Middle and Upper School Arts News & Stories
Senior Project: Art, Poetry, Nostalgia
Posted 06/15/2016 02:38PM
The senior independent project of Cate Pasquarelli '16 began as an artistic exploration of William Wordsworth's poetry and widened into a multimedia art installation that ultimately included a netted gazebo-like butterfly habitat, which she designed and built outside of the Lindenbaum Arts Center.
For seven weeks, Pasquarelli sought to interpret Wordsworth in a series of works that reflected themes and artifacts from her childhood — drawings, poetry, etc., that her parents had kept in their attic — as well as photography, painting, and sculpture she created in response to the poems she read. Inspired by the poem, "I Wandered Lonely as Cloud," she built a butterfly habitat and incorporated natural elements, including butterflies that she hatched, and flowers.
The project allowed her to consider her growth as an artist from childhood through high school. She said the project represented an act of closure, and opened the way to college and adulthood. Quoting from Wordsworth's ode, "Intimations of Immortality," she said these lines had particular resonance for her:
...Nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, or glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.
In this video, she describes how the project came together.
To read more about the senior projects, go to the following links:
- Senior Project: Water Scarcity
- Senior Project: Landscape Of The Mind
- Senior Project: Taylor's Bridge