Megan Weaver

Name of School
Arkansas State University

Expected Graduation Date:
12/18/2021

Faculty Nominator
Bill Rowe
Shelley Gipson

Reason for Faculty Nomination
“Megan has my highest possible recommendation; over my long teaching career she is one of my best students.

Considering a sustainable future: the biggest obstacle I face is the university system itself and the lack of oversight and misguided financial priorities.

Ceramics is all about recycling and can be sustainable and environmentally friendly. We recycle broken bisque and stoneware into nickel size fragments to be used like gravel. We only use soft insulation fire brick when we build kilns. I believe with green investment along with institutional oversight and financial commitment, just as Tesla has done, art programs could/will be contributors to a more sustainable future. Admittedly, pottery production is not always eco-friendly including the use of natural resources and high energy consumption. However, pottery does reduce the need for disposable plastic. The USA is #1 user.”
-Bill Rowe

In her senior exhibition, Megan created several installation works that were sustainable. She created beautiful dyed hand-made paper using recycled materials. This was time-intensive and used kitchen-level materials like a blender. She sewed them together to make a wall-hanging similar to a quilt. She also created a room that used recycled boxes and cabinets. Her work comes from a drive to create with her hands, using the crafts and materials close to her physically, traditionally, and/or of specific personal interest. Material culture and the representation of women through time is a focus of her work. This can be seen in her groggy clay body that is reminiscent of the Venus of Willendorf and her use of screen-printed nudes taken from low-brow magazines. She successfully brought together a practice that is sustainable in both materials, but also accessibility after graduation.
-Shelley Gipson

Please provide a brief description of your art or medium.
I focus both in fiber arts and ceramics. I recycle paper and other fibers into paper quilts and use ceramics to make statements about the human body and how it effects the environment around it.

Is your artwork handmade by you? If not, please explain
Yes, I create the work myself and recycle the materials on my own.

Are all or some of the components locally sourced?
Most of the materials I use are collected from trash bins and later recycled. Through this process, the origin of the items is typically lost to time.

Artist’s Statement:
My work tackles subjects about the human body, how it’s perceived, and how our bodily needs affect the environment. I work with paper and ceramics to achieve this. Waste reduction has become an interest of mine through recycling. After collecting paper and other fibers from trash bins and streets, I recycle the materials to create new sheets of paper. They are later sewn together to make paper quilts that look fleshy. Quilts are seen as comfort items so by combining this idea with the appearance of flesh, I show my journey of being comfortable in my own skin. My ceramics towers, on the other hand, show how bodily needs affect the environment through stories told by each tower. One particular tower shows nature being dominated by a city, representing deforestation and animal displacement. Another tower represents alternative resources and imagination that create hope for the future.

How you will use the Fellowship funds if you are chosen as the winner.
If I were selected for this fellowship program, I would like to use the funds to research sustainable ceramics. Ceramics is a complicated environmental subject. Ceramic products can last millennia, therefore providing reusable objects for generations and lessening the impact of plastic use. However, large companies have made sourcing clay materials environmentally harmful. I would like to find a way to source my own clay locally. I would also like to look into alternative and primitive firing techniques to incorporate into my usual practice. I’m interested in building wood kilns in order to get away from electricity. The wood used could be wasted wood. I would feel comfortable using a wood kiln because I participate in planting trees and volunteering for forest cleanup. Clay making and kiln building could be researched by working and apprenticing under local master ceramicists.