Meet @marquetteu students (left to right) Kimberly Worden, Crystal Esparza, Margaret Kerrigan, Zoriana Telwak, and Grace Lennon in today's #FacesofMKE
What does it mean to be “artsy?”
KW: I definitely think society kinda has a role in how people view what’s artistic and what’s not. Actually, art is such an individualistic thing that everyone’s definition of art is art.
CE: I think it’s just a way to express yourself, really. That can make you artsy.
MK: I don’t think there’s a certain level of artistic ability or anything. I think anyone can be artistic in any type of way whether it’s like drawing or painting.
ZT: It’s also thinking outside the box, you know? Everyone has an idea about how society should be or how the world should be, but if you look outside the box, it could be artistic in its own sense.
PC: @hannahbyron2
Is It Art: Hoan Bridge
Can a bridge be art? Maybe yes, maybe no. The Daniel Hoan Bridge, one of Milwaukee’s iconic lakefront landmarks, might be considered art. After all, it’s woven into the city’s character, and its shocking yellow arch is hard to ignore.
Emily Fischer, a Marquette student also studying graphic design at MIAD, believes that only in extreme and well-done cases can architecture be considered art. “In (most cases), you run into the problem of form being more important than function, but with architecture, function needs to be utmost concern, not form,” Fischer says.
Here function leaves something to be desired. The bridge is known for traffic backups, exacerbated by two years of lane closures, which recently came to an end. “If you think about iconic and well-kept bridges, like the Golden Gate Bridge, that stands out to people as being worthy of art,” Fischer says.
Depending on whether or not you believe a bridge is art, some people might have a bridge to sell you.
#IsItArt
PC: @danreiner
Is It Art: Angel in a Cage
An angel watches over downtown Milwaukee.
It’s a fiberglass angel enclosed in a four-story steel tower on West Canal Street that has gazed directly at the Church of the Gesu since 1987. There’s no question the structure is art, says Marquette artistic assistant professor Rev. Grant Garinger, but he wonders what its religious context may be in the eye of the artist.
"My interpretation of it is connected to scripture,” Garinger says.
Garinger thinks to the book of Genesis when he sees it. In one story, Jacob dreams of angels maneuvering between heaven and Earth on ladders, and in another he wrestles with an angel until it blesses him.
"This is an angel that’s trapped and is not going anywhere until it blesses the people of Milwaukee,” Garinger says.
With some 600,000 souls in the city, our caged angel has a lot of work to do before it can be freed.
#IsItArt
PC: @danreiner
