By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
In the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art, the sound of flowing water in a sculpted fountain greets viewers as they walk into the room, immersed in an atmosphere that combines earthly objects with materialistic features. That combination pulls the viewers into a world where the link between humanity and nature is deconstructed.
Odegard’s works, like ‘Wandering,’ combine organic materials with manmade features. 
The exhibit is divided between art about nature and art about memories while honoring the cycles of life. 
Odegard casted a replica of a guitar she inherited from her late cousin. 
‘Sacred Nectar’ features two humming birds attached to a human heart. 
‘Lily’ hangs on the gallery wall attached to a grass padding. 
‘Coming Through’ depicts an hand in front of tree bark. 
Odegard created her works with forged and cast metal, soil, flowers and leaves to convey how she views the relationship between humans and nature. 
‘Different and the Same’ made with cast bronze and iron. 
Odegard sculpted the ‘Cycles’ fountain to provide a natural sound to the gallery to induce an earthly atmosphere. 
‘Coming Around’ features a snake biting it’s tail atop a stone. . 
Carly Marie Odegard sculpted and forged her art featured in ‘Creatura’ in the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art.
Carly Marie Odegard is currently displaying her MFA thesis sculpture exhibition “Creatura” in the gallery. The display is composed of industrial items and organic materials. The mediums for her work are cast and forged metal, soil and plant life.
“The body of work I’m showing is related to ideas of the interwoven relationship between humans and nature,” Odegard said. “So, I’m meshing the human form with natural elements as a way to highlight that relationship, which I feel is a very reciprocal relationship.”
The fountain she sculpted, entitled ‘Cycles,’ was included in the gallery to induce an individual environment for her other works.
“The water was the main focal point of that calming quality,” she said. “It was cool to get all of the elements in here that day of the show. I had the water, the candles lit in the darker room, earth and air. I have symbols that relate to air, but connecting the elements goes back to that nature talk.”
Despite her deconstruction of humanity’s relationship with nature, Odegard was not looking to teach observers any lessons.
“As humans, we all have the ability to teach each other,” she said. “My intent is to create an environment where people can hopefully come in and feel a connection to nature, a reverence for it, and a familiarity. All of us know nature, so bringing natural elements into the gallery and making it a sensory experience with the smell and sound of it all is important to me. So, I’m not trying to teach anything, except about how I feel about nature.”
The exhibit is divided into both rooms of the gallery. One room depicts her work based on the natural environment, while the other room features a darker setting with dimmed light and metallic works to convey the themes of duality and remembrance.
“It’s all about honoring the cycles of life, death and rebirth,” Odegard said. “That’s the connecting point with the small room, which, materially, is similar to the large room because it’s cast and forged metal. But that room is more of a memory room. It’s the memory of the guitar I inherited when my cousin passed away, which I made a replica of and cast in metal. It’s a memory of cleaning my grandmother’s closet after she passed, seeing the empty closet with hundreds of hand-knitted hangers, and trying to hold on and give reverence to love.”
For Odegard, her art does not always become what she conceptualized in her original vision. Many ideas become sketches before she sculpts them into something different, such as her stairway piece.
“The first thought I remember hatching with it was I wondered what it feels like to be inside a tree,” she said. “I often look up at birds, so I was thinking about a bird’s eye view, having a higher perspective literally and metaphorically by rising above to see the larger picture below. A motif in my work is the spiral. There’s a spiral in every direction and space because I love the idea of having to walk into a spiral and up another one to see the whole ecosystem of art below.”
Odegard’s “Creatura” will be displayed in the Moss-Thorns Gallery until May 16. She will graduate this week from FHSU.