a href=”https://www.dailyegyptian.com/contactus.html”b Burke Wasson /b/abrspan class=”realsmall”bDaily Egyptian/b/span

SIU senior art student’s works shown in Student Center Art Alley

A gasoline can painted red with window-shaped holes occupied by tiny glass vials has slowed a few paces trudging down the hall on the second floor of the Student Center. A small glass bottle painted silver speckled with handwritten inscriptions has made some eyes squint. Some suitcases lying on the floor filled with glass bottles and sand has made more than a few students look up from their books and wonder what they’re looking at and why.

They were looking at the art of SIUC student Tracy Michele Bochnak. The senior art student was selected as the Student Programming Council’s first featured artist of the spring semester. Her works in glass blowing were displayed in the Art Alley of the Student Center from Jan. 10 to Jan. 30.

Bochnak, 24, had nine pieces in her Art Alley display. They ranged from the scarily deformed maroon glass bottles of “The Demise of Austerity/Liberation” to “Clouded Vision,” a small, stout bottle painted with soothing silver clouds marked with faint handwriting.

Bochnak works almost exclusively with glass, and each of the glass bottles in her display are handmade. She had never used glass as an art medium before she came to SIUC during the fall 1998 semester. Watching artists work with glass blowing in Pulliam Hall inspired her.

“I came down here and I knew there was a glass program,” Bochnak said. “It’s something I’d been interested in for awhile. My first day of class, I knew this was what I’d been looking for. I’d done painting and other mediums before, but this just felt right.”

Bochnak described her preference for glass as an art form in terms of articulating her personal experiences. She said she believes that glass not only produces the best finished product but also provides a method that gives her plenty of time to organize her thoughts into a work of art.

“I seek to translate my experience into objects through glass,” Bochnak said. “Glass blowing is very labor intensive. The extensive work that goes in to each of my pieces gives me time to meditate on my experience.”

Bochnak based each of her pieces on personal experience. The suitcases filled with bottles and sand, titled “Luggage,” comprise a piece that covers all of her experiences as a whole.

“I feel like I have all these experiences that changed me and made me who I am,” Bochnak said. “This is like my baggage. I feel it’s a metaphor for things I carry around with me, whether they’re good or bad, that define me.”

However, she is careful to avoid letting too much of her personality show in her art. Bochnak wants to give her audience room for interpretation.

“Each one of these pieces has a significant meaning to me, but I like to leave it open-ended and abstract so people can look at it and kind of get their own meaning,” Bochnak said. “Like with the baggage, I hope that people look at it and don’t really know what it’s about at first so they’re drawn to it.”

Bochnak attributes much of her ability to her past and present instructors. Her lessons in glass blowing have taken her to many places. She has studied in places as diverse as Branson, Mo., Anchorage, Seattle and Amsterdam.

“I’m really lucky to have all these professional glass people who are willing to help me take my stuff to another level,” Bochnak said. “The Douglass School in Murphysboro has been great. Jan Thomas and Cameron Smith have helped me so much. Che Rhodes is my professor here at SIU and he’s done a lot for me as well.”

SPC director of visual arts Matt Phillips knew Bochnak’s work was right for the Art Alley and sees a promising future for her.

“I really like her work because it’s original and she adds a new angle to glass blowing,” Phillips said. “It’s not just one style, it’s several different styles. That suggests that Tracy will explore other avenues and her work will mature over the years.”

Phillips said that any students or professors at SIUC are welcome to apply for their art exhibit to be shown in the Art Alley. Prospective artists can pick up an application in the SPC office on the third floor of the Student Center. A photograph of an artist’s work is also required, and SPC will not accept any work that includes nudity or vulgar language. Each exhibit is displayed for three weeks.

Bochnak is grateful that SPC chose her work to be the focus of the Art Alley, especially in her last semester at SIUC. It was the first time her work had been the entire focus of an exhibit. Having that work in a venue like the Student Center is especially rewarding, Bochnak said.

“I wanted to have my work here because it’s a place where people who normally wouldn’t go to art shows can see it,” Bochnak said. “I think art is for everyone and it’s not just about having your work in a gallery.”

Reporter Burke Wasson can be reached at [email protected]