Art Portfolio | portfolio

I am passionate about art as a tool for communication and observation. Painting the environment helps me observe details, ask questions and connect with different audiences. Experimenting with ceramics has helped me understand the minerals that make up river sediments and the ways they interact with water.

2D WORK

Selected Paintings:

3D PROJECTS

Englazed: The Science of Ceramics

Year Completed: 2017

In this project, I created a museum display of the physics and chemistry involved in ceramics. I experimentally created glazes in the St. Olaf Ceramics studio and tested them on wheel-thrown pieces. The goal of this work was to facilitate curiosity towards the science of ceramics by synthesizing an interactive art-display with the scientific methods involved in glaze testing. This work was completed as part of my Studio Art Senior Thesis.

Exhibition Layout

Interactive exhibition layout displayed in St. Olaf's Flaten Art Museum. Display consisted of informational boards, in-process pieces of work, 200 glaze test tiles, and 38 finished pieces that viewers were encouraged to eat ice cream out of.

Board 1:

Introduction to ceramics, informational board

Board 2:

Clay types, informational board

Board 3:

Clay types and throwing process, informational board

Board 4:

Bisque and glaze firing, informatoinal board

Board 5:

Glaze testing process and testing tile key, informational board

Board 6:

Firing process, informational board

Board 7:

Firing process, informational board

Board 8:

Ceramic product, informational board

Informational Sources

Ski Bookshelf

Year Completed: 2014

In this project, I woodburned a mountain landscape on the back-panel of a bookshelf with sidewalls constructed with nordic skis. Completed in collaboration with Allie Aufderheide.

SKETCHBOOK

Trapholt Furniture Exhibit Chairs, Kolding DENMARK.jpg

Saint Benedict Church, Sumvitg AUSTRIA.jpg

Trapholt Furniture Exhibit, Kolding DENMARK.jpg

Aarhus Cermatorium Chapel, Aarhus DENMARK.jpg

2D WORK

Selected Paintings:

3D PROJECTS

SKETCHBOOK

Visual Journal Kept in Europe, Architecture Foundations Program (2015)

© Shelby Ahrendt 2022