Katie Campbell

 1/24/26

Found Object Installation:

For my found object installation, I found a baseball helmet. I chose it because it had a weird shape and looked different and eye-catching. Inside, I want to create a sunset rain scene. In this piece, I want to focus on the small beauty we love but often forget. There is so much going on in our lives today with school, jobs, clubs, hobbies, etc. I know I have a lot of anxiety towards these things, and it can cause me to forget the small things in life. I am also following my path with light, faith, and God as I did last semester. God paints the sky with beautiful oranges, pinks, and purples, and I want to mimic that. I also see the baseball helmet as being a protector. The helmet is protecting us from the bas storm around us and only lets it sprinkle on the inside. 

I plan to create raindrops and puddles with resin (or another material if I can't use resin). The baseball helmet has holes to allow airflow when worn, but I want to use them to change the color of the inside. I am going to use colored paper and lights to make the inside glow like an actual sunset. I am also going to create a wooden or cardboard base at the bottom and a wall at the front with a peephole. I also want to create a smell when it is about to rain or is raining.

Some concerns I have are if I need to do anything to the outside or leave it as it is. Another concern is how I will set up the lighting without showing the wires.

Installation:

So far, I have four ideas for this project. I am not sure about these ideas as right now I feel like I am struggling with what I want to do. I want to do something with nature, light, faith, and abstraction.

My first idea is with a dandelion. I wanted to create the middle part of the flower as part of the wall. Create a cardboard piece for the wall side with some seeds attached, and paint some on the walls. I also want to create seeds blowing off the dandelion and floating up to the ceiling. I was thinking about adding lighting to the seeds, like they were glowing, since I wanted to do something with light. I want to add a fan somewhere so when you are in there, it feels like you are floating off with the seeds. I also want it to smell like a fresh flower in the outdoors.

This idea concerns looking at the small things in life and the found-object installation. It was always a fun thing as a kid to blow on the flower and watch the seeds float off, and to make a wish each time. This one is a little more nostalgic and always a fun thing to do, which I sometimes forget because I am so focused on my stress. This also brings in my theme of nature and faith, as I love the small things God created for us to enjoy.

Some things I am stuck on are what I will do with the background. I have an idea of painting wind patterns all over. I have another idea: painting a meadow to make it look like the wind is blowing. Another idea of painting just the shadows of the seeds with a yellow glow. I am also not sure how to add the fan and lighting.

 

My second idea concerns my fish from last semester. This idea concerns my faith, nature, and light.

For this idea, I was thinking of putting the fish in a circle and having the big fish go one way, and the small ones go the other. I am going to make way more fish than last semester. I want to add a blue fabric background and use an ombré effect as they go out. I want a light blue by the big fish to show light and guide your eye in that direction. I was also thinking about adding a light under the big fish so it glows. I also want to do it where I add more fish every day during the week my art is up. I am also considering adding a fresh-water smell.

The idea is that the big fish swim towards God by swimming in the opposite direction from the small fish. It represents going against the current, as fish do when they try to make it back home.

A current struggle I have is deciding what color to paint the small fish, as I did not like how I painted them last time.

 

My third idea is more abstract. It show God, faith, peace, and light.

For this project, I want fabric to drape from the ceiling. I want to create a large, narrow pathway to walk around, really immerse in light and shadow. I want to add a nature design to it to add this calming beauty. I want to make the leaves out of paper, since getting real leaves would be difficult with the snow, too. I do not want it to be just found objects like fabric. For the fabric, I want to use a white translucent fabric. I also want to add warm light surrounding the fabric to give it a glow.

The concept is that this installation reflects the light of God as a gentle, surrounding presence rather than a spectacle. Soft layers of paper, fabric, and natural elements filter light as it moves through the space, creating an atmosphere of calm and attentiveness. The work invites viewers to slow down and notice subtle shifts of shadow and movement, suggesting that beauty and peace are often found in quiet moments. Light becomes a metaphor for faith—something not grasped or fully seen, but felt through presence, stillness, and care.

I am not sure how I feel about this one I like it but at the same time I am not sure.

 

My last idea has to do the two gates. This shows God, faith, nature, and light.

For this ideas I am thinking about making two gates one big and narrow. I am thinking about either finding two old doors and making them out of wood. I want to use branches to create trees. I also want to make bushes. I am not sure what materials I have yet. I want to put light behind to make them glow. One more than the other. I want to paint the walls with a nature background and paint the doors with a depiction of heaven, featuring clouds and pastel colors. I am also going to create two paths one wide and one tight. Since I have the other gallery this can help by making my room into a rectangle.

This installation is inspired by the biblical idea of the narrow gate, which suggests that faith is not found through ease or spectacle, but through intention and humility. The space offers two paths: one wide and open, the other narrow and partially obscured. The narrower passage is surrounded by soft, abstracted natural forms and filtered light, suggesting protection, care, and quiet presence rather than restriction. Light glows gently beyond the narrow opening, functioning as a metaphor for God’s presence—something not fully visible, but deeply felt. By asking viewers to choose how they move through the space, the work frames faith as an embodied decision, where beauty and peace are discovered through attentiveness, restraint, and trust.

Some thoughts so far is how difficult could this be and how much time do I have. As well as creating the nature part and how I am going to do that.

Artist Inspiration:

 Yayoi Kusama

Andy Goldsworthy

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

James Turrell

Tomás Saraceno

Cornelia Parker

Why a blog outside of Canvas?

 Weekly Studio Blog: Installation Notes

Each week, post a brief update documenting your installation work. Think of this as studio note-taking and record-keeping, not an essay.

Your post should include:

1. At least one image
   This can be a progress photo, test, sketch, material experiment, failed attempt, or spatial reference. The image should not be dark/hard to define. Lets get better at this! It is important.How can you turn the image so it is right side up. 

2. Three short entries (bullet points or short sentences are fine):

   • What I did this week
     (What actions did you take? What did you build, test, move, research, or change?)

   • What changed or became clear
     (A decision, problem, realization, or adjustment—something that shifted your thinking or approach.)

   • What I am doing next
     (Your immediate next step before the next class.)

That’s it. Keep it concise and functional. If this takes more than 10–15 minutes to complete, you are doing too much.

This blog functions as a working record of your installation process—similar to photographing an installation so you remember how it was built, installed, and experienced in space.

Posts are evaluated for consistency and evidence of engagement, not writing style. 

Installation work is:

• iterative

• spatial

• process-heavy

• often not legible until late

Weekly blogging:

• makes invisible labor visible

• externalizes decision-making

• helps me to see where students are stuck before install

• creates a record for critique and grading

• supports staggered installs (this is important)

When blogging is not helpful and what I do not expect of you in this process:

-it’s long

-it’s overly formal

-it’s graded like an essay- it's not!

-students don’t know what I'm looking for

-it feels disconnected from critique or install

Angela - Site Specific

04/05 UPDATE

All done! Glad to have finished off the semester with a brighter, lighter, and more fun creation. The following is my statement for the piece, titled "2 -09" after the license plate of the truck bed. :)

"2 -09"

    Like many, wintertime in the mountain west can be a time of real struggle for myself. The cold, harsh days, and even longer and more brutal nights, seem to take a real toll on my productivity and psychological state. One becomes stir-crazy when it is difficult to leave the house, and when little traveling can be done outside of the home and city. I take comfort in the ability to hike and explore the mountain landscape, but am unable to do so during the winter. The wintertime also has the effect of painting everything around us in various shades of white and brown, the living nature and brilliant colors of our world temporarily buried. 

    When springtime arrives after a Wyoming winter it feels quite merciful, and often foreshadows a wave of productivity and relief in my life. Flowers, the literal and metaphorical symbol of this rebirth, are a welcome sight. I always look forward to being able to garden once more in the spring and summer, and have a strong relationship with plants in my care. This work is a creation of colorful flowers from felt, one of my favorite soft materials, and aluminum, which are installed at a site of decay clearly wrought and encouraged by the harshness of wintertime. The truck bed, obviously abandoned, left to rot, is evidence of human waste, and the draw of this site is its patina and very apparent material destruction. The flowers call attention to this wasted object, as well as its surroundings, which were rich with garbage when I arrived. 

    The gallery space manifestation of this work, which presents the felted flowers, detritus, and thistle from the site, asks a viewer to consider this decay and waste, as well as confronts them with questions of the real and synthetic, the natural and man-made, the literal thing (in this case artwork) and its reproduction. I hope that this piece reminds a viewer that from darkness and difficulty, in time, comes lightness and joy.

04/25 UPDATE

The process of making the flowers for this piece has been coming along well, so far I have a few clusters' worth of small flowers felted and a few larger ones. I decided not to attempt to replicate any particular type of flower - keeping them more free-form allows me to make them a little more quickly. I'm experimenting with how soft/dense I want the flowers to be. Some of them are going to be felted a little more tightly, some of them not so much. I've been debating what sort of material to make the pistils and stems of the flowers from, the latter of which is going to have to be rigid enough that they hold up in the wind. I'm thinking some lower gauge aluminum or something along those lines - though it may be hard to paint the surface. I'd like to maybe bring some beads and shiny elements into the pistils and insides of the flowers so that they catch light a bit more.

Since this truck bed is technically private property and in a location that is unlikely to be seen by passersby, I'm probably only going to leave it up for a day or two, but I'll shoot some really good photos on film and make some nice prints for display.

Feeling good about where I'm at. Need to visit the site soon and sort how I would like to attach the flowers into the truck bed - if they're wire, I should be able to simply wrap the stems into different cracks and crevices.

04/12 UPDATE

Hey all,

Attached is a sketch for my final concept, the truck bed - I think that this is the piece I'm going to end up doing, as it seems most achievable within the window of time we have and the felted parts of the piece can be easily preserved after, as opposed to the reeds or the storm drain, which would not be pieces that could be easily preserved upon de-install. 

I'm trying to sort out what type/color of flowers and botanical elements I'd like to felt. Sakura (cherry) blossoms come to mind and are extra-spring-y, but do feel a bit clichéd. I'm considering attempting to replicate local florals and grasses as well, though I worry they might be a bit small and delicate. Any suggestions here? Thanks!

 04/02

    Hello again everyone. :) The following are concepts and images regarding what I'll be doing for my site specific installation, due 05/04. This piece is feeling sort of lost on me, I am perhaps too comfortable working within the context of a gallery space.

    This is the first location I have in mind. This location is the site of a very traumatic event which took place in my life a few years back. I visit occasionally, and I walk around the area... I do not really know why, it typically depresses me. Nonetheless, for some reason I return. The field shown here is directly behind the property where it happened - can't do the piece in the property because it's an occupied apartment, and that would be really difficult for me psychologically anyway.

    I'm a bit lost as to what I should think up for this idea. The area behind the property is adjacent to a highway, with a few small trails around, and is filled with garbage. I do think that some sort of cleanup and utilization of this detritus could have a metaphorical significance, but I am unsure how I would craft it into an artwork.

    The reddish reeds visible in the upper left portion of this photo could be interesting to utilize. I think that there could be something beautiful in simply coating all the reeds in a non-toxic finish... Metal leafing, or something which reflects the daylight in a ghostly manner. Color could become a delicate and interesting addition, and the finish could be something which flakes away as the plants grow back into the spring - more potential for metaphor. I don't know if there is any use in trying to illustrate this first idea - it would be a thicket of reeds coated in a finish, that would be silly to draw.

The aforementioned garbage and debris could also be collected and painted or coated in some sort of interesting reflective finish, then organized, hung, or displayed in some fashion around the area. 

    My second idea is less personal in nature. I've been enjoying the material qualities of felt and fiber in my work a lot, and I think that the bars covering this storm drain near Monroe street are a good opportunity to utilize felting. Wool roving would be stretched in between the bars, and needle felted in certain parts to give it structure. The felt would be green & other springy colors, and would be interwoven with a number of different small felted flowers and floral elements. The ends of the fiber would drape in the water of the storm drain, hopefully seeing some rain eventually to activate that part of the piece. This work would reference the rebirth and regrowth of spring, and would interact and blend progressively with the grasses around as everything turns green once more.

 

    This final location is probably more up Jodie's alley than mine - This detached trailer bed is located behind the laundromat on the west side of town. Since it is someone's property (?) I might have to come up with a concept which is more ephemeral.

    In terms of relevant art I've been thinking about - It isn't quite an installation or debatably even land art, but I love this series of images of Andy Goldsworthy throwing found pieces of kelp up into the sky. They create a sort of line drawing in the air, and become like a performance as well.

 "Kelp thrown into a grey, overcast sky, Drakes Beach, California," Andy Goldsworthy, 2013

    I'm loving also this land work by Michael Heizer, which is literally just a massive, mile long gash in the earth. On it he says, "You can’t trade this thing. You can’t put it in your pocket. If you have a war, you can’t move it around. It’s not worth anything. In fact, it’s an obligation." I enjoy this idea, that of a stubbornly immovable and unmarketable artwork. Truly anti-capitalist in nature, I'm surprised I haven't heard about it before.

"Double Negative," Michael Heizer, 1969

Katie - Site Specific

Date: 5/4/23

Update:

Yesterday I was finally able to install my work at my location downtown and it was a very difficult process overall. The branches kept ripping even though there was only a slight breeze and they did not stay up for even 15 minutes. I was able to get my 10 images but I don't feel very confident or successful with the end result. I think there was a lot that could have been done differently to help it hold against the wind better and I am disappointed I did not consider those options sooner. But it's okay, I am glad to have the project done despite my many wrong turns and ultimately I learned a lot through the creating process!

 

In Progress Pictures:

Date: 4/24/23

Update:

This week I went out and remeasured the swingset to ensure that this time everything goes to plan. Unfortunately, right after that everything did not go to plan. Although my measurements were correct this time, I did the math and I do not have enough paper to make this project. So I went to walmart and got king size sheets to use instead. I know that one sheet is still not large enough to completely cover the area of one trianlge, but it's close and I'm going to stick with this material. Plus the fabric is much stronger than just my paper and will hold better against the wind. To attach it to the poles of the swingset, I'm going to add grommets around the perimeter of the sheet and secure them in place most likely with twine or rope. I have the sheet hung up in my studio now, and I think I can make two of them in time to display for a little while (I'm hoping for a few days at least).

Date: 4/18/23

Update:

I started work on my project but upon inspection it seems that the size I had cut the paper to was incorrect and I need to re-measure the swingset. Unfortunately, I threw it away before I took pictures so now I need to completely start over, but I still have time to correct the error so I'm not worried. I've also been catching up on previous assignments such as the ChatGPT assignment and commenting on projects that I wasn't able to critique in person. I haven't finished all of them, but I'm making good progress! If you'd like to see my comments they're way at the bottom of the posts so check it out :)

I wish I had more to post for this week, but like I said there isn't much to show (trust me, I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures). I hope everyone has a good week and that your projects are going better than mine currently is.

Date: 4/11/23

Update:

I decided to go with the swingset location, it offers more possibilities and is in a place people can stop to look at the work as their kids play (especially as it gets warmer outside).

I went back to the location and took more pictures and I'm really glad I did, the snow patterns were interesting to look at and I incorporated it into my idea. I want to make four large installments that will go on the outside frame of the swing. They will be drawings made on paper (I have a big roll of it in my studio), but I would love to make it more transparent if I can. I'm open to ideas and suggestions, I can only think of curtains (which is possible but may fall apart faster). Below are a couple sketches I did on the pictures of the location.

The pattern I was following was very similar to the trees that surround the swingset, they are huge and impossible to divorce from the location so I wanted to incorporate the organic feeling they provide amongst a very geometric area (angles of the swingset and the trainyard behind it). I want to fill it in more, it's a very simple design right now but it would be really interesting to see it continued in more detail. These are more to show my idea than commit to a specific pattern.

I like the contrast of the organic design vs. the industrial elements that exist in the area, I think it calls more attention to the feeling of growth and the changing of the season we're in. This is reminiscent of my original reason for choosing this spot, it is where my partner and I said goodbye to our friend before he moved. This was a change of the season for us too.

 

 Date: 4/4/23

Idea 1:

My first idea takes place at Walmart in the flower section. I was thinking of making little little customers with their shopping carts but they would look like aliens. This is in reference to the term "Walmartians," which refers to the peculiar, unexpected, and sometimes strange population of people that shop at Walmart. I would make these figures out of sculpey and position them in the aisles to look like they're shopping.

Idea 2:

This area is on Boswell Drive across from the Sushiboat restaurant. In the summer I see tourists park in this area all the time as they take a break from being on the interstate. I thought it might be funny to make little tourist people dressed in their hawaiian shirts but shivering because it's still so cold here. This idea made me laugh so I wanted to include it, but I don't know if I'll pursue it.

I really like this location and I want to use it especially because of the rows of bushes that surround its perimeter. I would love to use fabric in some way but the wind is really strong right there, so I'm not sure what I could make that would survive. I thought about possibly weaving some fishing line and incorporating it into the sitting area or gazebo in some way, but I don't want it to blow away and potentially harm animals.

Idea 3:

I  like this location because it's where I said goodbye to a dear friend before they moved across the country. This friend means a lot to me, the three of us (my partner, our friend, and I) used to spend every Friday night eating dinner and watching movies together. I want to make a piece that encapsulates that friendship. I love the swing at this location and I would definitely like to use that as part of the project. I've been thinking about transparent materials lately and the way they interact with light. The Spanish artist Jaume Plensa comes to mind when I look at this location and I would like to do something in the same vein as his work (shown below).