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Victoria Fair: capstone

Date

2015

Authors

Fair, Victoria, artist

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Abstract

The artist's statement: Maker. Artist. Smith. Creator. Academic. Writer. Of the many labels I have gathered over time that last one is the one I have always found it easiest to identify myself as. I was lucky to grow up in a family of artistic people, and from an early age I was encouraged to create art. However storytelling was always more central to our lives. From family dinner stories to extended sagas during road trips, my love of the written word and more importantly of story began early and burrowed deep. Writing is the first place I turn to express myself and my favorite way to lose myself when I need a moment away from the world. Since finding myself in the Metalsmithing discipline, I have been excited to engage with storytelling in a new fashion. Every object made has a story, overt or private. Most of the sentimental objects in our lives are valued because of the stories attached to them. These stories are gathered as the objects pass from one owner to the next until some object's emotional and narrative value surpasses any physical value. Often times these stories must be spread orally in the oldest storytelling tradition. In other instances, the story of an object is told through its physical indicators. Marks, patinas, damage and repair all contribute to the visual life of a story whether that story is truth, fiction or somewhere in between. While most of my work has a story behind it, with this body of work I have specifically endeavored to tell my viewers a story through objects I have created. Against my first instinct to draft the narrative and simply illustrate it, I have let the triumphs and difficulties of making these objects inform me about the fictional people who would have made them and the people they would have been made for. To know them in this way, to follow in their imagined footsteps has given me an intimate depth of knowledge that I would not have otherwise achieved if I had instead forced the objects to conform to my predetermined narrative.

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Colorado State University Art and Art History Department capstone project.
Capstone contains the artist's statement, a list of works, and images of works.

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