The Campus Chronicle

Volume 3, No. 4
November 22, 2002

M.F.A. fibers candidate Sarah Hendershot-Simpson takes pride in her appreciation of life’s minutiae, such as this detail from one of her six large-scale weavings on display at Alexander Hall Gallery through Dec. 5.

Mind over matter

By Hannah Pittard

Sarah Hendershot-Simpson has devoted both her life and her work to the details that, she claims, go consistently unnoticed by others. Putting this unique appreciation of insignificant details to work in her thesis project, "Materials’ Matter," Hendershot-Simpson has created a collection of six earthy large-scale weavings.

"I have gone through life as an observer of the most minute details, especially those within the world of nature," said the M.F.A. fibers candidate, who attributes much of her motivation to the ancient Japanese wisdom of "wabi-sabi." According to Hendershot-Simpson, this philosophy "asserts that ‘greatness exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details’ and that ‘beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness.’"

With this in mind, Hendershot-Simpson considers everything from fungi covering a log to lichen spreading across the face of a rock to watercress clustered at the edge of a stream fair game for her weavings’ inspiration.

"What may appear insignificant to most people, represents my personal vision of ultimate beauty," she said.

"Materials’ Matter" is on display at Alexander Hall Gallery, 668 Indian St., Nov. 20-Dec. 5. The reception will be held Nov. 22, 5-7:30 p.m.

Walking, talking and drawing fast
On first hearing, Beatrice Caracciolo’s explanation of her work may sound like the familiar ramblings of any aspiring artist: "to arouse an emotion … to get people to look at things differently." But the more she speaks, the more her audience comes to understand that both her explanations and her work are entirely unique.

"[I want my audience] to rise to another reality, away from obviousness and immediacy; to recognize another reality — the reality they keep inside and repress or ignore most of the time; to open themselves to the subtle moves and instant perceptions which surround our relationship to the world," she said.

Caracciolo’s expectations for the potency of her artwork are high, and rightfully so. Her work has been compared to everything from cave paintings to Renaissance drawings to James McNeill Whistler and Cy Twombly pieces.

What may appear at first to many as mere scribbles, appears to Judith Van Baron, Ph.D., vice president for external affairs, among others, as proof of Caracciolo’s passion. "[She] walks fast, talks fast and rides a motorbike," said Van Baron. "Her brain is quicker than her eye and guides the artist’s hand to abbreviate the lines and articulate the surface in a mere twinkling of light and minimal color."

In an effort to respond to the all-too-pervasive and possessive images and words of today’s world, Caracciolo’s work seeks primarily to reconcile the gap between timelessness and timeliness.

Caracciolo attributes much of her inspiration to artists such as Paolo Uccello, Joseph Beuys, Leonardo da Vinci, Willem de Kooning, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Alberto Giacometti. Though she admires these artists, she derives the motivation to draw not from them, but "from one image, from one thought, from a dream, from one emotion, from the inevitable urge to draw."

Of her experience as a student in SCAD’s Lacoste program, Caracciolo, who now lives and works in Paris, said, "My time there was very special. I experimented and worked in lots of different media with very good teachers in an incredible surrounding. It was a great experience that I recommend strongly to all art students."

Her exhibition, "Life Lines," is on display at Pei Ling Chan Gallery, 322 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., through Jan. 18.