Kayla Bauer Reflection

When I entered the auditorium, the first slide struck me with the few minutes I had between me and the screen. It stated "It's not the end....keep making art”. I had a pretty tough day when for some reason this simple slide really impacted me. 

Kayla Bauer, in their pink attire, was so exciting to me because you can just tell when not only does someone love a color, but that color suits them too. She talked about her gap year before grad school, how that affected her creative process without a structure, and that “Finding yourself is important”. This also was pretty relatable to the point that at times graduate school just feels like the next thing on the to-do list after college but this talk really helped me envision a future where I can just do what I want for a while (within a gap year). 

Once Kayla started describing her Art as both as several things (whether that was objects or ideas), and with the core theme of memory/nostalgia, I felt this was really the artist's talk for me. One of my favorites pieces of hers was this cabinet (all I could find was the installation title prior):

‘I left my heart..’ (2022)

I think this piece impacted me the most because I am also an active collector of many things, but this piece stated as a “curated” space that holds very carefully chosen objects, especially within this display case just really blew my mind. I also recognized many of the objects that also came from my childhood and I just felt so connected and even though we were only shown a slide, I felt like I could crouch around this and see every little piece within it. 

I loved Kayla Bauer's talk because her art just spoke and successfully worked with the concept of making memories tangible. I will reference her when I forget what inspires me to create.