Beyond a wall built entirely of chicken wire lives Mick Monahan, a 23-year-old sculptor whose jock past and love of aggressive music are molded into his life at SF State. “I don’t make comfortable art,” said Monahan.

An art major with an emphasis in sculpting, Monahan fell in love with the city and the SF State campus while visiting as a teenager.

“It’s really diverse and I like that,” he said. “I come from L.A. and I know I’m gonna live here for the rest of my life.”

Monahan currently lives in the Villas, where he has turned his living room-turned-bedroom into a work of art. By stretching chicken wire from floor to ceiling, he has erected a transparent barrier between his living space and the common area he shares with his roommates.

“The ‘Chicken Coop’ is me trying to deal with space,” he said. “I never have any private space. If people are up, I have no privacy at all.”

Monahan discovered art in high school through a circuitous route. Violent confrontations in the hardcore music scene led him to athletics.

“I got into wrestling so I could learn how to fight better,” he said. But his interest shifted to sculpture.

“I kind of got over that machismo thing,” Monahan said. “And learned other ways to express myself.”

Monahan prefers to let his sculpture, which is mostly done in metal, speak for itself, rather than assign definitive meanings to it. He also enjoys, he says, making art whose meaning is obscure.

“I like doing things that I don’t think other people will ever notice or get,” he said. “I like doing art for me. It’s really how I get through the day. Some people work out; I make art. I find solace in knowing I can always come home to it.”

The artist is full of praise for his teachers, both past and present. According to Monahan, it was the efforts of teachers that kept him in school when he was younger.

“We have fantastic teachers,” he said of SF State’s art department.

Teachers have been such a source of support and inspiration for him that Monahan is considering a future career in the field.

“I really want to go into teaching,” he said. “I’m gonna do the teaching credential program here, hopefully.”

Joseph Hughes, a friend of Monahan and a senior majoring in BECA at SF State, described him as energetic and a great friend.

“One thing I can say about Mick is he’s one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met,” Hughes, 23, said. “He does put a lot of energy into getting across what he’s thinking.”

The two met in the dorms and struck up a friendship based on “humor and intelligent conversation,” according to Hughes.

While he says he doesn’t always understand Monahan’s artwork, Hughes definitely appreciates it.

“I like a lot of the pieces he’s done. I like that he’s trying to express an idea.”

Having participated in several art shows on campus, Monahan is now trying to organize another, tentatively planned to take place in the Martin Wong Gallery on campus in February of 2008. And Monahan plans to keep exploring new avenues of expression.

“I wanna know everything about anything,” he said. “If it’s from the fuckin’ heart, I love it.”