The art exhibit in Patterson Building this week was conceived by the exploration of a baby box.

Alice Dolbin (senior-painting and drawing) describes her paintings and mixed media art as "colorful, whimsical play" drawn from her childhood. She traces her love of art back to her father, who brought her to the Philadelphia Museum of Art frequently as a child.

"By physically tapping into my baby box, I'm building this utopian world that is playful," she said. "I'm getting back in touch with my childhood."

The large baby box, which included building blocks and toys, was filled with significant childhood memories, Dolbin said.

Dolbin will be exhibiting her two-dimensional and three-dimensional art at the Patterson Gallery in the Patterson Building through Saturday.

Dolbin said she extracted a larger sense of chaos and perpetual change in her work from the theme of childhood.

"Constant chaos is almost like a pattern," she said. "I've been working with that in a very vague way -- there's no way to define it."

She said the chaos and ambiguity of her art collectively creates a fragmented story.

"Sometimes there is no bridge between two pieces, but I'll create something else and all of a sudden it bridges the gap," Dolbin said.

She said her colorful art, influenced by her childhood, blurs the gap between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional, painting and sculpture. Her three-dimensional pieces serve as inspiration for her paintings, she said.

Bryan Billingsley (graduate-art) compared Dolbin's work to that of artist Robert Rauschenberg.

"Rauschenberg moved painting to the floor and sculpture to the wall," he said. "You can see the three-dimensional stuff referenced in [Dolbin's] two-dimensional work."

Dolbin said her work also incorporates a play on space and how to create it with paint. She said this idea extends even to the physical gallery space in Patterson and the layout of her art within it.

"I'll play around with it, see what works, see what doesn't," she said. "I want to build relationships with the pieces."

She said she plans to move some of her art pieces during the week to Patterson from their current location in Zoller Gallery as part of the School of Visual Arts Undergraduate Juried Exhibition.

"Even throughout the week, I'll be trying to move things around," she said.