Review

"Home is Where the Heart is," Copper, Silver, Faux Foliage, Femo.

Mollie Rice Blackburn
Ardent Notions

8:30 a.m.-9 p.m.
(Artists' Reception, 4-7 p.m. today)

Art & Design Gallery
University of Kansas
Art & Design Building
1467 Jayhawk Blvd
Lawrence, KS

Hours: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Runs through: Friday.

Artist's site: http://molliekathleenb.blogspot.com
Gallery site: http://art.ku.edu/about/art_design_gallery.shtml

First, and sad, things first: This is the final post of ARTKC365. Apparently, there's someone else who's doing the same thing in Kingdom City, Missouri (yet another KC) and was doing it first. So, to avoid a lawsuit for Review ...

April fool.

Sorry, couldn't resist. And there is a point to the prank: This is a day for not taking everything you see and hear at face value, without closer inspection.

That makes it a perfect day to feature Ardent Notions, Mollie Rice Blackburn's graduate thesis show at the University of Kansas.

Blackburn, a third-year graduate student in metals, has created a collection of quirky lovely, small pieces — which are themselves made up of other (also lovely and quirky), smaller pieces.

I got a sneak preview last week, when a friend introduced me to Blackburn in her studio at the Art & Design Building.

Home is Where the Heart is, today's featured piece, was sitting on a countertop. (It's even smaller than the photo above, which should give you an idea of the fine detail work involved in creating it.)

The "lovely" aspect was immediately self-evident. The anatomically correct heart provided the quirkiness.

And then Blackburn picked up the piece and began disassembling it.

"See? It comes apart," she said. "There's a bracelet (and here she slipped the base, up to and including the ironwork, onto her wrist), a ring (set with the heart and its home) and a pin."

And, just like that, it all went back together.

Don't believe me? There's a photo on Blackburn's site of her wearing the bracelet.

Better yet, see for yourself tonight, during the artist's reception from 4-7 p.m. After all, this is a day for investigating things up close and in person ... and Blackburn's art and craft will more than reward that inspection.

No fooling.

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