Artists dance across canvas

 Images of warmth and of home filled the Jundt printmaking studio late Wednesday. Orange stove tops, hot pink quilts, and green cookie cutters donned the large print canvases. This semester, advanced printmaking students, under the direction of art professor Mary Farrell, are creating these images for display at an unlikely place — the annual Spring Dance Concert.

Farrell recently met with dance program director Suzanne Ostersmith and the two had an interesting collaboration idea.

After working out the kinks of incorporating their idea into their individual classes, they began to brainstorm exactly what they wanted.

"I knew we wanted to collaborate and I knew we had a song," Ostersmith said. The song was Sigur Ros' ‘Staralfur.' Sigur Ros, an Icelandic band, has grown in popularity among college students in recent years.

With a song in mind, the two could now decide on how to add a visual aspect to the performance. Ostersmith said she envisioned two sides to the song. One was a side with a sense of comfort and home, while the other invoked visions of a vast snowy winter.
Farrell took those two themes to her art class to narrow in on what they would add to the show.

"The themes of the interior and exterior provide a lot of rich imagery," Farrell said.
The exterior, she continued, lends the sense of coolness, as opposed to the warm interior.

The printmaking students took those themes and collaborated amongst themselves. What the class came up with were two-sided collages, made through the screen-printing process.

One side exhibits the cool, exterior theme with layers upon layers of blue, purple and white snowflakes. Flip the snowflakes over and the other side reveals the warm images reminiscent of home. Each student designed his or her own snowflake and home illustration and layered them on 18 distinct pieces.

"The students have been really game with using their own individuality and creating that on their screen," Farrell said.

The home prints all depict a sense of home or warmth. One print shows the word ‘heima,' or ‘coming home' in Icelandic.

On Wednesday night the art students put on a dance of their own as they glided and maneuvered between each other as they worked on their prints.

"It's fun to be part of this team effort," senior Emily Drew said. "They've all turned out pretty cool."

"This is a whole new dynamic to the way the prints are being seen," junior Eric Tra said. "It's art on top of art and it's art expressing art."

The entire class is jazzed about seeing their work dance around onstage.

As the art students finish up their work, the dancers are hard at practice for one the most anticipated events that the dance department put on every spring. Ostersmith is especially excited, as this is the first partnership between the two disciplines.

"I'm fascinated by the collaboration," Ostersmith said. "Visual arts last forever, dance happens in one moment and then it's gone."

The dynamic between the timeless and the time-based mediums is one that both departments are eagerly anticipating.

While the collaboration is only one part of a much larger performance, it is one that's already creating a buzz on campus.

Ostersmith is optimistic about future collaborations.

"The potential is ongoing. The two of us can create a lot together."

The show takes place in the Magnuson Theatre April 22-23 at 7:30 p.m. and April 24 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5.