Jessi Lee Ross to Exhibit Work from Senior Capstone Project

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The visual image of a sound installation

CAZENOVIA, NY (05/09/2013)(readMedia)-- The Cazenovia College Art Gallery in Reisman Hall will host the annual Division of Art and Design Senior Award Candidates' Exhibition from May 6 - May 18. Five Art and Design Program students, selected by a jury of Art and Design faculty members, have been nominated to receive the prestigious Art and Design Division Program Award. Work by these students will be on display through commencement week, when the award winners will be announced.

Jessi Lee Ross, of Macungie, Pa., is a studio art major at Cazenovia. She says that she was born with fingers fond of grasping pencils, hands desiring to mold materials, and a throat yearning to make melodies. Through sensory enticement, Ross says she aims to make you experience a world other than the customary; to remind you of the slight vibrations you constantly feel, the light you never noticed, the scent of a memory you did not know you had. Through her creative output, she strives to bring attention to the limitations of perception and how those limitations compose the definition of reality. She hopes that this understanding may make you cherish the mutual relationship between science and spirituality. But overall, really, she just wants you to feel what it means to be alive.

Of her project, she writes, "Everything is vibrating. Quantum physics proves that at the most microscopic level all matter consists of tiny particles vibrating against one another. When particles vibrate, a sound is produced. Therefore, everything is sound. Your voice is composed of a combination of vibrations. These vibrations in your vocal chords create harmonies, which register within the human ear as a singular tone, or voice, completely unique to you and you alone.

"Due to this unique yet innate quality, the use of a voice is very effective in sound therapy, or neuroacoustic therapy. Arising from inspiration found within neuroacoustic research, these sound narratives manifest from the vibration of my own vocal chords, as well as from my entire being. Since I vibrate, you vibrate, this page vibrates, all matter vibrates; these sounds share the same nature as everything in the Universe. 'Universe' = 'uni' + 'verse' = 'one' + 'song'"

Ross has received several merit scholarships, is a perennial Dean's List student, and is a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society. She is a member of Cazenovia College's Sustainability Club, Art Club and Drama Club. She was a master student for the "Clay" First Year Seminar, and assisted international sculptor Alastair Noble's completion of an installation in the Cazenovia College Sculpture Court. She has also served as a studio monitor at Cazenovia College's Jephson Campus from 2009 to 2013.

She has worked as a ceramic and mosaic artist assistant at Katia Tiles, in Doylestown, Pa., and interned at Peace Valley Tile, in Doylestown. She has been involved in a number of arts and crafts exhibitions, both in Syracuse and in her hometown area, and has performed at a number music venues and festivals.

The Cazenovia College Art Gallery in Reisman Hall, 6 Sullivan St., is on the corner of Sullivan and Seminary streets in Cazenovia. Hours during the academic year are: Monday through Thursday, 1-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m.; Friday, 1-4 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 2-6 p.m. Summer hours vary. Shows and receptions are free and open to the public. The gallery is handicapped accessible.

For information, contact Gallery Director Jen Pepper by e-mail to jpepper@cazenovia.edu. Information is also on the Web at www.cazenovia.edu/art-gallery.

Cazenovia College, founded in 1824, is an independent, co-educational, baccalaureate college near Syracuse, N.Y., offering a comprehensive liberal arts education in an exceptional community environment, with academic and co-curricular programs devoted to developing leaders in their professional fields. Cazenovia, named one of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News & World Report, is also a national College of Distinction. For more information, visit www.cazenovia.edu.

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