When it comes to finding the answer to escaping one's own perspective or creating first-aid techniques for everyday life, Todd Anderson and Aaron Winston may be on the right track.
Their senior art theses, "First Aid for Beautiful People" and "Nadir" give some very likely and reasonable theories.
These two UNM students have been interested in art and have been working on this show for quite some time.
"I don't remember a time when I wasn't interested in art," Winston said. "I just remember times when I didn't know as much."
His show, "Nadir," is the result of two-and-a half years worth of work.
Anderson, an art lover for 20 years, described his show, "First Aid for Beautiful People," as a survival manual for society. His show took about eight months to complete.
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Anderson works mostly in the non-abstract forms of art, representing figures and landscapes. One piece gives instructions for bandaging a sprained ankle along with a picture showing a bandage around the ankle of someone wearing a high-heeled shoe.
"I use it as a vehicle for social commentary and a means of following my intellectual curiosity," Anderson said.
"There's a desire to present human experience," Winston said of his own work.
"Nadir" means a point on the celestial sphere, or the night sky, directly below the observer that is not visible without going outside a first-person perspective.
"I hope the work provides places to stand and imagine the other side of the world, to get a glimpse of the immensity of the spaces that expand outward and inward from our common human perspective," Winston said.
Winston's pieces give viewers a different perspective of the world. Whether they are the scrawlings of a cartographer or a look through the piercing eye of a microscope, these prints show what is not visible unless the observer is unbound by the normal three-dimensional perspective or outside the observer's head.
Winston also throws porcelain using the Arita Method, a technique used for more than 400 years in Japan.
As for their influences, Anderson lists, among many, The Simpsons, printmaker and woodcutter Bruce Crownover and UNM Professor Patrick Nagatani.
Winston names designers Charles and Ray Eames, Italian etcher Piranesi and lithographer Vija Celmins among his influences.
After leaving UNM, both artists hope to continue their art by teaching.
"My work gives me an opportunity to teach through following my curiosity," Anderson said. "I would like to find a place in the larger tradition of art, just find my nichÇ, or just get through my day. Art definitely helps me do that."
Winston agrees.
"I would go crazy if I couldn't make things," he said. "I'm a mark-maker. I love to make. I just hope to make my work whether or not I get paid. I think that's true of all artists, that they'll do anything just to keep making art."
The What, When and Where
What: "First Aid For Beautiful People"
and "Nadir"
When: Jan. 23 to March 3
Tuesdays 9 a.m.- 8 p.m.
Wednesday-Friday 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Where: Jonson Gallery
Tickets and info: 277-4967
