Carolina Silva is wrapping up her residency at Seattle University with an exhibition titled "Present," on display in the Vachon room through Feb. 29.

The exhibition primarily showcases Silva's work in ceramics.

In the center of the room two clay hairbrushes hang from the ceiling inches from one another, a sculpted puppy stands in the corner, and a red ceramic sock hangs over a tree branch bolted to the wall. Children's blocks rendered in clay stand next to a pile of stuffed animals. A pair of flat yellow gloves imprinted with the texture of rubber stand by the door.

Along one wall are watercolors depicting houses and bearing captions like, "the chairs in this house are all upside down," "there is always smoke coming out of this house," and, "this house smells like seawater."

The facing wall bears the words, written in ceramic letters, "There was a time."

Overhanging the scene and providing a stark counterpoint to the highly textural, temporal vibe of the ceramic pieces that comprise the majority exhibit are the words "Here forever" spelled out in red light bulbs. The glassy, luminous bulbs stand out against the childlike, mournful stuffed bears and toys.

"I used the objects that are around me," Silva said.

Childhood is a clear motif, perhaps not surprising given that Silva was due to give birth days after the show opened.

"It's about finding a connection. [The objects] have a fragile and a human nature," Silva said.

The Madrid-born artist has been living in Seattle for three years, and been the artist-in-residence since June.

"The performances were interesting. I liked the dramatic effect of going from black room [to a lighted room]," said sophomore visual arts major Luke Baroza of the darkened room and string duet that opened the show.

Silva's previous work has a somewhat Gothic reputation.

"The whole thing was melancholy," Baroza said.

One is left with the impression of a childhood reanimated in the dense fog of memory. Each house on the row bears a child's commentary. The puppy, the glazed toys, and the gloves are forlorn, recalling in their medium a child's perspective. Ultimately, the viewer is unsettled by the ghostliness of these ephemeral objects frozen in clay.

The objects Silva chooses are themselves unremarkable, yet her fingerprints, metaphorically and literally, are on each piece. The care with which she has sculpted each of these works makes them deeply personal. The familiarity of the rubber gloves, the houses, the ceramic pennants hanging above the entrance becomes instead a bond between artist and spectator, and the passion with which these objects are realized is what makes the exhibition evocative. See it.