Ellington

[img1]Coiled on the wall of the Henry Art Museum's Gallery 5 is Christopher Carter's "Cloud as Serpent," a scaly, wooden cloud-snake made from the ends of a few thousand popsicle sticks.

It was so ridiculous and lifelike that I, who am afraid of snakes, shuddered and left the room as quickly as possible.

As I put distance between myself and the sculpture, I thought, "Give that man a degree -- he's earned it," and shuddered again.

What's intriguing about the entire 2006 Masters of Fine Arts exhibit -- now on display at the Henry -- is the diversity of art that can be created when a person lets the artistic spirit run wild.

"Wild" seems the best adjective for the exhibit. In their enthusiasm to create, the class of 2006 certainly didn't hold back. The eight-room exhibit includes men in skirts, a giant set of dominoes, several otherworldly portraits and a spanking machine.

Yes, a spanking machine.

There's no way to sum up the works of 19 MFA students in a single statement. To try would be an insult those who have spent years developing a unique style.

Taken collectively, these works seem to represent a dream world, or at least a different take on reality from the way most people see things.

Elizabeth Majewski's vision includes lotus flower-shaped cushions of different sizes in gray, including one as big as a couch. Majewski, a graduate in metals, also created wearable pieces of the same lotus-flower shapes form fabric, rubber and aluminum.

Kimberly Trowbridge's raw "Hermaphrodite Brig" paintings, with their suggestion of wildly struggling human limbs, are gripping and almost painful to look at.

Christiane Tran's "Mulling Bones" installation is a giant set of dominoes, but instead of white dots on the faces of the game pieces, there are tiny canvases that invite viewers to get down on all fours for a closer look.

The exhibit contains many head-scratchers and few disappointments. One piece that falls into the former category is Matthew Mitros's "Conduit" -- a large ceramic sculpture of something that might be diagrammed in a biology textbook, constructed from metal piping and stones varnished with a yellow veneer. Four "arms" stick out of the thing's midsection, and on the end of each appears to be a cracked egg.

[img2]"Michael Cepress Introduces the Modern Gentleman," the video documentation of a fashion show held at the Showbox Theatre last month, is worth an article of its own. In it, Cepress exhibits his vision of the modern male -- a man of physique, intellect and skirts that fall to the ankle.

The looks Cepress created might be called effeminate. From the video it seemed as though some, like a cotton button-down shirt with a layered ruffle closure at the neck, or a silk scarf knotted into a flamboyant loop at the throat, would look better on a woman. Nevertheless, whichever sex Cepress ends up designing for, his tailoring is wonderful.

Timothy Brown, creator of the aforementioned spanking machine, explores the idea of something hidden within something else. His mostly small, flat sculptures encased within a block of resin, give everyday objects an otherworldly feel.

Of course, for the generation of artists the UW has produced, this is reality. As photography candidate Elysha Diaz wrote in her artist's statement: "I collect what I see. With these sweet, solemn, simple and yet complex bits, I write stories -- a narrative created to transcend its parts. They are love poems; they are tragedies and comedies. But above all they are a testament to the beauty of life."