Chandler Dee BFA

Hello,
My name is Chandler James Dee and by applying to the BFA in an Art Education emphasis I hope to bring focus to my work through social, cultural, and architectural material. If accepted I plan on spending the rest of my time studying theory and history in Art.

Before entering an Undergraduate degree I spent all of my time building and making at a construction job. Since being an Undergraduate student I have applied a great deal of these skill sets to making and building in Art. I have taken an already intimate passion for Art in drawing to a whole different aspect through sculpture. When asked by one of my favorite professors at Weber, "What is the highest form of Art?" I thought I knew everything there was to know about Art, so I answered naively, I wont tell you my answer, but it was wrong. His answer was sculpture, I had never created a sculpture before so I listened to his reasoning, and he backed up his point whole heartedly. Since then I have aimed a good deal of my attention and appreciation toward sculpture, and whether he was right or not, it seems right for me. All things are considered to me now, I know no boundaries in medium or inspirations.

Recently I have been interested in creating from material, that has been my only guideline. With that, I have been wanting to continue with natural, recycled, and manufactured natural materials to create environments and places in time that I have never been and will more than likely never go. This idea came from the project Skipton Station where I made a segment of a train station in Northern England. I enjoyed making this, both because of the size of the piece, and because it felt as if it were true and it existed simultaneously here and there in time.

I am inspired by makers in Art, like Mark Bradford and Martin Puryear who have such an intimate relationship with their material. I also enjoy Ursula Von Rydingsvard's work, the marks she makes, and the textures she creates. I always consider the artists that are known for working in the material that I am using to help me further change the way that material can work. Other Artists that have heavily impacted my process lately have been Jim Jacobs, Jason Manley and Sarah Sze.

My most recent work was a collaboration piece with Adam Smith, called The De-evolution of Frank Lloyd Wright. We focused on Art in public, where we could force our work into the faces and later the minds of those who may have never considered architecture in the way we presented it. Through many hours of process and material experimentation we were able to successfully convey our concept, which had received bizarre reactions and interesting connotations. This step to decide to take our work outside of the Art center has encouraged me to continue to work with fellow students to create and show work. And that's exactly what I intend to do with the coming semesters.