Slime Mold Inspires Senior’s Art Exhibition

11/30/2012 

For SUNY Cortland Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) major Danielle Jordan, a leisurely summer walk near the Six Mile Creek in Ithaca sparked the intrigue behind her senior thesis show.

“Metamorphosis of Chance,” a ceramic installation exhibition inspired by slime molds and fungi, will be displayed from Friday, Dec. 7, to Friday, Jan. 11, at the Beard Gallery, located downtown in Main Street SUNY Cortland at 9 Main St.

Admission to the gallery is free and the exhibit is open to the public. Jordan’s artwork will be displayed Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

An opening reception takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, and features an artist talk at 5:45 p.m.

“A lot of my artwork has been drawn from the natural world,” said Jordan, of Elmira, N.Y. “I stumbled upon these slime molds (in Ithaca) growing out of the logs that I had never seen before in my entire life.

“I thought it was crazy that they had existed longer than I have and I had never noticed them before.”

She became fascinated with cellular growth patterns and used them as the inspiration for her thesis project. The exhibition falls into the installation genre, which means it will utilize the architecture of the Beard Gallery in its display, she said.

Jordan created her artwork by successive layering, pouring and dripping liquid porcelain slip over graduating forms. Multiple firing processes including raku, saggar and atmospheric high fire made for a transitional earth tone palette. And because installation art involves a process of random selection, her exhibition suggests that chance and spontaneity are integral to the order of life, she said.

“It’s sort of like stumbling upon a new discovery and learning about it and always being surprised,” Jordan said. “I feel like that’s what life should be about.

“You never want to stop learning or growing as an individual.”