In the hands of student artist Alyssa Graziosa, organic material comes to creation in the shape of nature-inspired metalwork. A junior studio art major, and Graziosa has completed many projects within the past few years that feature around campus. She is currently taking ceramics, bronze casting, and painting. Through all of her art, a focus on nature emerges.
“I want to recreate the essence of nature,” Graziosa explained.
Last semester, she created a sculpture resembling a willow tree, which featured an iron cast tree stump with a steel wire tree perched on top of it. Woven into its branches are sun-catching beads. Some branches are left without beads—which Graziosa says represents stages of life that we have not lived yet.
Graziosa says she is inspired by the hikes she goes on with her partner. She hopes that her art captures her viewers and makes them feel transported to another place.
“It’s like the feelings that you would feel if you were somewhere that’s not here,” said Graziosa.
Graziosa’s favorite medium is bronze-casting, and currently two of her projects can be viewed in the Moss Performing Arts Complex (MPAC). These include her willow tree as well as a rainbow-tinged sun that hangs on the first floor.
Araan Schmidt, Associate Professor of Sculpture, has had her in a few of his classes, and says that she has come a long way.
“She’s just always been ambitious,” Schmidt said. “That would be the word I would associate with Alyssa right away. She’s working on this cloud now that’s going to take hours and weeks of execution… to make this thing that’s going to be permanent.”
Andrew Griffenberg, a CMU alumnus has taken several art classes with Alyssa, says that he has enjoyed watching her style grow and change overtime.
“It’s like a fantastical approach to nature,” he said, describing one of her current projects, two half-moons that will eventually accompany her sun piece.
Alyssa says that her major is very time-consuming, but she still loves what she does. She makes it a goal to show up early for classes, and during most weekdays she plans to spend her evenings in the art building. She tries to make sure she has free time on Sundays so that she can go hiking with her boyfriend. When asked what advice to others interested in art would be, she says to go with your gut and follow your heart.
“There’s going to be a lot of people that tell you not to or that it’s not the best career […] If you want to be an artist, I think you keep trying. You just gotta put the time in.”
