Elements with Enid: Space

<<< back to all Exhibits

Space refers to the areas in, around and between the components of the design, as well as the entire three-dimensional area it occupies. Artists manipulate materials to define space and call attention to parts of the composition. Studying three-dimensional handbags with interiors, exteriors, backs and fronts decorated with chunky jewels helped students think about how Enid used:

• Positive space: areas occupied by materials

• Negative space: unoccupied or open space

Click image to start slideshow.  

The Space Exhibit

An inviting three-dimensional installation studded with the students’ sparkly, colorful “Space Between Petals” work and the Enid Collins bags that inspired it.

Floral Art students Mackenzie Ceballos and Kourtney Hopcus, Horticulture majors, explain how their pieces echo the way that Enid’s simple backgrounds create negative space that makes her positive screen-printed and jeweled cats stand out.

Mackenzie Ceballos and Rylee Johnson listen as Kourtney Hopcus recalls a funny moment during construction of their twisted heavy-gauge wire flowers and cat: when they discovered that fitting the wire into an electric drill sped up the work, and saved their hands.

Floral Artists Mackenzie Ceballos and Kourtney Hopcus with cat-themed Collins bags from the collection.

Vintage Collins bags from the collection (clockwise from top): “bird watcher” linen canvas tote (1970), “copy cats” box bag (1965), “hapi cat” box bag (1971), “pussy foot” box bag (1967) and “Sophistikit” box bag (1966).

Wire forms the structure of the flowers, container and “balls of string” while outlining negative space that helps to define the shapes.

Vivid fabric-covered wire petals act as powerful positive space, drawing more attention to the shapes and forms of the flowers than other parts of the design.

Enid’s striking blue “Sophistikit” with whimsical wire balls of string fashioned by the student artists

Students fashioned a large wire cat after Enid’s much-loved “kits” and “pussies.” As in Enid’s design, minimal lines outline negative space to represent the familiar feline.

Show goers take a look at a display of Enid’s cat-themed bags.