Graduate student finds inspiration in past for umbrella art display

Ashley Lemon, a graduate student at USD, has caught the attention of students and staff with her art display on the second floor of the library.

The display, an umbrella with raindrops hanging from the ceiling, is more than what meets the eye and is symbolic for a problem Lemon faced during her undergraduate years of college.

“I was drug into the craziness that credit card companies sent out, like ‘Oh, you are accepted for this credit card.’ A lot of students get pulled into this, and a lot of people tend to get into trouble that way,” Lemon said.

Because credit card debt was the inspiration for her artwork, credit card bills compose the top of the umbrella, while the raindrops are created using receipts Lemon has collected from school-related purchases.

“The top of the umbrella symbolizes the false sense of security you can get from credit cards, but the underneath, I wanted it to feel like a security blanket, so I hand dyed and hand wet-felted these large sheets to look like a bright blue sky,” Lemon said.

Each piece of the display is hand-made through processes such as stitching, crocheting and dyeing.

“I take a lot of pride in wanting to get every stitch just right,” Lemon said.

To create her art piece, Lemon spent more than 120 hours working on the three dimensional project. The creation of her umbrella display comes from Lemon’s love of three dimensional art.

“Sculpture is my emphasis, but I do also love furniture design,” she said. “Put me in the 3D world, and it’s really exciting for me because, in my opinion, sculpture gives you a different way of thinking about things because you have to think of it in all dimensions. For me, when I started in a 3D program, I found it to be more challenging, and I think that’s where I found my excitement.”

While Lemon will continue sculpting during her final year of schooling, she is also a former 3D design graduate instructor and a current sculpting teacher at USD, which she hopes to pursue teaching as a profession.

Lemon will graduate with a Master’s degree in sculpting this year, but her plans after school include sculpting and teaching art to college students.

“It’s quite fun teaching students who have never worked with power tools before. It’s really interesting to see a student’s reaction to being completely terrified of some of those tools to, ‘I’ve got this,’ ” Lemon said. “It’s really fun to see their excitement when it comes to having that confidence build within them.”