Hand-Painted clothing by Hailey Otto

4D Intermedia Projects
Here you will find works of art that incorporate time space and stories. This is a blog recounting all of the work created by Hailey Otto for her college course taught by Professor Nathan Huff. Enjoy!

Lost Childhood Object
My partner described in great detail her beloved sippy cup. Cherished in her toddler years her deep purple and bubble gum pink sippy cup brought her great comfort until she no longer required its services. My partner, Ella, told me about a quiet moment of substance from her childhood, in-which she was sitting upon her top bunk praying to God that somebody, anybody please, bring her warm milk in her favorite sippy cup. Just as she finished her prayer she saw light spill in from the hallway as her mom opened the door, and in her hand was Ella's sippy cup full of warm milk. As you can tell this was a very precious object, and so to make it as close as possible to its likeness, I utilized a jam jar and wash painted it to resemble the see through purple plastic, and I used clay to form the rubbery plastic exterior, which I painted a bubblegum pink and deep purple. I included some defining features such has the cozy on the bottom, sloping lid, and ridges on the double crescent handles. I wanted to take it a step further though, to really capture the personality and depth of meaning and memory, so I included bite marks on the lid because Ella told me that chewing on it brought her comfort. I also included tissue paper to represent warm milk.

Painted objects
This project really allowed me to go on a personal journey of love and growth. I began by painting the side of an old book, It depicts bubbles against a dusk sky and moon, representing a very special memory to me that I refer to as the bubble night, on the inside of the book I write about the word Aulasy. Aulasy means: the sadness that there's no way to convey a powerful memory to people who weren't there at the time. This word comes from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which connects to the bubble night because they are both referencing experiences I shared with my love. The next object is the painted rock, this rock was used by my love to build a bookshelf, I decided to paint the sky we admired the morning of our first all nighter. Around the rock wraps text in the language my love invented, which I learned, and it says, "my heart belongs to sleepless nights philosophizing the meaning of life". After the rock, I painted a snail shell I found on the ground. I began with a rainbow around the swirl in the center representing my journey in sexuality and identity. There are flowers and vines to represent growth and blooming, then the inside is painted yellow, on the bottom it says "She found the light", this piece originally was for fun but quickly became symbolic of me coming out of my shell. The leaf was the only planned object, I have had an idea for a painting for a while, and when I began to paint nature I immediately thought of it working perfectly on a leaf. Unfortunately, like many people today, suffered a depressive episode. There is a bench in front of Kerrwood hall that I used to go to to stargaze alone, but then my love and I shared a special moment on that very bench in the sunlight and it felt like rewriting history. It sparked a dates that went around campus creating good memories like the bubble night in places I felt sad and alone. I am now able to walk around campus and see all the good memories I made, and just appreciate how far I have come. On one side of the leaf is a painting of the bench at night with the stars, and I have quite literally turned over a new leaf to reveal the same bench under the sun. Finally, I painted some acorns I collected around campus, and each color represents the aura, or emotional vibe of an influential memory. They are all kept in a heart shaped jar, including a scroll with the words: Little pieces of me, a quiet moment of reverent, a soul filling event, parts of me people haven't met yet. Little acorns in a jar, some may call you art, but I call you bits of my heart. In the scavenge for acorns I found the bit of wood, and was inspired last minute to paint it a little and write a poem in relation to the snail shell: She was a creature of the night, looking at stars through teary eyes. Under a midnight sky, she learned to dance in the moonlight. Through the darkness, she found the light.

10 foot Assignment
Chalk is a fun past time of mine, so it called to me for this "little" exercise. Figure drawing inspired me to draw a ballerina, but I think the part that was the most fun was attempting to erase the drawing while doing whatever ballet I could remember. A snippet of that process is included above.

Portals and Place
I have spent a lot of time throughout the semesters I have been here in the design studio, maybe in lecture, an art class, or simply doing homework. I've always loved these big windows that have the ability to open up the room and connect it to the rest of the world, weather permitting. I often find myself looking out this window longing to leave my worries and homework behind, to go outside and let the sun kiss me, let the wind brush my hair, smell the air. In my moment of stillness simply observing the window, I was reminded of this urge, and decided to break the glass, to set myself free. This installation is an invitation to spread your wings and break whatever barriers may be holding you back, a reminder to be present, and to experience nature breathe in the fresh air. The message of breaking barriers and being free is consistent in all interpretations, but weather you see the birds coming into the room or going out, or weather the birds are symbolic or not is up to the viewer bringing a more personal message to the viewer. Hopefully the message that you need to hear speaks to you.

Measuring Histories
I was born with hip dysplasia, it is a genetic condition where the hip sockets do not develop fully in the womb and it cannot hold the femur in place, so I was born with two dislocated hips. At the age of three, the effects of learning to walk on dislocated hips was apparent and I went under for double hip surgery. I was in a spica cast for more than six months, this is the cast I decided to put on the barbie. Barbies were my favorite toy growing up and it was very hard to play with other kids in a spica cast so I stuck to dolls. This is juxtaposed with the barbie being hard to play with when she's in a spica cast. As a three year old my parents didn't want me to simply watch tv so they got me art supplies, the painting on the cast is an exact replica of the cast three year old Hailey painted. My grandma and my aunt also had hip dysplasia so I made two more symbolic casts, one cast has words to describe how it felt and how it impacted me throughout my life to deal with hip dysplasia and be in a body cast. The other cast has words that reflect the growth and things I gained from the experience. This experience was very impactful, and recreating it was cathartic because the laptop containing all of the photos of me in the spica cast crashed and I have no photos or real memory of this extremely impactful time of my life.

Meet In The Middle
Meet Bob, he likes to paint, his parents are Ella, Logan, and me, he was born October 17th 2022, and sadly passed away later that day. Bob was created out of old computer parts, paper rolls, mannequin hands, tripods, and wire. The three of us spent a good amount of time with the security camera that hides in the bushes of Kerrwood circle next to the mailroom. In that time idea surfaced of personifying the camera so it's less of an unknown figure watching you but rather Bob, who is interacting with the environment, someone who is friendly looking at the view rather than hiding in the bushes watching the students pass by. We envisioned that if the camera had a heart maybe it was stuck there unable to move cursed to look at this beautiful view but never get to frolic in the grass or chase the squirrels, alternatively we imagined a poor security guard sitting in a dark room looking at the beautiful outdoors. So it came to be that the essence of Bob was hopeful longing, a way to call attention to the camera in the bushes, and the beautiful view it looks after day and night.

Ritual Project
For my ritual project I wanted to set aside time in my day to be present, reflective and creative. This ultimately led me back to poetry, poetry is an art form that cannot be created without being present, reflective, and creative. It is an art form I began to develop in May, but unfortunately lost touch once school began. I noticed that I was holding myself back, my perfectionism prevented me from working through the period of time that I would be rusty. My ritual project became a path back to poetry by embracing my art for what it is at its rawest form, to allow myself to be vulnerable and even share my imperfect work with others. To help me separate my day from this process, as well as to get into a poetic mindset, I would begin by going on a walk and ending up at the Reynolds hall porch I would sit in the rocking chairs until I thought up a poem. When I thought of a poem I wouldn't allow myself to edit my work because that is where my self criticism and perfectionism would begin, ultimately spiraling into hating and hiding my poetry. Taking my raw unedited thoughts back to my room I would light all three of my pumpkin spice candles, and write it down in a letter. Before writing my thoughts down I would read two Emily Dickinson poems from a book I have to give me something to think about and hopefully help improve my writing the next day. Once I finished writing, I would use the wax from the candles to seal the letter shut. A wonderful tangible symbolic process of writing something out and letting it be, to seal it away and not pick at it but to accept it exactly as is. Then to help me get over my fear of perfectionism and judgement, I had the class open my poems for the first time and read them aloud. It forced me to be vulnerable, accept my poetry, and own it as my own work. In the end I found that, despite the clunkiness, I was proud of my poetry. I found that I felt more present, genuine, grateful and peaceful through this project. I intend to continue this process.

Prop and Generosity
Gift giving is my love language, and throughout my life I have realized it's not so much about the actual "thing" that you give someone, it's what it means that matters. The best gifts are something that tells someone you know them, you pay attention to their interests and you take interest too, tells them what they mean to you, tells them you listen. I have also realized that one of the universally loved and appreciated gifts are flowers, something beautiful to bring life into a home, a sort of colorful, tangible, and visible reminder that you value them as a human being. I have always loved giving flowers, and I wanted to be able to give a gift that meant something to each person individually, making a gift personal makes it intimate and special. For my project I went around and asked everyone in my class three questions (when is your birthday, what is your favorite color, and what is a hope you have for yourself in the future?). Using the answers to these questions I began to do research into the meaning of flowers, the symbolism of color, finding birth flowers, zodiac flowers, and flowers in their favorite color. Ultimately I tried to choose flowers that aligned with their hopes and dreams. If you scroll through the photos above you can read about each persons hope for themselves, and then how the flower, and color, may align with them. Finally I truly believe that the best part of gifts is the giving, I wanted to encourage a gift that keeps on giving, so I included an assortment of flowers which I had attached tags that tell the symbolism of the flower and encouraged everyone to take a flower and give it to someone in their life. I made stickers for everyone too, it was a bouquet of flowers covered by a bandaid that said everything is going to be okay. I left out cards, extra stickers, and the flowers for the week to allow people to tell those in their life how much they mean to them.

5 by 5 Video
These are my five clips, five seconds each. Originally I had multiple ideas in mind as I was leaving class that day, I was looking at the ground just thinking about all the things I needed to do, when something moving in the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was a bunny, I stopped dead in my tracks and every worry went out of my mind nothing mattered in that moment besides being still and breathing. After that I walked slower, I took the time to be present and enjoy my surroundings, to breathe deeply. All ideas went out the window then, I decided to simply film the moments that reminded me to slow down, to stop and breathe, the moments that made me appreciate life. This is a collection of my favorite moments.



Poetry by candle light















