Julie Farnan Extra Credit: Senior Exit Show

After my last class on April 27th, I visited the Senior Exit Show in Haas Gallery. I went to support my good friend Heather DeFrancesco, and to see her final projects she has been working hard on. Throughout the semester, Heather has been showing me her pieces for the show and telling me all about what she's making, when she showed me the final project in the gallery I was blown away.

As a digital major, it was apparent by looking at her work that she found her calling. Her two pieces followed the theme of body organs, one piece being ribs and a heart, and the other a skull with brains. Both were printed on fabric and stuffed in certain areas to give it a 3D aspect. She then sewed them up, and added a ribbon-like material around the edges of the piece. I feel that the final touch of the framing the outer part of the piece was a nice touch because it brought the piece together in both cases. Her color schemes were pinks, reds, white, and creams, and it all popped to the viewers eye thanks to the ribbon framing.

Also, the 3D aspect she added to each piece helped grab the viewers attention. In her first piece, she stuffed the area of the heart as if its popping out through the rib cage. The second piece she stuffed the brains which too are popping out, but in this case from the skull.

Heather's two pieces were very different from most others submitted in the show. This is exactly how she wanted it to be. Most pieces were neatly framed, or were 2D photography, drawings, paintings or montages. Heathers were not in perfect little frames, or on the 2D scale. Her pieces were in your face, and ready for the viewer to interact with them, and even touch them if they wanted to.