A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
Laura Davis, an adult person with a fair skin tone, medium-short blonde hair, and glasses, standing in a studio space.

Laura Davis

Professor, Adjunct

Bio

Laura Davis creates art that challenges conventional ideas of value by combining found and fabricated materials at the intersection of art, design, and craft. Originally trained in metalsmithing, she soon discovered that her fascination with jewelry was less about aesthetics and more rooted in its psychosocial meaning. Davis delves into the emotional connections we form with material culture. In doing so, her work critically reflects the effects of late capitalism on these relationships.

Personal Statement

Laura Davis creates sculpture, drawing and installation in order to disrupt notions of value at the intersections of art, design and craft. Her interest lies in the endgame of material goods and how manipulating context can alter that narrative.

 

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

In this course we will focus on disciplinary and interdisciplinary art and design practices of contemporary art production. This team-taught, year-long class explores the materials and techniques of surface, space, and time (2D, 3D, and 4D), as well as the connections and interplay of these areas. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, traditional with the contemporary, and makes visible a variety of approaches in current cultural production in order to foster the development of students? emerging practices as makers and thinkers.

In this interdisciplinary studio course students will be authorized to use a variety of school shops, materials and equipment; including the woodshop, plaster studio, digital lab, sewing machine, hand tools, sound and video production, digital workflows and principles of visual fundamentals. This is a hands-on making class, faculty present artists and content related to a particular toolkit and, or project theme. Every section of Core Studio has shared learning outcomes which are uniquely realized by each Core faculty partnership.

Students should expect a fast-paced studio environment. In Core Studio students will complete short assignments as well as longer multi-week projects. Assignments are designed to help students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials, processes, and themes presented by faculty.

Class Number

1367

Credits

3

Description

Core Studio is a year-long course that introduces students to both disciplinary and interdisciplinary art practice. Students learn about the methods, materials, tools and concepts in the areas of Surface (2-dimensional), Space (3-dimensional), and Time (4-dimensional), both independently and in relationship to one another. Students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials and themes being presented by faculty. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, historical with the contemporary, and makes visible the possibilities and variety of approaches in contemporary cultural production.

Class Number

1433

Credits

3

Description

Core Studio introduces students to both disciplinary and interdisciplinary art practice. Students learn about the methods, materials, tools and concepts in the areas of Surface (2-dimensional), Space (3-dimensional), and Time (4-dimensional), both independently and in relationship to one another. Students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials and themes being presented by faculty. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, historical with the contemporary, and makes visible the possibilities and variety of approaches in contemporary cultural production. Core Studio Intensive consolidates a year-long course into a single semester. Students must be concurrently enrolled in both Core Studio Intensive I and Core Studio Intensive II.

Class Number

1255

Credits

3

Description

Core Studio introduces students to both disciplinary and interdisciplinary art practice. Students learn about the methods, materials, tools and concepts in the areas of Surface (2-dimensional), Space (3-dimensional), and Time (4-dimensional), both independently and in relationship to one another. Students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials and themes being presented by faculty. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, historical with the contemporary, and makes visible the possibilities and variety of approaches in contemporary cultural production. Core Studio Intensive consolidates a year-long course into a single semester. Students must be concurrently enrolled in both Core Studio Intensive I and Core Studio Intensive II.

Class Number

1256

Credits

3

Description

In this course, we will put our phones on airplane mode, leave laptops and tablets at home, and make a conscious decision to go offline. Research will be approached as a tactile, observational, and experiential process. We will touch books, explore archives, talk to people, visit places, and examine and manipulate things as primary tools of inquiry. This is not an anti-technology class but a class about being present during our time together. Sketchbooks and material archives will be emphasized. Together we will practice making, noticing, and questioning, finding meaning in attention, process, and connection¿offline.

Class Number

1205

Credits

3