Senior Exhibition Proposal

                                                AMERICAN COUGAR DOLLS
                                                            Amie Ann Hayes
                I came to Colorado Mesa University expecting to pursue a BFA in painting, and then I took a ceramics coarse. I decided that the ideas I wanted to convey would be best served through ceramics. Most of my ceramics career at Colorado Mesa University has been about the very basics of clay. I was introduced to clay my sophomore year and immediately fell in love. My first goal with ceramics was to learn to manipulate the material and achieve solid forms. Through the hand building class I accomplished just that. When I took throwing I learned how to create functional works with aesthetic appeal. After grasping these skills to a competent beginners level I worked with Mr. Allee help realize my thoughts and ideas through the clay.
                 For my senior show I will use ceramic arts as well as painting to express some of my observations of women from the perspective of a women. I fully intend to convey my interpretations from a sardonic standpoint. I will do this by taking two opposite and familiar female figures and merging them into one. I plan to bring into play the Russian nesting doll form (an over simplified female figure.) Painted on, as the surface decoration will be lavish and seductive American women in their late thirties or older aka “Cougars.” Combining both of these maternal figures together is both an observation of womankind as well as an experiment of juxtaposition. I hope to give each viewer the feeling hilarity and possibly even make them a bit uncomfortable.
                 The Russian nesting doll is a product of Russian folk art stemming from the late 1800’s. The original persona of this doll is the babushka. A babushka is basically a grandmother who is usually a widow. The babushka is carved of wood and has a very over simplified figure. She is painted with bright colors like pinks and reds and simplistic details. The babushka shows only her face and hands the rest of her is floral patterned garb. To me the babushka is basically an icon of wholesome maternal goodness. Even thought this is a Russian doll it is something that every American knows well and has probably seen since childhood.
                In my senior exhibition I am using the same basic form as the Russian Nesting doll but instead of painting babushkas I will be painting a character that stems from American culture. This figure is equally as iconic and as maternal. The “cougar” and or the MILF, in other words the “Mother I’d Like to F$#&.” Although the MILF/cougar and the babushka have a bit of an age gap they are one in the same person. They are all women. They are both a bit of a mockery un to themselves. The babushka is such a sweet and innocent character that she has reduced herself to a little girl’s dolls. Yet she is a woman who was once a girl with all the dreams and urges that comes with. Now the cougar is the type of a woman that does not lie down and become a table doily. The cougar is a type of women who allows her sexual instincts to take hold and drive her. The cougar denies her age and any social taboos that confine her. And therefore becomes the sexual predator she so ironically portrays today. By putting these two very opposite ideas of females together I feel my work translates meaning to the viewer quite clearly.
               Any person that looks at my work immediately laughs. Americans a very familiar with the idea of the “cougar” and they can identify that through my surface decoration. People can also easily recognize the irony of the Russian nesting doll form. I think I achieved everything I could have hoped for. My sculptures are satirical and real to the world we live in. I love that people can identify with my characters and have there own experiences to relate to this concept.

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