Honors Alumna Jeanne Vockroth's Work Featured in Ozark Hall

Photo Submitted

Jeanne Vockroth, Ghosts, 2011. Handmade paper, spray paint, ink, frosted mylar, collage, thread, 24" x 18."

The Honors College is launching a new display space in Ozark Hall with a series of five multimedia seascapes by Jeanne Vockroth, a 2013 graduate of the Honors College and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Vockroth is now an associate museum educator in the Public Programs Department of Education at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Themes of connection, displacement and loss link the works on display, as well as washes of cerulean blue ink, spray paint and watercolor.

“The water theme is in response to Katrina, but it’s not just about flooding,” said Vockroth, a native of New Orleans and a Katrina evacuee. “It’s a subtropical climate, and the water is very present; there’s a symbiosis with nature there.”

A cache of family photos that Vockroth’s mother saved from Katrina’s floodwaters provided the source material for Ghosts (2011). Mylar silhouettes of family members and friends float atop a map of the Gulf Coast, yoked by threads held by a young girl at the center. Vockroth selected the photos that “spoke to her,” enlarged and traced them, then used an X-Acto knife to cut the silhouettes free to use in the collage.

“I enjoy the repetitive motion of tracing and cutting,” Vockroth said. “It mimics memory –– how you go over memories over and over again, until they’re completely different. It’s a therapeutic process for me.”

Vockroth also explores themes of dislocation and transition in several works about the Selkie, a mythical sea creature that is torn between life as a woman and as a seal.

The new display cases were designed and built by Tim Latourette, clinical lecturer in furniture design and woodshop director of the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

The cases are located on the second floor of the Honors College wing in Ozark Hall.  

“We are delighted to feature creative work by our students, alumni and faculty here in the Honors College,” said Curt Rom, interim dean of the Honors College. “The Honors College and its programs give students opportunities to explore and develop their interests, and we’re pleased to share their talent with the campus community."

Vockroth’s work will be on display through January 2015. For more information visit jeannevockroth.com.