Terrance Carroll already posed for the Plain & Fancy Ball contest. Now it's your turn!

Want to win two tickets (worth $300) and join Speaker Terrance Carroll at the Plain & Fancy Ball? All you have to do is post photos of you or your friends in plain and/or fancy clothes on the Alumni & Friends Facebook page. You won't want to miss the wackiest event of the year. Terrance Carroll has already posed for a Plain & Fancy Pix. Why don't you?

Final MERGE profile: Dave Seiler

Dave Seiler’s ('95, art) work is primarily about the human condition, from an interactive point of view, he says. “I tend to construct my work to appear old and from another time to show a history as a way to get the viewer to realize that the history that came before them is still valid and the everyday ‘things’ they use day to day had an object or mechanism that preceded it and was just as valid as what they are using today.”

Metro State: Tell me about your latest work and why you are inspired by it?
Dave Seiler: My latest body of work revolves around pre-cinema, the time before motion pictures, moving pictures. I have been interested in machines since childhood and mostly interested in old films and the machines that brought them to life.

MS: In what ways did your Metro State professors influence your work?
DS: To build your own tools and idea's along with the thought to do "everything because Piccaso did, so why shouldn't you?"

MS: How has your work evolved since you graduated?
DS: Since graduation my work has become more interactive. This was a result from my day job as a security guard in a museum, where it was my job tell inform and keep them from physically interacting with the art work. Later I came to believe in the integral importance of having the viewer touch and to "play" with the art as a way for the viewer to gain greater insight into to the artist was expressing.

MS: Tell me why you submitted the pieces that you did for MERGE?
DS: The piece's that I had submitted to Merge were the newest piece's on my bench or have never been seen out of the studio before, such as the case with the piece chosen for the Merge show.

MS: How do you feel about this opportunity to present your work for Metro State’s new CVA facility?
DS: I think its an awesome, this is a very beautiful space and am very pleased to see that Metro State and CVA finally have a place to call their own.

MS: Is there anything I’m not asking you that you want to share with me?
DS: The use of machines and or the mechanical movements in my work are about the human. All of those early machines and movements are based on how and the way humans move. I think most if not all artist's either reference or use the human body in their work, the work that I am producing is just my expression of that idea.

To see more of Seiler’s work, visit his Web site.

Last week of MERGE Alumni Exhibition! Read about featured artist Merlin Madrid

Denver-raised Merlin V. Madrid says: “Art-making, which is essentially a solitary act, allows me to tell stories, reclaim memories, secrets, and enthusiasms and sometimes disappointments. It embodies a process for me, which is both personal and ancestral. My art happens as a result of this process and in the end it is a vehicle for learning.” Equipped with a BA from Metro State and an MFA from the University of Colorado, Madrid teaches photography and has been doing so for a decade. She hopes to one day become a full-time professor.

Metro State: Tell me about your latest work and why you are inspired by it?
Merlin Madrid: I am currently working on sepia-toned silver print images. This personal visual narrative is an on-going exchange with my family roots in the San Luis Valley of Colorado and in particular, the memory of the teachings passed on by my ancestors. The image suggests the unveiling of both present day reality and ancestral knowledge as they relate to Chicano culture. It is a photographic arrangement of objects that deals with traditional shrine-making and the communication between realities. It is a search for a spiritual answer to complex questions.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
MS: In what ways did your Metro State professors influence your work?
MM: When I was a student I was expected to develop a subject matter and a language characteristic of my own enterprise. I was encouraged to begin to develop a visual shorthand; and it was impressed upon me the importance of photographing habitually. And I took these lessons and made them part my art making practice. I also have handed down these lesson to my own students. I require my students to reinforce their chosen concept by tapping resources such as literature, history, ethnicity and culture, personal histories, memories and dreams. The hope is that the student starts to acquire and develop his or her own imaginative powers and begins to understand his or her art in a worldly historical context. Ultimately I encourage my students to be true to (honor and trust) their own individual experiences, and to see that their efforts are their successes.

MS: How has your work evolved since you graduated?
MM: When I first began photographing, I would try to take photos of the things I would see. Today my work is more of a process of communicating thoughts, ideas and events and my work is more about processing and arranging object symbols to represent ideas. My work is less about finding pictures to take and more about taking pictures I make.

MS: Tell me why you submitted the pieces that you did for MERGE?
MM: I submitted the pieces I did because I wanted this body of work to be seen together.

MS: How do you feel about this opportunity to present your work for Metro State’s new CVA facility?
MM: The new space is great and it will be wonderful to be represented in this show.

MS: Is there anything I’m not asking you that you want to share with me?
MM: Luna Dreams I, is the image that was selected for the merge show. This image is a topographic portrait of a family member and the map embedded in the figure is of southern Colorado. The use of the moon represents the thoughts, dreams, or ideas in our head. This image is just one print from a much larger body of work, which is expanding and transforming in time. The whole body of work is meant to be a conversation with the viewer and each image is a fragment of that exchange.

Last week to catch MERGE Alumni Exhibition! Read about artist Claudia Roulier

Claudia Roulier is a collector. “I collect things,” she says. “Old things, found things, used things, odd things, creepy things, and unloved things. I collect pictures and ideas some which appeal to my darker cynical side, and use all of these collections in my work.” Roulier has shown her work through Denver, and recently had a show in New Mexico. She makes it a point to be in at least one show per month, though usually more, and they are typically juried, though sometimes she is invited. She was most recently in the Cherry Creek Art Festival. Metro State caught up with Roulier recently to ask her a few questions about her MERGE 2010 Alumni Exhibition submission and various other things.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
Metro State: How would you characterize your art?
Claudia Roulier: My art runs the gambit from whimsical to whimsy with an edge which tip toes into the realm of shadows and nightmares. My assemblages are definitely more sinister than the paintings. I love using found objects and vintage photos. The sizes vary from tiny tins all the way up to full sized beasts. With my paintings I specialize in using many collage layers, incorporating vintage paper, photos and sometimes objects. Because I use many different mediums, pencil, acrylic paint, oil pastels, vintage paper and photo transfers I finish them with a resin coating. If I would have taken a different course in school I probably would be called an illustrator today.

MS: Tell me about your latest work and why you are inspired by it.
CR: I am, first most and always inspired by images and juxtopostioning of images and ideas in both the assemblage work and my paintings. I have always been image oriented and that's how I work. I like putting odd things together in such a way that they look almost married. I look through old photos that I collect and image searches on the net to get the bones of what I want to do.

MS: In what ways did your Metro State professors influence your work?
CR: I was an older student and very involved with creating at the time, I wanted to be there and took it seriously. I soaked up everything that I could. I was heavily influenced by Barbara Houghton, my photo teacher who pushed us to explore images and the creating of them in many alternative ways. I still have that love of images and experimentation. Craig Marshall Smith instilled craftsmanship and a love for tiny details, which remind me of dessert, it just finishes off the meal to perfection. I was scared to death to come to a critique unprepared and with an uninspiring project that carries over to now. Rodger Lang was my ceramic teacher. I absolutely adored him and worked very hard in the area of ceramic sculpture and that carries over in my work today, although I don't always work in clay. But I'll always remember form and function.

MS: How has your work evolved since you graduated?
CR: I think I was a pretty good student and I am just now getting back to the level I was at in school. I never painted in school, so that was intimidating and to this day I consider myself a drawer not a painter I simply use paint as a tool, but a tool I can't live without! I have always been drawn to the things that populate side shows, horror movies and nightmares. Some of that is tamed by some of the more whimsical stuff I do, but it's there, still.

MS: Tell me why you submitted the pieces that you did for MERGE.
CR: I actually submitted my three latest works by design I wanted my freshest most recent work. Only one got in but that's okay with me!

MS: How do you feel about this opportunity to present your work for Metro State's new CVA facility?
CR: I love this new facility and it's right across the street from a co-op, Core New Art Space, that I belong to. It's just great to have something like this on the strip. It's a great place to show and it has a lot of credibility, the remodel is absolutely stunning.

To see Roulier’s work, visit her Web site.

MERGE Alumni Exhibition Featured Artist: Kyle Wimmer

Whether he’s teaching kids or creating a work of art Kyle Wimmer finds passion in all that he does. According to a fellow teacher Jean Schneider, “Kyle encourages more critical thinking and expression than any language arts class and inspires more creativity than in any course we offer in middle school.” The Office of Alumni Relations recently interviewed Wimmer about his work.

MS: What is your latest work like, and in what ways does it inspire you?
KW: I would consider my art in search of the "new." I try to create art that progresses art and also challenges the viewer to become emotionally charged; to have them think about what they are looking at.

My most recent works are inspired by Olafur Eliasson, Tara Donovan and Gabriel Orozco. I have drifted away from painting in the past couple of years. I am inspired by artists that push the boundaries of art.

MS: In what ways did your Metro State professors influence your work?
KW: I have David Clark, Sandy Jones (RIP), and Craig Marshall Smith vividly stuck in my head as influential people for my work—all for very different reasons. But most notably in my style, especially considering the piece entered, it is obvious I like Smith's work. David influenced me with his calm demeanor and Sandy with her passion and faith.

MS: How has your work evolved since you graduated?
KW: As I mentioned, I have drifted away from drawing and painting and I am working on my master’s of arts in liberal studies with concentration on visual art and design at DU, so I am definitely more contemporary now than I have ever been.

MS: Why did you submit this particular piece for MERGE?
KW: I submitted the piece I did because it is fairly recent, but also because of the direct tie to the Craig Marshall Smith style and i thought the show would be a perfect way to display it.

MS: How do you feel about this opportunity to present your work for Metro Stateís new CVA facility?
KW: I don't make art as much as I would like. I am a teacher, a father of three, a husband and a coach, so I don't try to get my work into galleries etc. When I found out about the show and when I got in, I was ecstatic! It was one of the proudest moments in my art career.

MS: Is there anything Iím not asking you that you want to share with me?
KW: I was awarded “Outstanding Rookie Art Educator of the Year” by the Colorado Art Education Association.

MERGE featured artist video profile: Carolin Rutsche