Art INSIGHT
Non-traditional
heart: Allison
McElroy
by Benjamin Nunnally
T
ake a sheet of paper and divide it into two-by-two inch squares using a ruler and pen. Cut them out with an X-acto knife. Then repeat the process. And
again. And again.
Keep it up until the squares start to pile up in the
middle of the table. Keep it up even after, in a fit of
paper-cutting delirium, an uncomfortable sense
that the squares somehow look smug descends.
Stop at 512 new, perfect little papers. What did we
learn?
Maybe it’s too abstract of an act to absorb by description alone. Here’s one that’s more appreciable:
tell 17 college-age students that their grade depends on cutting out 512 two-by-two squares and
mean it.
30
When Allison McElroy, painting and drawing professor at Jacksonville State University, calls it non-traditional art, she’s not fooling around.
“I have 17 students, sitting there with these stacks
of squares and say, ‘Share your brainstorming,’” says
McElroy. The students were each told to keep a
journal of where they found their minds wandering
while milling away at the task. As one might expect,
they’re not in much of a mood for sharing.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh good Lord, this has gone way
February 2014
INSIGHT