April 01, 2022

Amber Pierce, an art education and learning and 3D media and supplies double big at ODU, won a VMFA Fellowship in the crafts classification.




By Jonah Grinkewitz





Amber Pierce is not in it for the awards or accolades.
“I would do artwork irrespective of whether this took place or not,” she explained. “So, any recognition or honor is just extra.”
Pierce, an art education and 3D media and supplies double significant at Aged Dominion University, was not long ago awarded a Virginia Museum of Wonderful Arts Visible Arts Fellowship.
She received in the crafts category for a collection she produced at ODU that combines ceramics with fibers – supplies that can be embroidered, sewn or crocheted.
Pierce used a method known as coil-creating to create the ceramic vessels, then poked holes in them to adorn the parts with assorted fabrics, embroidery floss, yarn, felt and observed product.
Her fibers professor, Ginger Brinn, a lecturer in ODU’s artwork section, impressed her by saying that fibers could be everything.
“Getting all these new materials for the reason that of the knowledgeable faculty at ODU guiding me has genuinely expanded my artwork observe,” Pierce explained.
As an art instruction significant, Pierce explained she has been exposed to lots of distinct artwork kinds that motivated her fashion. She credits Natalia Pilato, her artwork instruction and muralist professor, as a mentor.
Rick Nickel, affiliate professor of art at ODU and Pierce’s ceramics professor, said that instruction culminated in her profitable submission.
“Amber has the uncanny ability to synthesize her very well-developed drawing, portray, design and style, fibers and ceramic expertise,” he stated. “She found a way to weave all her pursuits together in a special and initial hybrid of craft and art.”
Pierce explained she needs to uplift many others by way of her work, which incorporates her individual story and the stories of others.
“Tender Spot to Relaxation Your Head” depicts two younger Black girls keeping palms surrounded by flowers.
“In the course of the occasions of 2020, I preferred to create a harmless area of peace and pleasure for Black girls as a reprieve,” she mentioned. “I preferred to reconstruct the concept of relaxation as an act of resilience. Creating a pillow allowed me to generate a actual physical area committed to the idea of momentarily forgetting one’s difficulties and prioritizing rest and health routine maintenance.”
One more piece, “Monumental,” is a lot more private.
“This piece glorifies a commonplace, however intimate, exercise shared among my husband or wife and I,” Pierce reported. “I embellished the exterior of my vessel with this impression and wrote a particular assertion on the bottom. It symbolizes a declaration to honor and celebrate small moments by solidifying snapshots and placing them into a room.”
Alison Byrne, deputy director of exhibitions and instruction at the Virginia Museum of Up to date Art and a juror for the VMFA Fellowship, reported Pierce’s submission promptly captured her eye.
“I discovered Amber’s operate visually fascinating, ground breaking and remarkably particular,” she said. “I appreciated her nod to the record of the medium mixed with her authentic drawings, prints and transfers, as very well as the incorporation of fiber.”
The Fellowship will come with a $4,000 prize, which artists can use as preferred, which include for schooling and studio investments.
“For Amber to receive this award, she would be judged among a quite huge selection of students from art universities all over the overall commonwealth,” explained Peter Eudenbach, professor and chair of ODU’s artwork division who also gained a VMFA Fellowship in 2007. “For this purpose, while the prize funds is valuable, it is ultimately the endorsement from the VMFA that provides focus to younger artists getting this fellowship.
“The power and standing of any art application is constantly linked to the power of the learners and what they carry out.”
Pierce claimed she is interested in undertaking additional neighborhood-centered art assignments – a passion that her professors have picked up on.
“I believe you can truly see her like for some others in her work,” claimed Nickel.

















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