny day; almost as though a dark shadow had fallen on that section of the piece. The clouds were cumulonimbus with lightening striking the ground below them. The trees and grasses all had a shadow over them and the body of water near the trees had rain drops falling into i and water splashing from it. I love nature and I thought this silhouette was truly beautiful. :) So, I'd have to say it was incredibly successful in capturing my attention.
"Play" will always be a part of my life. I currently work at a nursery at a church, so I'm surrounded by little kids for three hours every weekend. They're all 3 and under and love to play with absolutely anything. Of course, I play right along with them!! Also, I am currently pursuing a volunteer position at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. That place has many fond memories stored within its walls from when I was younger. To be able to go back and watch the kids have as much fun as I remember having will keep "play" and enjoyment of the simplest things in life forever instilled in my heart.
Thank you Professor Rao and Dr. Skinner for teaching this class!!

Rachel Heck - Silhouette Project

From this project, I have discovered that I do not buy a lot of unnecessary things. I mostly buy food and health care products; items I consider to fulfill my biological needs of cleanliness and energy replenishment. The inside, or the figure, of my silhouette demonstrates the products I consume to fulfill these biological needs. On the outside, or the ground, of my silhouette I have put the brands of the technological products that I use most often. These products represent the more expensive items that I use, but also the items of which I do not own more than one at any particular time. Some of these items I did not buy directly; some were bought for me and some are items that I have been allowed
to use on a regular basis. The technological items displayed on my silhouette that I bought include my iPod, my Sony camera, and my antique sewing machine powered by Westinghouse Electric. My iPod represents my love for music whereas my camera represents my fancy for photography. My antique New Home sewing machine powered by Westinghouse Electric represents my fondness for antiques and older technological items.
As for the creative aspect and aesthetic appeal of my project, I took advantage of the shapes and colors of the products I consume to fabricate a distinctive design. The ground of the silhouette, where my technological items are displayed, is mostly composed of circles. Most of the technology brands I sue have logos of a basic circular shape. Aside from the obvious representation of the brands by their specific logos, I use the colors of the logos to color in the circles that fill the rest of the ground of my silhouette. As for the figure, or inside, of my silhouette, I used the logos of the brands of items I consume for my biological needs to create a flower shape. The Kraft and Yoplait logos were perfect for the petals of the flowers and the quadrilateral and ovular shapes of the Suave, Crest, and Clean & Clear logos made for perfect leaves, whereas the Jif and Dole logos were perfect for the construction of a stem. The rest of the inside of my silhouette is filled with yellow to represent the sunlight providing a means for the flower to grow, as well as the color of the Wal-mart flower-like symbol representing the store where I buy all of these products.

Rachel Heck - Pitching Public Art

I think my group's presentation went pretty well. We thoroughly explained the meaning of every aspect of our "X"-shaped, musical fountain, but we did forget to mention the materials we had considered using to make the structure. I think our group could have been more persuasive if we had created a more organized way of presenting our argument. This would have greatly diminished our repetition of persuasive points.

All of the groups did an outstanding job explaining their ideas to the class. Any of these projects would positively add to Butler's campus. However, I thought the groups who proposed the bridge project and the fountain that would go in front of Clowes Hall did a really good job presenting. They both had incredible and detailed visuals for their project. I was definitely persuaded by the group who proposed the bridge project because of where they got their idea for the structure of the bridge and the idea for the light show. That interesting background information from a personal visit to Europe added credibility to the project and greatly enhanced the presentation. All of these things considered persuaded me that they had a really neat idea that would not only be useful on the Butler campus, but also fun and exciting.

Ashleigh, Rachel, and Stephanie - Public Art Proposal Project

Our public art piece, entitled "Of Treasures and Tunes," will be located on the Butler Mall between Star Fountain and Norris Plaza. We have designed a giant "X"-shaped, jumping-water fountain that creates a delightful melody upon the contact of the jumping water with a progression of specific, spherical basins. Although there are already seven fountains on campus, we decided to make the number an even eight. The structure we have designed is unlike the normal fountains around campus due to the aspect of the jumping water to and from many colored basins primarily made of recycled plastic material. The "X"-structure of the fountain is formed by a large center basin with four rows of four consecutive basins branching out from it. The basins within each row decrease in both height and circumference as their position away from the center basin increases. Each row of basins corresponds to a natural-tone color: blue, yellow, green, and black. The main basin will be equipped with four water jets while each of the smaller basins will have one bidirectional jet.
Furthermore, this fountain is interactive by means of allowing passersby to publically express their musical creativity. Visitors to the fountain are able to create their own tune by determining the specific orientation of switches that are located on the center water basin and correspond to the direction and timing of water flow to and from the other basins. During times when the human powered changing of switches is nil, the fountain will play a preprogrammed tune. This way there is never a dull moment with the fountain.
We chose to place our fountain on the Mall due to its openness and relatively central location on campus. There are benches around the center basin of the fountain to add another place for students to sit in the wide open area of the Mall; as well as to sit within the limits of the stucture and watch the jumping water. The benches will be constucted out of Polywood, a new-age lumber made from recycled plastic. The significance of the "X" shape of the fountain corresponds with the significance of an X on a treasure map. "X" marks the spot where the treasure can be cound. In the case of our public art piece, the "X" in the center of the Butler campus marks the spot where one will find his/her treasure map of life: at Butler. With a Butler experience, a student will graduate with all the tools he/she needs to successfully uncover the secrets life has locked away especially for him/her. In short, Butler is the graduate's map to the future; to uncovering life's great treasures.
Not only does the shape of the fountain have significance, but the sound it generates as well as the color of the basins and the jumping of the water has a purpose. The musical aspect of the fountain is initially representative of finding one's life son, one's grand purpose. However, the music is also supposed to symbolize the possible harmonious connection between nature and urbanization. The water itself is directly expressive of the basic foundation of life. The jumping of the water serves as a further connection between nature (the water in the air) and urban development (the man-made basins). The colors of teh basins also contain important meanings. The "yellow" sun crosses the "blue" sky and causes all things "green" to grow. Nevertheless, there comes a time for the sun to set on life and for death (black) to take its place.
We believe that our fountain should be chosen as the public art piece for Butler's campus because of its interactive capabilities, aesthetic uniqueness, and deep, underlying meaning to life and to finding one's place among the chaos by using the tools Butler provides.

Rachel Heck - 100 Acres Park Reflection

The PBS video about the 100 Acres Park does not do justice to the actual experience one gathers from physically visiting the park. Being completely immersed in the art work and nature fills the visitor up with the kind of joy and exhilaration one cannot experience through a television special even with the most extensive and descriptive commentary. Although the video lasted seven minutes, it rushed through the park entirely too quickly and allowed the viewers scarce enough time to even realize the wonder they have stumbled upon. For lack of a better comparison, the 100 Acres Park in the middle of the bustling city of Indianapolis is like an oasis in the desert. It is a peaceful yet exhilarating break from the dry and hardly changing routines of city dwellers.
My favorite piece of the 100 Acres Park exhibit is Eden II. The connectivity between nature, environmental issues, art, and religious history is phenomenal. It is as though the artist threw all of my passions into a single project and displayed it exactly where I'd be most moved by the piece: on a boat, on a lake. Simply put, Eden II is awe inspiring.
The art piece I found the least attractive was the Indianapolis Island. Although I think the concept is quite an interesting one, the white island on the dark lake sticks out like a sore thumb. In my opinion, it needs to be almost invisible on the lake, except for at one specific angle. This would give the piece more of a mysterious air that would better combine the art work with the nature in which it is fully immersed. When visitors walk around the lake, it would be as though the island simply pops up out of nowhere and then vanishes just as quickly as it appeared.

Rachel Heck - Play-Doh and Creativity

"Researchers say creativity should be taken out of the art room and put into homeroom" (The Creativity Crisis). If education administrators were to decrease the amount of emphasis they put on "standardizing" all of their students and focus more on implementing this excellent suggestion researchers have made, the apparent decline in creativity of students/children in the United States would soon begin to reverse. Although students have an extensive amount of information they must learn in elementary school and beyond, the method by which they attain the knowledge and skills is by no means confined to simply listening to teacher lectures and taking tests over the material. One way creativity could be effectively intertwined within the established curriculum is with the use of Play-Doh to accomplish some tasks or solve some problems. Play-Doh could be used for simple math such as creating unique creatures to use as pieces for visually learning addition and subtraction, or it could be used for more complex learning topics such as creating a prototype, and thus an advertising scheme, for a new tool or machine to help solve a current health or environmental issue.

Rachel Heck - My Favorite Toy

One of my favorite toys was my soccer ball. When my family adopted our first puppy, my sister and I would kick the soccer ball around the yard and our dog would chase the ball along with us. Sometimes the soccer ball would become partially deflated giving our dog the advantage of picking up the soccer ball with her teeth. Upon catching the ball, she would run around the yard with it in her mouth; so, my sister and I ended up having to chase her instead!