Graduate Teaching Assistant Brian Fricke is enrolled in the MFA in Visual Arts program and has taught 3D design and ceramics in the undergraduate program. He received his BA from Minot State University.

Artistically, Fricke is interested in how objects achieve value, specifically ordinary everyday things. He feels that money is only one means of measuring value. The objects he is interested in are those that can transcend the idea of monetary worth. He is also interested in how they achieve this status. For example, the sculpture In Search of the One is designed to create an idea of the unseen value of a simple tea bowl. His intent is to give the viewer an understanding of what goes into the creation of such a simple form and how something so simple can say so much. Fricke’s current work, which will be part of his MFA thesis show, focuses on how people perceive value and where value resides within an object.

In Search of the One—199 tea bowls destroyed in understanding these criteria: structural integrity, glaze control, mark of a masterful hand and exemplifies the soul in One. 2006. Porcelain, wood, and plexiglas. 66” x 14” x 14” .

Detail: In Search of the One.

Detail: In Search of the One.