Designer Yael Kanarek, who works with mediums ranging from 3-D prints to graphic designs and jewelry, taught as a guest lecturer and worked with fine arts students as an artist-in-residence during her visit to UT on Feb. 6 through 10. 

“Students seem genuinely interested in the possibilities of creating work with 3D printing,” Kanarek said in an email. “It seemed like a good opportunity to dedicate time to experiment with larger jewelry forms.”

Kanarek is the first artist-in-residence to work in the College of Fine Arts’ Foundry, which opened last September. 

“We saw Yael’s visit as a means to provide our staff with the opportunity to work closely with an artist, which is something that most of our student techs haven’t had the chance to do,” said Daedelus Hoffman, media support technician for UT Libraries. 

Kanarek’s work at The Foundry focused on creating jewelry out of 3-D-printed words, which she created with the help of computer science senior Kaitlyn Bush. 

“I worked on designs for a choker, pendant, earring and bracelet,” Kanarek said. “The best part was the collaboration with (Bush) …. We formed a very productive collaboration, creating the pieces as a kind of portrait based on her life.” 

Bush, a student technician at The Foundry, said she enjoyed working with Kanarek to design the jewelry.

“I thought that some of her ideas were incredibly creative, and it was a lot of fun,” Bush said. “I really like designing things, whether it’s a program or jewelry, but it was a lot of fun to actually make something that had the potential to be an actual product.”

Bush said she was unfamiliar with Kanarek’s work before her visit but enjoyed their collaboration and may work with her in the future. 

“I thought she was a wonderful person to work with,” Bush said. “It might be fun in the future to meet with her again.”

Kanarek spoke during several fine arts classes, including lecturer Yuliya Lanina’s gender, race and technology class, where she discussed topics ranging from her jewelry company to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

“Everybody enjoyed her work with language and how she incorporates it into artwork and also into wearables,” Lanina said. 

Lanina, a friend of Kanarek who suggested her as a potential artist-in-residence, said Lanina chose Kanarek because of her unique work and familiarity with design technology. 

“Her work is really important historically, and she knew how to use all the technology we have at The Foundry,” Lanina said. 

Kanarek said she would love to do more work at UT in the future.