Flower Pot by A.A.

The Flower pot on display in the Martin-Mullen Art Gallery at SUNY Oneonta, is a sculpture of color and vibrance. Sabrina Niewiadomski created this piece for her 3D sculpture class. The colors and shapes make this a unique piece. But why did she make a pot full of flowers? The whole class is set around different project with different methodologies. This class readies the artist for a eclectic idea of sculpture. A great well-rounded class centered around all different elements.
One point of this project is that of taking certain shapes created by the students. Specifically made, these shapes have certain measurements so that all of the students have a sculpture made of the same shapes, but everyone’s looks different. The point is to create something creative, and well made, but while staying within the confines of the shapes. Sabrina decided to instead of making something abstract and intangible, she made something finite, and recognizable. Being in that she wanted to make something recognizable, she decided to stick to simplicity. Making the flower pot was exciting she said. She really had been discouraged by her art classes, and finally came back to the feeling of childhood with her sculpture.
Childhood art projects are always fun. Creating something colorful and fun brought the child back out for Sabrina. Creating art as a child your work is never judged, or criticized and being in college for art can be competitive. She felt like she was always on trial, but creating this sculpture, it reminded her of why she is attending SUNY Oneonta in the first place; fun. She loves bright colors, big shapes and a big size, which are all incorporated in her piece. The carboard cut outs and tubes are created by her, and it’s quite funny that her tubes are actually toilet paper tubes connected, and then wrapped in brown paper.
The feminist side of Sabrina came out as well. Flowers are very feminine, and full of symbolism in art, and also just for women. Expressing her feminism side through making flowers expresses her desire to make the role of women in today’s society more exceptable. Sabrina succeeded in capturing the symbolism of women, but while not being overly feminine.
While trying not to be too feminine, the flowers in this flower pot can be made into a masculine phallic symbol as well. I think that Sabrina didn’t think about the phallic element of her sculpture, but I think it is still worthy to write about. The two juxtaposition of the two sexes in this piece are interesting. When learning about the anatomy of flowers in school, you learn that flowers are A Sexual. Which means that they contain the both genders in one biological life. Flowers spontaneously spread their pollen and spread their seed. Thinking of how I was going to write analytically, or metamorphically about this piece, it never occurred to me to think in terms of gender, but the flower encompasses all they need to expand their reach in terms of population. They don’t need a female, or a male, only themselves. Being close to Sabrina, I know that she wants to expand her love life to include just one person. Being in love with one person, and not being alone. But making this sculpture in the tune of two genders in one as a flower is, I feel like it could have helped her deal with the stress of being single.
Sabrina is a unique individual who appreciates the wonders of being a child, and making art as a child created the love of art, and continuing her education with art is expanding her life to another end that she never though she could get. She has grown as an artist and as an individual.