Hamblet Award
Issue date: 4/20/05 Section: features
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Versus Magazine Online [Image based format]
Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award is Vanderbilt's most prestigious award for senior studio art students. This award is one of the largest in the nation, with roughly $20,000 going to the Award Winner and $2,000 for the Merit Award. By virtue of such a large monetary award and the award being such an honor, The Hamblet draws the best student artists at Vanderbilt.
These eight artists haven proven themselves to be the best of Vanderbilt. They have worked tirelessly to compete for this award. After writing proposals, an artist's statement, and creating wonderful (but time consuming) works of art, these eight artists were gracious enough to sit down talk about themselves and their work. Please take a moment to observe their submitted works and get to a glimpse into each artist.
Award Winner
Kate McSpadden
Where do you come from?
New York City. But metaphysically, everywhere.
Describe yourself with one word starting with the letter C.
Curious, cerebral, capricious.
What major/majors have you neglected by working on the Hamblet?
Art History...one of many important things I've neglected, to be sure.
If you died and where reincarnated, what artist would you be?
The incredibly brilliant and interestingly conceived love child of Richard Diebenkorn and John Coltrane with Nina Simone and Joan Mitchell as the surrogate mothers.
Elvis or The Beatles?
The Beatles, definitely, any day. I was raised on their music - the White Album is probably my favorite, although "She's so heavy" has recently been on repeat a lot for its gorgeous blues-y qualities, I love its longing.
If you were given $20,000, where would you go?
Everywhere. But definitely to the West Coast -- California and the Pacific Northwest, to check out Yosemite and Big Sur and the museums, to soak it all up. I'd also like to go back to India to explore moredown South -- and am dying to go to Cambodia.
If you had to be selectively color blind, what color would you choose to lose?
Sugary bubble-gum pink, definitely.
Would you choose invisibility or flight as a super power?
Flight. I'd like the perspective.
...Tell us about this piece
Walden India Spliced
detail
2004
Oil on canvas
42" x 36"
Merit Award
Andrea Johnson
Where do you come from?
The South (Arkansas)
Describe yourself with one word starting with the letter C.
Candid
What major/majors have you neglected by working on the Hamblet?
Film.... but art is also my major and I do video art, so I guess it's ok.
Elvis or The Beatles?
The Beatles
If you were given $20,000, where would you go?
Travel all over the world to see contemporary art shows. The "weirder" the better.
Would you choose invisibility or flight as a super power?
Flight.... no contest.
If you had to be selectively color blind, what color would you choose to lose?
Dark Khaki
If you died and where reincarnated, what artist would you be?
Myself. First, if you were reincarnated you wouldn't become an artist from the past.... they've already lived and died, and even if that was possible, I wouldn't want to have the life of someone I already know, where's the excitement in that?
Tell us about this piece...
This installation uses a variety of religious aspects to provide a visual and audible experience representing my fall from religion. Through the mediums of video and photography, I am able to visually recreate the experience of watching a person's physical and mental struggle. My work is meant to provide the viewer with a history of one person's experience with religion, as well as to cause them to examine their beliefs and their own person in a different way, if only for a moment.
Hamblet Contestant
Aimee Fourmont
Where do you come from?
Vero Beach, Florida
Describe yourself with one word starting with the letter C.
Ca-talkative
What major/majors have you neglected by working on the Hamblet?
Child Development
If you died and where reincarnated, what artist would you be?
Karl Lagerfeld. I'm a vision in a black tie with black shades.
If you had to be selectively color blind, what color would you choose to lose?
Brown
Elvis or The Beatles?
Elvis
If you were given $20,000, where would you go?
Everywhere. And inbetween, I'd rest in Paris.
Would you choose invisibility or flight as a super power?
Flight. Duh.
Tell us about this piece...
Le Petit Chaperon Rouge. This is a closer look at the classic fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood. It's a film noir. The story of murder and a femme fatale.
Hamblet Contestant
Eve Hawkins
Where do you come from?
Atlanta, Ga
If you died and where reincarnated, what artist would you be?
Judy Chicago
What major/majors have you neglected by working on the Hamblet?
Art History and Sociology majors/ studio art minor
Describe yourself with one word starting with the letter C.
Charismatic
Would you choose invisibility or flight as a super power?
Flight
If you were given $20,000, where would you go?
France
If you had to be selectively color blind, what color would you choose to lose?
Orange
Elvis or The Beatles?
The Beatles
Tell us about this piece...
The title is containment and is a commentary on the containment of nature that exists in our society.
Hamblet Contestant
Helen Stone
Where do you come from?
Crossville, Tennessee
If you were given $20,000, where would you go?
China and Russia
What major/majors have you neglected by working on the Hamblet?
Math and Art History majors and a Studio Art minor
Describe yourself with one word starting with the letter C.
Cool
Elvis or The Beatles?
The Beatles
Would you choose invisibility or flight as a super power?
Flight because that would be ridiculously cool.
If you had to be selectively color blind, what color would you choose to lose?
Yellow. It's not really essential.
If you died and where reincarnated, what artist would you be?
Manet is one of my favorite artists. He captures the character of the people he paints, and that is something that is not easy to achieve.
Tell us about this piece...
The Running Horses is a drawing that I did a couple of years ago. I really like it because I feel like charcoal is a medium that lends itself to drama. The quick motion is accentuated by the deep contrast of the black and white.
Hamblet Contestant
Noah Towery
Where do you come from?
I come from Memphis, which according to my environmental geology class is one of the dirtiest places on the face of the earth. I like it a lot.
If you died and where reincarnated, what artist would you be?
An early monkey man cave painter, a famous one.
If you were given $20,000, where would you go?
A small town with a big view. Where Spanish is spoken. Possibly on the beach.
What major/majors have you neglected by working on the Hamblet?
English and Spanish majors
Describe yourself with one word starting with the letter C.
Coop
Elvis or The Beatles?
My origins forbid me from answering this question objectively.
Would you choose invisibility or flight as a super power?
I've never had a dream about being invisible.
If you had to be selectively color blind, what color would you choose to lose?
Yellow and red
Tell us about this piece...
This is a block print called "5 Ways of Looking at a Unicycle" that I made during my first semester here at Vanderbilt. It's about the mutability of symbol and the possibilities and limitations of representation.
Hamblet Contestant
Eliq Watson
Where do you come from?
Atlanta, Ga
If you were given $20,000, where would you go?
Rio Brazil
What major/majors have you neglected by working on the Hamblet?
Art History
Describe yourself with one word starting with the letter C.
Charismatic
Elvis or The Beatles?
Neither
Would you choose invisibility or flight as a super power?
Flight
If you had to be selectively color blind, what color would you choose to lose?
White
If you died and where reincarnated, what artist would you be?
Picasso
Tell us about this piece...
Portrait of a woman who was a victim of domestic violence
Hamblet Contestant
Stacy Whitley
Where do you come from?
I grew up in Brentwood, TN, just south of Nashville.
Describe yourself with one word starting with the letter C.
Courageous, because it takes a lot of guts to hang your art, basically yourself, on a wall for people to judge.
If you were given $20,000, where would you go?
I want to go the Netherlands first, but then I would travel around wherever my funds would take me.
If you had to be selectively color blind, what color would you choose to lose?
Denim?
Elvis or The Beatles?
This is a tough one. I'll go with Elvis. I totally would have swooned over him back in the day.
Would you choose invisibility or flight as a super power?
My choice would be flight. That way I could travel for free and I could fly with Superman.
What major/majors have you neglected by working on the Hamblet?
I am an Art History major and a Studio Art minor.
If you died and where reincarnated, what artist would you be?
If I were an artist of the past, I would be some master craftsperson of the Moche or of Ancient Egypt. Art was such an integral part of their lives and gives us so much insight into their culture.
Tell us about this piece...
This work in entitled Introvert and consists of objects of mine which I made into a still life. It's meaning is not fixed but can be interpretted in different ways, depending on the viewer. To me it represents intospection and spirituality.