Mount Pleasant senior Meghan Borland started collecting leaves in November for her installation in the upcoming BFA thesis exhibition in April. (Kaitlin Thoresen/Assistant Photo Editor)

Mount Pleasant senior Meghan Borland says the modern, cookie-cutter lifestyle filled with Facebook, Twitter and microwavable meals leads people too far from what is actually important.

“There’s this beauty in imperfection,” Borland said. “To see it is refreshing.”

Borland has been spending 12-hour days working on pieces for her next big show. April 21, her BFA thesis exhibition will be held in the Central Michigan University Art Gallery’s main gallery. She said she hopes people will come see it and bring their thinking caps.

Her gallery will feature ceramic recreations of clay in nature. Viewers will get to see thousands of intricate ceramic leaves, faux trees that smell like honey and a hydroponic garden to support her living exhibit. She said some who have seen her recreations have called them man-made fossils.

She said reading a description of her work couldn’t do it justice, and hopes readers will come out to see it.

“If you read it for face value, you’re missing out,” she said.

Though she is about to graduate from CMU with an art degree, Borland said she never wanted to be an artist.

She has spent most of her life searching for a path to take. She stumbled upon and found hope in an introductory ceramics course. Borland found out quickly that traditional ceramics, with a pottery wheel, was not her cup of tea. Clay was comfortable for her though, because it can be manipulated more than most mediums.

Associate Professor of Art and Design Margaret Ware has seen Borland’s work created first hand. She said she thinks Borland uses clay to communicate her ideas because it is inherently natural.

“Meghan’s current body of work focuses on the need for direct experience in the natural world,” Ware said. “She questions our assumptions regarding nature and our ability to ‘see’ the interconnections within complex systems.”

Borland said it’s important for people to be aware of what’s around them. She wants people to experience things they would normally take for granted.

She has never been much of a science buff, so she said her most recent work has been a bit like sailing without a compass. She said this has only made her more committed to the task, with trial and error as one of her best methods.

Borland steps on a ceramic leaf she has made for her installation . "I want people to step on the leaves," Borland said, "People don't think about stepping on leaves outside, but I hope when they're inside people will focus in on them." (Kaitlin Thoresen/Assistant Photo Editor)

“It’s exciting not knowing what you’re doing,” she said. “A good artist has to be willing to try new things.”

Tawas City senior Eric Thornton has known Borland for four years and has taken several classes with her.

“All of Meghan’s projects are very ambitious,” Thornton said. “She continuously works on refining her ideas and her ability to visualize them.”

Looking back on all the work she has done, Borland said she finds it hard to think of where she would be or what she would be doing if she had given up on art, which is where her message to new artists comes from.

“Stick with it,” she said. “Sometimes you don’t know what you’re doing, but that’s alright.”

Mount Pleasant senior Meghan Borland laughs while talking with students at the ceramics exhibition “Drawing Clay” Thursday evening at the University Art Gallery. (Chuck Miller/Staff Photographer)

Earthenware, stoneware and porcelain pieces dominate Central Michigan University Art Gallery’s new “Drawing Clay” exhibition.

Nineteen contemporary artists from across the United States lended more than 70 pieces to create the exhibit.

These artists, focusing on surface decoration, depict themes of love, nature and the struggles of life in America through a centuries-old medium.

The exhibit opened in the main gallery with a reception at 4 p.m. on Thursday. Grand Rapids artist Israel Davis contributed several pieces for the exhibit.

Davis said the pieces provide an autobiographical narrative of his life with his friends and family.

“It looked like a great show,” Davis said. “To be asked to do it was a great honor.”

Davis said he fell in love with clay in high school and considers it his favorite medium. His love for clay stems from the infinite possibilities it can provide.

Gallery Director Anne Gochenour has been planning this exhibit since the summer of 2011. She said this exhibit came together quickly, as planning sometimes takes up to a year. She expects between 1,000 and 1,500 students to see the exhibit, she said.

Gochenour said she thinks anyone interested in art will enjoy “Drawing Clay.” Clay art has evolved between civilizations, which is part of why Gochenour believes this exhibit is relevant.

“It’s a snapshot of the great work being done in contemporary ceramics,” she said.

Freshman Christina Proulx said she tries to visit art exhibits on campus whenever they are open.

“It’s interesting to see stuff that I’ve been learning,” Proulx said. “I worked with clay in high school. It’s very fun.”

Proulx is minoring in art and said she looks forward to further exploring ceramics in the future.

The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. “Drawing Clay” will be on display until Feb. 11.

Callie Kiaunis is both.

The Rockford senior and 3-D arts major is also an MS 4 in the ROTC program, ranking at first lieutenant. She joined the ROTC to help pay for school and now loves being involved in both worlds.

“I’m a very physical person,” Kiaunis said. “I like being active and I guess sculpture makes sense, because I always have to learn to focus, otherwise I get ADD.”

Kiaunis mainly works with ceramics. She said the theme of her work is the anxieties people go through in college.

“I contrast the adult world and the childhood world,” she said. “There are certain parts of your perspectives right now that you held onto even as a kid that will no longer be accepted in the adult world.

“That’s kinda where I get my ideas.”

Kiaunis often uses the popular toy Corduroy Bear in adult settings like alleys and suicides to reflect on the loss of innocence.

Livonia senior Anthony Martinez, Kiaunis’ roommate and fellow art major, said he appreciates the way her art has the ability to gets in viewers face, but in a non-aggressive way.

“I think her artwork is lighthearted with a hint of drama,” Martinez said. “Her scenes are challenging because they contrast childlike figures with real-life events like war and suicide.”

Kiaunis also likes to use wood as a theme.

One piece was a wooden patchwork door Kiaunis made using strips she found in mechanical rooms, which otherwise would have been thrown away.

“Sometimes people get these degrees they’re never going to use, but at the same time, there’s such a stress to get more degrees and advancement just to get a foot in the door,” she said. “This is my physical interpretation of that door.”

3-D art major Margaret Mcwhirter spent a lot of time with Kiaunis in the North Art Studio.

“She always here and I’m always here,” the Canton senior said. “I think she’s a really deep person and it comes out in her art.”

The two artists have bonded because of their love of the trade and their shared experience.

Mchwhirter said she and Kiaunis stuck together to get through their full faculty critiques.

“We both had to talk to each other about it to calm each other down,” she said. “That’s why we call each other ‘battle buddies.’”

Kiaunis commissions next December and hopes to branch into military police. Originally, she wanted to continue in art but said she will have a hard time choosing over the military now.

“If I go active duty, that’s a job for four years. When I got out I hoped to have saved up enough for my own art studio. That was the initial plan, but I didn’t think I’d like the army as much as I do,” she said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Grosse Ile senior Ryan Taylor rakes the ashes of a kiln Sunday afternoon between Wightman and the North Art Studio. Students and instructors built the kiln during the summer of 2009. (Paige Calamari/Staff Photographer)

The holidays came early Sunday for Ryan Taylor.

The Grosse Ile senior, along with about a dozen other ceramic and pottery students, got to see their finished pots after spending the weekend firing them in a wood kiln outside Wightman Hall.

“It’s really exciting when we get to open (the kiln) at the end; it’s like an early Christmas,” Taylor said.

The art department fires up the kiln once a semester for a different pottery-making experience.

Kansas senior Megan McWhirter said the kiln, which runs off wood instead of gas or electricity, was running since 7 a.m. Friday.

“The experience and the outcome is always different — unpredictable,” said Utica senior Stephanie Galli.

A new experience

The students used a new kiln built over the summer.

The kiln is supposed to reach 2,200 to 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit to fire the artwork. Students and professors are not sure if it got hotter than 1,800.

Once the kiln reaches its maximum temperature, it starts the cooling process.

“We shut all the ports and all the doors and just let it slow cool for three to five days,” McWhirter said.

The kiln runs for 48 to 72 hours before the cooling process begins, but some artists may fire their work for five to ten days, she said.

At the end of the time period, students open the kiln to see their artwork. If the kiln does not get hot enough, the artwork has to be taken out and refired in a different kiln.

Students put in an average of 15 pieces and can have up to 100 at a time.

“You’ll probably like about three of your pots that come out of the kiln,” Taylor said.

Firing kilns is a regular part of classes for Central Michigan University pottery and ceramics students, who also make their own paints and clay.

“It kind of sucks if you screw up, but it’s good because you learn how to do it,” said Saginaw junior Todd Herzberg.