Suspended from the ceiling of the Brooklyn Museum is a mammoth 24 foot long, 14 foot wide conglomeration of wire and black sand. Another enormous work, crafted from mud, twigs and other natural materials, created a formidable sight when it was displayed at Public School no. 1 in New York City.

These are just two examples of the unusual work of New York artist Petah Coyne, who is visiting the University's School of Visual Arts through Wednesday. Coyne will give a seminar talk at 7:30 p.m. tonight in 215 Willard Building Scholars Lounge and a public lecture at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Palmer Museum of Art.

"We're delighted to have Miss Coyne here. She brings another kind of sensibility to the school. Her work is unlike any of the work that I've seen, it's richly imaginative, it combines a playfulness with a kind of horror and I think it's very exciting to have someone who represents that kind of thing here," said Jerrold Maddox, professor of visual arts.

Perhaps one reason for the rich imagination of her work comes as a result of her Catholic upbringing, one that included daily prayers of the rosary and almost led her to the convent. The inspiration for her work is emotional and somewhat spiritual.

"It's just this inner need to make art. It's very close to religion," she said.

However, despite her internal desire to be an artist, Coyne admitted that success in the art world is an uphill battle that rewards those who persevere.

"If I had my common sense I wouldn't be an artist but it's just this desperate need to continually work and do art. I wonder myself sometimes why, what it is exactly. You know, why is it that I have to do this," she said.

Artistic desperation and longing to create started early for Coyne. She said she began drawing at the age of 2 or 3. As she grew older, her passion for art only increased.

"I remember just wanting so much to take art lessons because all I did was art. I was so devoted by the time I got in high school that my parents no longer forced me go to formal school. I could stay home and work on my art," Coyne said.

In between creative sessions at home, Coyne said her mother would tutor her in the subjects she was missing in school. Lessons eventually paid off. Coyne placed out of several high school classes and enrolled in courses at the University of Dayton.

After high school, it was off to the academy. Coyne received a degree in art from the Cincinnati Art Academy.

With art degree in hand, Coyne ventured to New York City, the Mecca of the art world, and began a short-lived career as a commercial artist in the advertising industry.

Although she only worked in the commercial realm three to four months each year -- just long enough for her to get together enough money to cover the basic necessities -- Coyne said she quickly acquired a distaste for the sales and money atmosphere.

"I just find it grotesque and it's a lot of power and it's a lot of politics and I just thought it was really silly," she said.

Coyne decided to get out of commercial art in 1986 after working on a multi-media project for a tampon manufacturer.

"My last show in multi-media was for a tampon company and the most important thing that we worried about for eight weeks was if we could iron this Kotex so that when we photographed it would be perfect," she said.

Ignoring her suggestion to use a blue atmospheric background with only the product name, the largely male executives insisted that the product be included in the advertisement.

Coyne complied with the wishes of the corporation's management and found herself at a slide show presentation for the chosen advertisement. The experience encouraged Coyne to become a full-time artist.

"And I thought, you know, what am I doing here with all these men in this room with these 10-foot Kotex," she said.

Despite her convictions to become completely and solely an artist, Coyne said the offers to return to the commercial art scene were frequent and potentially lucrative.

"I had to say no, I can't do that because I have enough money, it's barely enough to get by but that's enough. You can get very caught up in that world and a lot of fine artists do, there's a lot of fine artists that work in commercial art," she said.

Because she was shy and private about her art work and overwhelmed by the New York Art scene, Coyne said it took about seven years before she showed publicly.

"Nobody saw it, I never even had people come over for studio visits. It was just a very private thing. I would work in the commercial art and then go home and work on my art."

In time, Coyne realized she would have to start showing in galleries if she expected to win grants to support her work.

"I don't think it was until '85 or '86 that I could walk into a commercial gallery by myself. I just felt the whole New York scene was so incredibly intimidating."

Today, the Jack Shainman Gallery represents Coyne's pieces. She describes her work as unplanned, menacing, intrusive and resulting from a gut emotional response.

Whenever she has a gut emotional response, Coyne memorizes her feelings while she listens to music. By playing the music while she works, Coyne relives her emotional tumult.

"I memorize every detail as closely as I can so that I can recreate that in my studio when I want to use it,"she said.

With a hearty chuckle, Coyne told of the naivete with which she first exposed her work to galleries. She said it is common for artists to send samples of their work to galleries in slide form. However, the more established galleries, known as blue chip galleries, generally do not accept slides of artists' work. Coyne sent slides to such galleries. Although she went against artistic protocol, Coyne said her slides got her recognized at the blue chip galleries.

Lately, she has been employing black sand in her sculpture to create an ominous structure similar to large black internal organs.

"The black sand just made it a negative as opposed to a positive. It's so dense. It's sand from casting, it's a by product,"she said.

As an installation artist, Coyne designs and alters sculpture to fit into an individual space. Now that she is supported by several foundation grants, Coyne has become a full-time artist.

"The only thing I need is just to work a lot in my studio and having that time to do so is a real luxury," she said.

Her work has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Blum Helman Gallery, the Sculpture Center, Columbia and Yale Universities and Public School no. 1.