{"id":7540,"date":"2018-04-18T16:22:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=7540"},"modified":"2018-04-18T16:22:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:22:07","slug":"what-we-can-learn-from-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/what-we-can-learn-from-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Can Learn From Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Reed | Entertainment Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cArt is really for oneself and fine art doesn\u2019t really have one finite message that ones trying to get across,\u201d said Jennifer Bracy, a professor of visual communications design at Western. \u201cIt\u2019s often much more about questions and maybe there\u2019s some kind of an answer or a message within, but it\u2019s less important.\u201d Bracy has been teaching at Western for eight years and recently released a new fine art exhibit called \u201cForces of Nature,\u201d on display in Hamersly Library on the second floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the past Bracy has mainly worked as a freelance graphic designer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI work often with small startups or non profit organization that need help with a campaign and they need some posters designed, or something of that nature,\u201d said Bracy. However, she explained that this display is a new exploration for her: \u201cThere\u2019s a specific message and specific audience that has to be communicated in graphic design \u2026 It\u2019s much more open to interpretation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Though she has done art displays and shows before, this \u201cForces of Nature\u201d explores new mediums and techniques <\/span>\u2014<\/span> utilizing ink and printmaking to create contrasting colors, shapes and forms to make each piece beautiful and have its own personality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI named it \u2018Forces of Nature\u2019 because a lot of the themes that I have explored in my art, and some of my personal design projects, really came out in this body of work \u2026 the infinite wisdom of nature. What we can learn from it as humans, how we have to respect it you know the tensions between the us and the environment and the things we do to it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her main focus of many of the pieces in the display was the beauty that is nature. Drawing inspiration from natural phenomena like the honeycomb and the geodesic dome to showcase the random perfection nature can achieve at times.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe bee hive is so efficient and it represents this strong, stable and efficient community of bees and humans can really borrow from that.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

One specific series she showcased in the display is called \u201cNumber Series\u201d where she breaks down the nature of numbers one through ten and what meaning and significance each number has around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love finding out is that in a lot of these human constructs with language that, inherent in them, there\u2019s a lot of nature with a lot of those origins of numbers,\u201d said Bracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each and every day we see numbers or use numbers but nobody ever thinks about the technical side of it all and asks questions about where they come from or what they mean to other people all the way across the globe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had to do a lot of research,\u201d said Bracy. What she found was a whole new meaning for the symbols we use across the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another series Bracy released in the gallery, \u201cColor Moods\u201d \u00a0is purely experimentation art: \u201cIt\u2019s a series of purely abstract, meaning they were really just experimental. I was just getting a handle on this new medium. It represents the first experiments I did with monotype printing \u2026 It\u2019s called monotype because you can only do it once,\u201d explained Bracy. \u201cYou can never recreate it \u2026 I think it kinda has a vitality that no matter how hard I try I cannot get back too. Because it was just experimenting and now anything I try is trying to hard.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fantastic moment for any artist when an experiment comes out perfect. No matter how much effort you put in you can never recreate that first success. However, the short-lived origins of the art is what make it so spectacular and unique. It\u2019s a one-of-a-kind piece of art and came from purely just messing around and trying new things with a new medium. Bracy found the perfect way to display the importance of experimentation in art and how sometimes it\u2019s important to try something on a whim.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Forces of Nature\u201d is, as the name implies, centered on the features of nature that we as humans could respect and learn from. There are so many little phenomena brought to light within the art and, like Bracy says, \u201cIt\u2019s often much more about questions\u201d and nobody really will interpret the art in the same way. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at kreed17@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Reed | Entertainment Editor \u201cArt is really for oneself and fine art doesn\u2019t really have one finite message that ones trying to get across,\u201d said Jennifer Bracy, a professor of visual communications design at Western. \u201cIt\u2019s often much more about questions and maybe there\u2019s some kind of an answer or a message within, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}