B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

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  Sonder

  Keleigh Mabry

  Sonder- the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. -John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

  I find comfort in realizing everyone’s lives are as terrible and fascinating as my own. Dealing with stigma about mania and depression has affected me throughout my interpersonal relationships- I have felt and often still feel isolated. I’ve learned a lot about myself through my research in clinical psychology and by creating art about my bipolar disorder. I’ve set myself the goal to make other mentally ill people feel less misunderstood and isolated.

  In my prints I display identity, depression, and pressure through anthropomorphized figures. But, the figure never has a human head. It is replaced with an item that aids in telling the story of the individual’s mental state and complex emotions. I use unrestrained lines similar to blind contour and portray the figures in varying sizes- often large- to take up space with the viewer. My surrealist style is inspired by Mark Ryden and Kathryn Polk, using imaginative freedom to explain the figure’s story. They are alone, unobstructed by an environment except for objects they are engaging with and key momentos around them that form an idiographic synopsis of their state of being. Their isolation creates an invitation for the viewer to join in and take up space in the piece, providing the figures company.

  Whether studying psychology or dealing daily with my own mental health, this body of work visually portrays mental health fluctuation in hope to create oneness and solidarity. I present an opportunity for viewers to evaluate mental illness and its impact on our fascinating, detailed, terrible, and happy lives. I encourage you to sonder and realize how simultaneously unique and analogous a stranger truly is.

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  I Love You; I'm Glad I Exist

  Ashlynn Eve McIntyre

  Artist Statement

  Ash Eve McIntyre

  I create figural work exploring themes of object-human relationships in the context of childhood trauma and its aftermath. The works are made using a variety of media, including wood, ceramic, paint, and even found objects such as stuffed animals. The same craft techniques that are used to create comfort within domestic settings, I utilize to give care to the figures.

  In the work, there is an emphasis on comfort and platonic love in my work. Stuffed animals are used in my sculptures to relate back to both domesticity and physical comfort. While the works represent the traumatized individual, the tone of the pieces are generally of emotional recovery and resilience. In this context, elements of ideal domesticity such as stuffed animals and hand-made clothing express realistic and achievable forms of happiness.

  Many of my works reference the Greek mythological stories, like those from Ovid’s Metamorphosis, in which characters often undergo a transformation into an object or animal after experiencing a traumatic event. This transformation creates a paradox in which the character both survives and dies. In Ovid’s recounting of Greek myths, their new form is often supposed to protect them from further harm, but ultimately this objectification only further takes away their agency. These references to mythology allows the work to make obvious that traumatic loss of identity is a long-established but often unspoken human reality.

  The relationship between psychological death and physical comfort in my work ultimately yields itself to these artworks acting as their own alternative to heaven. Despite surviving, their object bodies have been taxidermied into the state of eternal comfort.

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  Advocate

  Lauren Morgan

  From an early age, I was exposed to the detrimental effects cancer can have on individuals as well as their families. One after another, I experienced the passing of family and friends. The heartbreak that I endured during these times inspired me to push for more advocacy and change in the cancer world. Through my design work, I am exploring the human connection, how humans interact with each other, and how art and design can influence the way we see challenging situations. This connection is explored in my senior BFA show, driven by my passion for fundraising and advocacy in the nonprofit industry that I've continuously pursued.

  The Advocate project is an awareness campaign that combines my graphic design education and skills with my passion for advocacy and awareness for cancer research. Through design, I educate viewers about Advocate - a campaign that focuses on the discrepancies in stage 4 breast cancer treatment and funding. Breast Cancer has the highest percentage of received funding over all other cancer types, yet only 2-5% of this funding is allotted to stage 4 research. Stage 4, or metastatic breast cancer, is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and is incurable and deadly.

  Advocate reaches multiple constituents. The patient, caregiver, and fundraiser all have a role in making up what Advocate promotes. These three channels work together through awareness, support, and assistance. Advocate is made up of elements of branding and poster design, advertising, digital marketing and research. It combines shades of blue and green; representing knowledge and growth. The focal point of my show is four posters, which give a glance of the reality of metastatic breast cancer. In these posters, statistics of the disease are spread across the majority of the page, which are highlighted around the broad range of patients it affects. The posters aren't meant to give the viewer the full answer, but to want to learn more about the subject - as advanced cancers can be complex and easily overlooked.

  Much of the inspiration of my work stems from both Corita Kent and Massimo Vignelli. Through both Kent and Vignelli’s use of active designs with color, lettering, leading lines, and more - I was inspired to create digital and moving graphics for Advocate. Each highlight the work Advocate brings to the table, and the people that help support them.

  The Advocate project aims to educate the viewer about the complexities surrounding terminal cancer diagnoses. To help those better understand the discrepancies in awareness and research of those going through a journey much overlooked. To encourage advocacy for not only their own health, but others. And to know that with great courage and perseverance, there is always hope for the future. I hope by viewing my show, you too are impacted by connections made through interactions with one another, and inspired to make a difference in your own community.

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  All-Consuming

  Maddie Ortt

  My work focuses on themes of identity and personal history, the things that make us who we are. Whether that is what kind of

  childhood we had, the trauma we have endured over the years, the thoughts about ourselves that we believe to be true, or just simply the environment we grew up in. I’m interested in the psychology of metacognition and how we can become so analytical and aware of our own thoughts or the thoughts others have of us. This internal investigation of why myself and others are so critical of ourselves has been one of the driving forces in my work.

  Using food and human anatomy in unexpected ways, I question the causes and outcomes of unhealthy perceptions of our bodies. I cover heavy subjects like eating disorders and the detriment they do to your mental health and your way of thinking. Such as, the idea of craving to be able to see your own bones, or the unhealthy thought expressed by an acquaintance, imagining how skinny they could be if their intestines were removed from their body. I believe clay as my medium helps me bring these ideas to fruition by the malleability of the material and how it is both visceral and fragile.

  These concepts in my work have been very personal to me, which has made the creation of these sculptures more of a healing process for myself. Digging into my own eating disorder as part of the inspiration for my work was something I never thought I would do, but now realize it was necessary for my artwork. I hope the viewer can gain a greater understanding and perspective of what it’s like to experience these disorders and not be hesitant to discuss them as well.

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  Proceed with Caution

  Rebecca Potts

  Throughout my childhood, my parents often took me out into nature to go hiking, camping, and just explore. Now when I am in nature, I am reminded of my childhood and reflect on the memories of safety and comfort that I experienced, but through the lens of the person that I am today. As I have learned about and engaged with people in my community, I realized that their experiences and views of being outdoors and in the environments that I grew up feeling comfortable in are much different than mine. These different experiences are based on factors such as family or community, external factors, social location, and their personal experiences.

  My work is a way for me to reflect on and convey my own experiences as a child as opposed to how I feel today, and also to be an advocate for others who feel unsafe in outdoor environments. I reflect on the complex relationship between people and their surrounding environment in two different media - painting and graphic design. In my paintings, I explore my personal and experiential relationship with the natural environment, as well as how my relationships with family have affected my experiences. I think about what it means to be a woman in nature alone, and how I can sense that with the comfort I feel, there are also feelings of uncertainty and a lurking danger. Through graphic design, I create influential advertising campaigns and posters about inclusion and safety, and visual identities and branding that present a welcoming and inclusive environment.

  To show the tension between the comfort I feel in nature in relation to danger that exists, I place myself in paintings as a child and as an adult in situations where the feeling of lurking danger is present, or where the figures are vulnerable in some way. The images that I paint feel precarious and unsettling, but comforting at the same time as I often appear happy in nature with my family. The figures in my paintings interact with recurring symbols and elements such as fog, water, or roots. I use elevated, dark colors and gestural mark making to show opposition and emphasize an unsettling mood. A few of my contemporary painting influences include Shannon Cartier Lucy and Teresa Dunn. Shannon Lucy paints unsettling or uncomfortable scenes that can also be intimate or inviting, as a lot of these scenes are in familiar, everyday spaces, and this is a balance that I also strive for in my own work. In Teresa Dunn’s work, I am mainly inspired by her mark making, use of color, and level of resolve that she achieves in different areas of her paintings, as well as the ways that she uses figures. Her mark making is very gestural, and she also brings in a lot of non-local colors in order to create more conflicting scenes.

  The colors that I use in my graphic design work are warm, natural, and tonal colors that visually communicate feelings of familiarity and comfort. I use bold serif typefaces such as Gastromond and Freehouse that appear adventurous and lighthearted, paired with wide sans serif typefaces such as Avenir and Effra because these typefaces appear approachable, friendly, and dependable. I am influenced by the ways that the designer Jessica Hische creates importance and draws attention through her bold and elegant typography. The flat and minimalistic illustrations and icons that I use in my infographics and advertising designs also make them easily digestible and welcoming for the viewer. In the design of the logo for my national park system, I used a shape that resembles an arrow as well as a minimal illustration of a mountainscape. In this logo and in my illustrations, I am influenced by the designer Chester Don Powell. Specifically, I am inspired by the flat and intricate illustrations and bold typography that Chester Don Powell used in his designs of Works Progress Administration posters for national parks.

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  Kansas City Beasts

  Lauren Powderly

  Sports design is marked by the ability to unite people behind a communal message. Growing up, athletics and art became anchors in my family. Most of my time was spent playing outside with my dad and brothers, while my mom taught me how to stretch my creativity and make art, seeing things for the end result and finding the beauty in the process of creating. Later on, I witnessed sports and art build community and cultivate creativity, functioning as something more than just entertainment, but a key part in bringing people together. This project entwines the energy and unity of sports culture with the essence of clean design.

  Britt Davis’s work and my own experience as a St. Louis Blues intern serve as the inspiration for this portfolio. As an intern, implementing new brand guides highlighted the paramount role branding plays in the sports industry and within a community. Through design, teams create personality and cohesion, a story that fans can rally behind. This project series combines these formative experiences with Britt Davis’ use of creative strategy in drawing inspiration from a city’s people, culture, and history to create a unifying and cohesive brand.

  The Kansas City Beasts brand is built on the foundation of intentional design–utilizing typography, texture, photography, and a strong color palette to create a cohesive identity system. The construction of the team’s culture and fan experience inspired a design that would connect the essence of the team to the community. The brand features unified yet bold, modern typography, which sometimes interacts with the layout or photo itself to create an illusion of depth or abstraction within a design, invoking the city’s trueness and grit. The brand maintains a balance between clean and complex relationships, relying on textures and patterns to break up space within a composition. These formal elements result in work that is both functional and communicative. The designs present information in a comprehensible way regardless of fans’ knowledge of sports, highlighting the city’s collective people rather than individuals.

  The digital and print project series communicates the identity of the Kansas City Beasts through manipulating contrasts within the foundation of the design. The poster series in particular centers on cut-out photography on top of vivid, textured backgrounds, combined with bold typography to form an engaging composition. These eye-catching projects brim with impactful visuals, intentional movement, and a lively yet subtly gritty tone.

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  Returning a Borrowed Tongue

  Kerrie Pullen

  Exploring and embracing my Filipino heritage has not only inspired the work I create, but changed my perception of cultural identity and traditional art. Being bicultural, half white and half Filipino, and learning about the migration that my mother and others experienced has allowed me to connect to my identity. I encountered a new space as an outsider and began to realize how much my identity was impacted through an adjustment process. Questions like, “Am I Filipino enough to be this? Who am I to know anything about what it means to be Filipino?” constantly arises. The consequences of displacement and ongoing conflicting questions that arise in everyday life have dominated my way of thinking and creating. This body of work is not simply to celebrate my culture but to bring attention to experiences of feeling different and isolated, but also finding connections within an unfamiliar environment. As time goes on, those experiences are constantly changed and intertwined with each other to create a new cultural identity.

  My work reflects a multicultural perspective, bringing together Filipino American undertone and abstraction. The importance of intangible elements, the feeling of emptiness, alien-ness, through patterns of absence and in-between spaces is heightened within each drawing. Combining topics such as colonization, racism, community, family, history, traditions, finding a safe space, and love, individual experiences become visible. Beneath what is seen on each of the surfaces are layers that are overlaid by another layer and parts that are destroyed and covered. As with many untold stories, they become invisible and I incorporate references to cultural details and symbols familiar to Filipinos such as food, fashion, family, and folklore to resurface varying histories. Aspects like textiles, assemblage, real food, and using found objects are used to further push the conceptual ideas in the work. I use color to represent specific ideas or historical and cultural aspects. For instance, in one of my recent pieces titled Take up the Brown, I reference the border from a manuscript called Boxer Codex. This manuscript was made during the late eighteenth century when the Spanish colonized the Philippines, so I reference the flat, floral lines they used in combination with the way I draw and collage contemporarily to give back that power to the Filipina posed within. I arrange objects and forms in a way that is considered and complex, but still accessible to the viewer. Each element is placed to provide visual movement and multiple details to look for, as if the viewers must follow along to a map of Filipino culture and discover it as I am doing at the same time.

  The figures depicted are representational and often include members of my family and at times myself who actively pose to enhance the narrative. It is important to include different womanly bodies who personify my American side and my Filipino side, and referencing old photographs to flesh out new meanings. I incorporate my mother, presented as a woman with a carabao (water-buffalo) head, who represents the positive characteristics of Filipinos as hardworking, strong, and graceful.

  The more I explore my culture and the impacts colonization has on bicultural individuals, the more information and layers I build from. My desire to use the power of visual language transcends national and cultural boundaries and alters how I am shaped as a person of mixed history. At the heart of the work is an attempt to harmonize the contradiction between past and present, invisible and visible, Filipino American.

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  SUICIDE: A TRANSITION

  Chad Reeder

  I have been shaped by loss. My art is deeply personal and is directly informed by the effects of suicide. My photographs and videos are a way to confront the reality of losing so many loved ones, as a way to reconnect to the world by seeking friendships through conversations about suicide. This is in order for the viewer to be presented with themes and formalities which challenges the stigma of suicide in order to save lives.

  Suicide is something that cannot be left alone or not talked about. My works challenge the way one perceives suicide to reflect a different perspective on life itself. Having lost nine loved ones to suicide, I want to show that transformation is necessary in order to accept what one cannot change. Life is precious and something that should be handled with care, with my framing and subject matter I push this new outlook I have on life. If suicide is not constantly talked about, society will continue to lose beloved souls to their own unseen struggles.

  In order for the viewer to be confronted with the many emotions by the image as I have been dealing with so much loss, my works are in color. This shows the transformative affects suicide has had on my life, ranging from wanting to take my own life to how to cope with overwhelming loss everyday. I am interested in representing moments and scenes that can be interpreted as rebirth or the moment of death. I do this to further push a new way of looking at suicide. This transformation of life from experiencing loss to suicide is achieved formally through different perspectives of light, pattern, shape and form. There is sharp lighting in some to reflect light as a way to see the world differently. Pattern, shape and form come together to resemble the harshness and loneliness one is hit with like a freight train when grieving. These themes and formalities are my self reflection into my own life and how suicide has completely transformed me into someone new.

  My work, Taken Up, is about portraying the way suicide feels to me. The viewer is looking at a moment of time where someone just vanished in front of them. This is how my experience with suicide has affected my life. The visual elements of this work that aid in achieving said goal is through light, contrast and texture. Light is important in all of my photographs because it represents the transition that I have gone through. The light is meant to reflect my changed perspective on life. I want the viewer to see how there is still beauty in loss. The contrast on the spotlight of the clothes with the sharp shadows is a reflection of the contrast between life and death. Texture is important as well because it symbolizes the grittiness and rawness of suicide. With this I aim to push more impactful conversations concerning suicide to show how the beauty of loss can prevent others from taking their life. Through these experiences, I have been given a second chance at this life and this is what I am portraying.

  My inspiration comes from my friends and loved ones who took their own lives. Suicide is a heavy inspiration for me and is what led me to become an artist. Learning how to live without them has enlightened me to become someone better than I was yesterday. My work is in dialogue with the artist Will Morgan whose subject matter and sharp lighting I try to emulate. With his works he creates this dreamstate and you also feel a sense of loss coupled with loneliness . My way of approaching a photograph is very similar and getting my work to speak for itself, this is something that is very important to me.

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  Richmond Apparitions

  Shannon Riley

  I’m constantly surrounded by sports. Between playing sports and attending many sporting

  events, sports became a part of my identity. The sport that quickly formed a central part of my identity as a sports fan was hockey. My father introduced me to hockey after I had already begun my own athletic career; like any sports fan, watching games together, cheering on our favorite teams, and experiencing the excitement was an invaluable experience. I found the speed, agility, and tenacity exhibited by hockey players on ice to be an absorbing display.

  Outside of the game itself; the personality, appearance, and history that defines each team is something I’ve been equally fascinated with. I find sports design to be edgy and aggressive with bold typography, agile movement, and formidable body language in its imagery. One notable difference between major and minor league hockey is the creative liberty allowed in minor league branding. This creative liberty allows for fun, extravagant branding. By meshing my love for sports design with the subject of a minor league hockey team, Richmond Apparitions was Created.

  Choosing the location of Richmond, Virginia. I wanted to explore a city that is deeply rooted in American history as well as paranormal history. Paranormal history has always sparked my curiosity and imagination. When creating my logo for Richmond Apparitions, I knew I wanted a ghost as my mascot to be more playful. In my designs as a whole, I incorporate a palette of grays and blacks with a singular statement red. This allowed me to build a playfully darker aesthetic within the branding, while maintaining visually appealing designs through fun typography, bold hierarchy, and strong use of imagery and design throughout.

  Inspiration for the identity work I’ve built for my Richmond Apparitions, comes partially from the branding by the creative team consisting of Jeff Ipjian, Wes Tiongco, Bryna Taylor, and Amanda Le, for the 2019-2020 NHL Anaheim Ducks. This system includes a monochromatic palette paired with a bright color dynamic which I found very appealing. With the addition of gritty layers to add a paper-like aesthetic. I am also inspired by graphic designer, Alex Flick. His designs mix colorful illustrations with bold yet fun typography that add a playful approach.

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  Out From Amongst The Brood

  norris skipworth

  While making this body of work I focused on the idea of worth. To be more specific, how undefined, personal, and perpetual this task of assigning value is. Using the curation of objects as a convoy to discuss how and why we assign this value. Our current knowledge of the objects, assumptions, whats adjacent, the attention the items have been given. Focusing on the conversations had between the subjects and as a result the viewers. I was recently brought to the idea that intelligence can be measured by the amount of connections one can make. With this in mind, my goal for this work is to have potential for a multitude of responses, an intelligent piece of art.

  Through dealing with the found and curating what's available, new perspectives can be associated with this imagery while also benefiting from its familiarity. I enjoy contextualizing things that have already been recontextualized. Finding that many things at this point have already been re-recontextualized. The addition of Miss Piggy who has already been set the context of a chess piece, or a vandalized cardboard Maude from a Louisville alleyway to a Murray gallery. Turning things on their head that have already been faced down.

  Working in this way creates a balance between improvisation and planning. Having the general idea of the work and while allowing the art to appear in accidents during the process. Attempting to maintain an enjoyable state of surprise and control. The self actualization of some work through found objects in juxtaposition with objects containing clear hints of time and craft is what points the conversation towards value.

  The why is more ambiguous— I am less willing to disclose. My why would only dilute others thoughts when asking questions or make their own connections. When clay is propped like an angel or wax poured into a lion, does it have more inherent worth? I suppose that would depend on how the viewer values me as an artist.

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  In The Church of My Girlhood

  Daisy Slucher

  I often find myself overwhelmed when I look back at history and see the pattern of violence against women. It can feel as if this is the way that things will always be, but I don’t want to accept that. In the Church of My Girlhood is a body of work birthed from these feelings of powerlessness. Instead of shrinking back in fear, it aims to make and take up space and fight back against these systems in ways I wish I would choose more often in my own life. The pieces reflect on my own experiences as a woman while acknowledging that the subject matter, often relating to the unease accompanied by being perceived as an object, is shared by women and femme presenting people all over the world.

  Through these works, I am addressing the history of female objectification in paintings. Many before me have played into or challenged the way the viewer looks upon the female subject. I am continuing the conversation. I control gaze in the works to create confrontation and to give the figure more agency in how it is viewed at times, as well as to convey vulnerability when that eye contact is dropped and the figure is in turn passively being viewed. There is discomfort and a question arises whether we should even be allowed to see the body in this intimate setting. All of the works teeter between empowerment and vulnerability. That tension is what I’m interested in expressing.

  There is consistent messaging being shared, primarily from men, telling us that our nude bodies are shameful as a way of gaining control. For women especially there is a burden of blame put on our shoulders for distracting, misguiding, and tempting men into making poor decisions. That is the supposed power our naked bodies hold. While the shedding of clothes can be seen as metaphorically releasing oneself from this burden and empowering, the imagery of discarded clothes and that symbolic and physical barrier to one’s body being released can also create a sense of vulnerability that can be unsettling for the figure. The tension of opposition is presented in the works in this way.

  The show’s title is borrowed from an excerpt in the book All About Love, by Bell Hooks. It implies that the lessons I’m learning and the questions I’m wrestling with have culminated to create a sacred space of learning and growing. There is a level of sanctity to these works and their content that I have not always honored, and as a whole the input of girls is not always valued. I am honoring them now. These pieces hold anger and sadness and awe for the strength of the collective female, as well as a desire to keep creating, so as to open the door for more conversations about what we can do differently in the future and to find sanctuary in relatability.

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  Eden

  Kay Yount and Kay Yount

  Eden is a show based around the concept of love. Love can be clean, messy, warm, cold, good, bad,it can be conditional or unrequited. Love is enigmatic— no one understands or experiences it exactly the same. I wanted to find a way to capture a part of this thing that I crave, something that is so close and yet so far out of reach. This exhibition is my way of giving to others my conception of Love in my own way.

  Eden is a garden occupied by the two lovers, a cyclops and a blind prince. In secret, the two lovers meet in this garden of Eden, have tea, and read. Although their love has been forbidden, they are here at this moment, and as a participant in the space, you have been given an opportunity to share in that..

  In this show, you will see cut vinyl and paper come together to create an immersive environment for you as the viewer to step into and be a part of. Having this space allows me to bring you into my world and showcase my interest in creating a narrative environment.. The use of illustrator and photoshop along with the meticulous process of plotting and weeding, allowed me to create these vignettes, showing you what it is like to be a part of this world. Atop pedestals, there are a set of five zines, three of which tell you the story of these lovers together, and one for each lover by themselves. Each have been hand stitched and carefully displayed for you to peruse.

  The inspiration for Eden comes from many places; one example beingLouise Fili. Inspired by her gorgeous typography and limited color palettes, she is what inspired me to first make a handwritten title. Something one of a kind, just like my other two inspirations. Luba Lukova and Kacey Slone. Inspired by her use of negative space, Luba Lukova stands as a perfect example for the technical concepts in the work on display; The use of line, color, and space and how it interacts with the world. Kacey dives fearlessly and deeply into some of the emotional development and expression I am also hoping to convey.

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  Life Isn't Fare

  Eric Abarbanell

  Born too late for the space age, too poor for space tourism, and too early to explore the galaxy, I’ve turned my obsession with sci-fi pop culture into a design career. A steady diet of bad films and cheesy sci-fi left me feeling like the world lacked something. It lacked pageantry and fun. We all share pop culture, and it gives us a sense of a world that’s more fun than the one we live in now. The movies, toys, and games of my youth helped shape my sense of what the world could be, a world that could be something more. That sense of wanting to make the world more than just the day to day is what made me go back to school at 37 and pursue an art degree.

  Too often design is merely functional; despite being intended to tell a brand’s story those stories can be flat. Instead I like to use bright colors, simplified forms, and nods to other works to make even an annual report into something of an experience. Even a logo can become a character in and of itself, turning a brand into a story. I also use images and tropes of sci-fi and fantasy to bring a sense of fun to life. There’s something rewarding about creating an ad that makes the world seem more adventurous and full of possibility.

  This is what my show, Life Isn’t Fare, is about. I wanted to show off my layout skills and packaging design skills, as well as my logo designs, but in a realm that allowed me to build a sense of fun, too. The astronaut is something I’ve always sort of identified with, exploring spaces that are strange while isolated from his environment. The astronaut with his taxi image was a recurring piece from my past works, and so I decided to build a toy line about that sense of fun I wish reality had. A bit of adventure, a bit of silliness, and a world and show defined by logos and icons, similar to our own daily life. It’s a show about exploration into new spaces, a work a bit about myself, and a way to show that design can be fun.

  The comic and animation work of Vaughn Bodē and Ralph Bakshi are heavy influences on my work, especially their off-beat questioning of society. The wild colors and cartoonishness of Frank Koziks’s poster work was what first made me consider becoming a graphic designer. Discovering Lester Beall’s use of vivid color and master of using and breaking the grid was a pivotal moment in my development as well, and countered my fascination with Romek Marber’s near-scientific cover designs. Mieke Gerritzen’s typography has also been a big influence and helped me rethink my own use of typography and how to make it stand on its own. My show’s work was also very much in the footsteps of Larry Hama and Ron Rudat’s work in toy package design and illustration; their world building on GI Joe is one of the biggest reasons my show even came to be.

  Please enjoy the little slice of the toy aisle I’ve presented, and the figures and characters in it, and hopefully leave feeling a little happier, and a little more weird, than you came in.

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  Monarch Skateboards

  Kieran Beasley

  Kieran Beasley Monarch Skateboards

  Monarch Skateboards is a company that designs and produces skateboards and skate merchandise for a primarily teenage and young adult demographic. This diversity of skate style and culture allows me to blend experimental imagery and themes with my personal design style which is often structured and patterned, with designs and illustrations both monochromatic and exploding with color. Skater personalities and tastes are always varied and individualistic. I design with that in mind, to appeal to everyone in and out of the skate park.

  To fill my designs with more personality, I incorporate a mxture of darker, grunge inspired designs and illustration with bright colors like pinks and blues, which allows me to build off of traditional skateboard trends while adding my own personal flair. I use gritty textures for classic looks and bright patterns for more modern looks. Blended into the designs are also patterns to consistently lead the eye across the boards and posters. The skateboards I design are made with blank decks that print my designs onto using vinyl.

  To aid me in brand consistency and bringing life to skate culture in my designs I took inspiration from a few sources. Santa Cruz Skateboards has been a big inspiration for me; their designs mix colorful illustration with a consistent brand look, even when their designs vary to include photography. Aesthetic Apparatus is another place I get my inspiration from; their bright colors and gritty textures always look great paired with their bold typography which I try to emulate in my skateboards, posters, and other merchandise. They have everything from posters to packages to storefronts and keep brand consistency even if the design styles vary from project to project.

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  Kinda Like

  Autumn Brown

  I was raised in a community that was raised to not empathize with queer people or their struggles. I was hyper-aware of my differences growing up, both internal and external, and spent a lot of time pondering identity and how people perceive one another. My work is the result of that introspection; sequential artworks depicting characters in states of transmutation or duality that explore both beautiful and repulsive facets of identity alike. I encourage my audience to join me in questioning the way we categorize ideas like gender, sexuality, and self image. I manipulate familiar multidimensional surfaces, primarily ceramics, mixed media videos, and zines, to create small narratives. The work provides a unique opportunity to form a relationship with the viewer as they interact with it. The tactility of my work grounds the experience in the relatable, while the integration of humor and empathy encourages people to understand both themselves and each other. The viewer’s ability to enjoy my pieces, regardless of their prior experience with the subject matter is my priority. I want my audience to see themselves depicted in my work without shame. By doing this I hope to alleviate the stigma associated with “otherness.”

  I am influenced by Lisa Barcy and Lisa Hanawalt for the ways that their art practice mirrors my own. Barcy integrates and manipulates found objects in her animations in a way that inspires both my still and motion-based work. Hanawalt parallels the way I use lighthearted imagery to speak on deeper and more sensitive topics, all while managing to keep a humorous tone.

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  Perceived Obsolescence

  Steve Burdine

  Steve Burdine Artist Statement (50+n)-20=T will be how much longer I have lived than I ever expected to. I believed that Reagen was going to lead the country into a Nuclear Holocaust. Instead it has been a trickle down erosion of freedoms through neoliberal capitalism and the steady march of deregulations that once protected the working class, such as Reagan's attack on the PATCO Strikers and the war on drugs. Existing in a neoliberal capitalist society has always been frustrating in a fundamental way. On one hand, I want to earn a good living and make enough money to not have to worry about basic bills. On the other hand, I do not want to support a system that continues to create monsters. Artists like Keith Morris and Chuck D were making music that critiqued neoliberalism as well as Reagan. Their complex soundscapes influenced my Art. I add visual elements in a way that represents sampling(in Hip-Hop) and hardcore chord structure (or the lack of it) and recognize that my path to abstraction was through doing graffiti in my youth, driven by the push for aesthetic beauty over legibility of the words. These marks I made on the decaying buildings in my city was the first expression of my angst in my art in an abstract way. My current work makes tension with basic shapes and the layering of paint, often with remnants of things in my house. I learned this language from artist Bing Davis. As a mentor he taught me how to use decay in my art by using unconventional items to make art from. The layering of these materials in my work reflects the sedimentation of trash as each subsequent layer of discarded things builds on top of the next. Some elements that extend beyond the ground, or even start to peel, create a feeling of the deterioration. I have some obfuscation of the layered images so the viewer may feel the curiosity or frustration of the almost recognizable. This restriction of access is one I feel when I work hard but yet am still blocked by class or other external systems. Often I will try to constrain the tension with more formal shapes like rectanglesbut, as with life, this constraining often fails. My work can be like seeing a pile of refuse where some parts are recognizable but it never actually resolves to a recognizable whole. The color choices I begin with, primary colors and/or earth tones, are the color palette of the Unions and of labor. When I feel like my work has become too precious, I either stop working on the piece or I do something to it that renders the precious part dead. I want some elements to remain unclear, feeling like a fleeting thought or memory, which is how I often feel--distracted by daily inputs from marketers and social media which amps up my need for self-preservation. The work is a way to filter all of this information barraging me and distill it down into something less disorienting. My conversation with neo liberalism and the frustration I feel is what I aim to express in these works. Leaving the viewer with the feeling of apathy, disgust, disorientation, or darkness while interacting with my work. Overall it is not as important for the viewer to walk away with a working definition of neoliberal capitalism as much as with a sense of the tension and frustration many of us feel because we do not even recognise we are living in neoliberal society.

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  DWELLS Coffee House

  Amillia Cecil

  I thrive through the creation of minimal and concise designs. To me, I find the beauty not only in the finished design or shape but throughout the process as well. Through my delicate lines and dramatic forms, I am able to create connections with my clients to not only fuel my passion but cultivate their dreams. My love for design is found in illustrations, branding, and typography. These are the skills that I have been honing the past few years. Illustration allows me to combine the commercial use of design while also having creative freedom. Through delicate lines that vary with length, width, and distance apart; I have been able to create a stylized form of imagery that adds to the overall theme of a brand. Being able to understand the rules to design is the foundation to be a designer however, knowing how to manipulate the rules to create not only a dynamic but also a balanced design is what produce a more diverse design.

  Due to it’s organic element with endless possibilities and functions, clay has been a medium I have enjoyed working with. Currently, I find myself being drawn towards the minimal shapes with sharp lines paired with a black or white glaze. It is the dramatic forms such at the lengthy straight lines or interesting curves that I highlight by only having few design elements to keep the attention on the functional yet modern shape.

  The process of branding a coffee shop has been an encouragement to finding the middle point of where both my passions can be seen in the same idea. I have been inspired by Radim Malinic’s work due to his package design and brand identity. His depth in this field and his ability to create eye catching work due to his great sense of color, has been an influence if my current work.

  A ceramicist that has inspired my work is Branan Mercer. His work is interesting due to his dramatic shapes that could not only stand-alone but also works beautifully with his thick glazes.

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  Lost and Found

  Kayla Chinn

  We often do not value moments until they become memories or we do not value memories that come from difficult moments. Within Lost and Found, I explore how we lose, gain, or fabricate memories to protect ourselves from traumatic events. My constructions present these difficult experiences through the comfort of repurposed objects and handmade soft sculptures. Both of these artistic processes have become a way for me to cope with the loss of many loved ones. The women I have lost used sewing to help others feel comfortable in their own homes, to make the discomforts comfortable. The discomforts being negative experiences that impacted my family, loss of a loved one, financial struggle, emotional disconnection, and more. Through the act of building a living space and filling it with organic stuffed pieces, I commemorate the work the strong women from my family did to help others when they fell on hard times, creating comforting memories with their quilts, homemade toys, and homey charm.

  My found object assemblages and soft sculptures also mimic how memories are formed, we subsciously pick and choose what we remember, which is the same nature I used when creating these works. My works reclaim objects others have discarded much like Joseph Cornell’s assemblages, I want my objects to spark the memories of others as they seem them both individually and in relation to one another. The collection of found objects to represent the memories we forget being a representation of this mentality. The use of soft sculpture comes from a place of struggle with personal discomforts. Experiencing these events that are universal such as; loss of a loved one, financial struggle, and emotional turmoil and presenting them in a similar way that helped my family cope with them.

  Within Lost and Found there is upholstered furniture and objects, not only are these staples in any living environment, they are objects that many people have a sentimental memory about within their own personal context. This ability to create relatability between the viewer’s own memories and the ones I am trying to create further pushes the idea of these memories being universal to everyone. The pieces in the show are mundane in nature but gaudy in texture, the majority of the pieces and objects have a treated surface, being treated with anything from beads, glitter, string, plastic bags, and beyond this my use of multiplicity makes these objects seem mundane rather than special.

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  Nos Vamos Mañana

  Karen Colorado

  Growing up, I always hated moving. Every moment leading up to that move is a celebration, then a goodbye, then a memory. We wonder what we will do with the things we take with us, as well as what will happen to the spaces we leave behind. The first time I moved I didn’t know any of these things, nor did I think it would change my life completely.

  My work is a reflection on my experiences from moving to America and what I have learned. I strive to challenge people to think about what makes a house a home through my lens as a Salvadoran immigrant. My work displays the emotions and items I associate with my move and reimagines the spaces from my youth. The wide assortments of color and naked terra cotta are a nod to Mayan folk art and Hispanic artists before me. I play with scale and saturation in my pieces to remove the items from reality as a reminder that they are sacred, yet distant memories. The work looks familiar yet feels unsettling; posing questions about how we view the immigrant experience. What is it like to see your loved ones for possibly the last time at an airport or as they walk towards the U.S-Mexico border? When I.C.E officers slash jugs full of water or take backpacks full of survival essentials in the Sonoran desert are we obligated to do something about it? How do we show compassion to those making life-changing transitions?

  Inspired by the testimonies of millions of Latin-Americans in this country, I take what I learn from my community and highlight the differences and similarities in where we come from and the places we go to. My symbolisms and thematic choices are influenced by Mexican-American artist J. Leigh Garcia, whose work deals with the ‘residual racial discord’ of major historical events between the U.S and Mexico, particularly Texas. Though my work is more personal to mine and my family’s experience, I feel it’s important for me to acknowledge and learn from the heavy end of the Latine diaspora. Moving to America is riddled with obstacles no matter the method of doing so. Having moved so young and not knowing when -or if- I would return, I struggled with remembering all my ‘lasts’ and preserving those memories as I age. It’s a celebration of what I had before boarding that plane, and a tribute to those who unfortunately don’t get to have that choice.

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  Fight or Flight

  Kiley R. Cox

  Content Warning: Trauma

  Birds are beautiful, fragile, yet strong species that defy the laws of gravity. Birds have been used as symbols throughout history, and have been a huge influence within my work. To me, birds are the most relatable and enviable animals to humans. We long to adopt their risk taking behaviors, their romantic way of mating with one another for life, or even just their ability to fly and go wherever they wish. To be a bird and not care about anything in the world would be liberating. People as a whole are a lot like birds; we are both strong and fragile.

  For young adults, it is this liberation and freedom that we crave so much and strive for in life. So when it is taken away from us, it is painful. As a woman, to be put in situations that take away our power over our own bodies, which has been done since the beginning of time, is nauseatingly painful. “Fight or Flight” is a representation of that power and control being taken away by creating this malicious interaction between birds and human hands.

  Using charcoal, I am able to capture beautiful and soft textures of the birds while also emphasizing the harsh shadows and tense angles of the hands which are harming the birds.

  The content of the work in this exhibition is very heavy and personal for me, as well as anyone else who has experienced the feeling of helplessness and feeling trapped in a situation or relationship that is destructive, unhealthy, manipulative, or even violent to be in. While particulars of transgressions against our physical, mental and spiritual autonomy differ, trauma does not exist in a hierarchy. I offer these images to survivors to validate their experiences and mourn for their own loss of self-worth and power, and to other viewers as a means to communicate the intensity and impact that traumatic experiences have on people. I hope that viewers empathize with these birds being mistreated and relate to them in ways that might help them to not only recognize their own self worth, but also to underscore the importance of acknowledging, preventing, and stopping this kind of treatment.

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  Transience

  Sarah Cox

  Everything is temporary, whether it is our anxieties, our joys, or anything in between. These emotions are fleeting, but it is important to focus on these moments of intense mental states. My current work highlights the micro and macro aspects of emotion and body language with various personal experiences from myself and others.

  My lifesize drawings focus on the larger narrative and allow a connection between the audience and the work, whereas my screen prints highlight individual features of the human body. The imagery is developed by having conversations with those who identify as women in a specific age demographic as it personally feels the most relatable and comfortable. Sharing mine and other women’s experiences through the work provides a deeper understanding of how diverse our emotions can be. They discuss their experiences about specific body parts they sense emotions and what color may be associated with those feelings. Where do they feel elation, anger, or sadness? It is then highlighted with color to provide a visual language rather than a verbal language. Color psychology is also a factor to the work, and it allows an exploration and a gaining an understanding of how and why we associate colors with specific meanings. This also allows an exploration of how this concept can change with symbolism.

  The work is a commanding size, allowing women’s emotions to be seen and given attention, regardless of the feeling’s temporariness. This provides the opportunity to discuss discrepancies between males and females and how portraying emotions have been criticized, or often, invalidated women’s feelings altogether. I am inspired by many women artists such as artist and educator Jenny Granberry who also works with the human figure, using more monochromatic themes. Jen Mazza has also been an inspiration for a long time with her intimate compositions and selective color palettes throughout her different series. My work uses a combination of body language and color to create an outward projection of our inner moods, and this has been a focus for the work.

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  Thank You For Your Service

  Jon DuFriend

  This show is a visualization of my experience returning home from war and using art to breakthrough instead of letting the experience break me. The pop-art style of this exhibition is intended to reflect the optimistic nature necessary for my recovery. I have used this style throughout most of my work to display heavy topics in a way that engages the viewer. This show will be a multimedia explosion that will showcase the skills I have learned while using my G.I. bill to earn my BFA at Murray State University. The goal of this exhibition is to give the viewer fine art through the lens of graphic design (using as many graphic design elements as possible). I will be displaying 3 large groups of graphic designs with posters, vinyl mounted on foam core and vinyl on plexiglass with one of the sections including a large monitor that will display a video collage that visualizes the mental state of life after war. This exhibition will be a commentary on my military service and my experience returning home from combat in Afghanistan. I am using the “Pop art style” as a way to intrigue viewers toward my work with bright colors while describing traumatic events / hard truths of war that are normally avoided by civilians. This video will be presented in front of a larger foam core and graphics display that includes a blue thought bubble and “wham” shape. The main idea of the show revolves around the thoughts or memories of war and how that has impacted my life forever. My goal is to not only represent my personal experience but to relate to those who have been through similar events.

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  Rising

  Elaine C. Fitzgerald

  I have always been fascinated with the vastness of nature. It comes with this feeling of importance and magnitude that I want to capture. My show draws attention to the wonders of nature that are being lost to climate change. One the one hand, I want to give the viewer an appreciation and sense of wonder for these pockets of nature; I focus on the sublimity of these places, designing for five national parks that are being greatly affected by climate change. On the other, I want the viewer to understand that these spaces are being lost. I feel that illustration is the best form of communication to talk about climate change because, while these ideas and themes can be spread with text, it is easier for the viewer to visually understand the changes happening to nature through illustrations rather than large bodies of text.

  In the Fight the Rise project, I have created an awareness campaign that uses a poster series because posters are an easily accessible form of spreading information, ideas, and imagery. I use vector drawing to create clean and concise shapes that form the illustrations, as well as a limited color palette that provides high contrast to the composition. This draws the viewer’s eye through the work and gives the work visual hierarchy. This hierarchy pulls the viewer’s gaze through the diptychs the posters create and tells the narrative of climate change’s destruction. I am illustrating national parks because they are well known areas that have more of an emotional and cultural impact than other lesser known stretches of land that are also being affected by climate change. I chose Sequoia, Everglades, Glacier Bay, and Saguaro National Parks because this collection of parks shows the range of climate change’s effects in vastly different environments. I am also illustrating Yellowstone National Park because it is the first national park, and one of the most recognizable features of the United States. Each park has two posters that form a diptych. Both halves of the diptychs mirror each other’s typography and palette creating a visual narrative. I use large, bold headers to grab the viewer's attention and smaller, finer fonts to provide the main information of the posters. Each poster also has a twenty-five point star icon that emphasizes an important fact about the park or climate change. The posters are large in order to overwhelm and inspire a sense of awe in the viewer to draw them into the illustration. I am printing the posters on recycled paper to further push the idea of working sustainably. I have also created collateral for my campaign which includes T-shirts and a motion infographic that explains ways to contribute to the fight of climate change. All of the collateral is designed to advertise my awareness campaign using the same typography, color palettes, icons, and hierarchy as my posters.

  My campaign connects very different areas in the country, so I looked to campaigns like the National Park Service’s Recreate Responsibly campaign and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail poster series which both span multiple parks and states. By looking at these campaigns I was inspired to use the same hierarchy of typography and star icons across all of my posters to tie the compositions together despite their vastly different illustrations.

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  BITE

  Ian Gresham

  We all wear masks for different reasons. Some wear them to appear more confident, others wear them to act funnier than they may otherwise be. I wear mine because I’m terrified of facing the consequences of being myself - a gay man. My constant state of being is a mix of anxiety and fear that it’ll slip and I’ll be discovered, and then abandoned, ostracized from my family and those around me. These feelings have been on and off for me for the past decade since I came out to myself, and I found comfort in an unexpected place - Chick-Fil-A. The cow mask in my work references Chick-Fil-A and my employment there.

  The restaurant had a less-than-reputable standing with the LGBT community while I worked there, and there were moments where the workplace felt cult-like. Full-grown adults gathered around watching old, creepy VCRs about Christianity, or automatically repeated phrases ingrained in them by the company months after leaving. However, I’d never worked with a more understanding and accepting group of people. My coworkers included straight, gay, and nonbinary individuals who made me feel like I could be open about myself for the first time, and that was liberating. I felt a comforting sense of togetherness with my queer coworkers, my fellow ‘cultists’ - we all had to wear our own masks to hide ourselves, our queerness - and yet we were vulnerable because we were in the public eye. We were hidden, yet vulnerable. The nudity and cow masks in my work represent this - the push and pull between being hidden, yet vulnerable to the eyes of others, as well as the figurative mask that I as a gay man wear to protect myself.

  The work explores the many feelings associated with wearing this mask. While wearing it includes a sense of fear, doing so among fellow ‘cultists’ made me feel less alone. ‘FEELING YOU’, features a soft, yet impactful and intimate touch between two ‘cultists,’ reflecting on the way shared small moments of vulnerability provide comfort. Additionally, absurdity and hyperbole diffuse tension and deflect fear for me. Why would a naked man in a cow mask stand alone in a drive-thru lane after hours? If customers have the audacity to sing while waiting for food, maybe there are people out there who are lawless enough to fuck on a fast-food counter? Ridiculous lines of thought like this distract from the looming knot of anxiety forming in my chest.

  I am inspired by the queer men who have come before me - men who were brave and open about their sexuality in ways that I aspire to. Hugh Steers creates a balance between intimacy and anguish in his work. There’s a beautiful solidarity in soft touches that are shared in moments of suffering and anguish. I am also drawn to the way Robert Mapplethorpe’s work questions the erotic and the obscene. I believe there is bravery in obscenity - in a willingness to put out work that others may openly scoff at, or be disgusted by. I find his ‘behind the black curtain’ photographs to be compelling depictions of powerful men in vulnerable situations. While these men willingly gave up some measure of control and freedom to someone that had power over them, they not only retained their own agency, but also created their own power in turn.

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  Spectrum

  Archie Hardesty

  Through research I have explored what exactly speaks to queer audiences and can also be embraced by non-queer audiences. In this exhibition and accompanying magazine, I want to create a queer magazine that intersects feminine and masculine gender performance, specifically how the two performances can live within one person. Creating colorful and dynamic shapes and pieces in this magazine is key. The viewer should feel engaged looking at the layouts this presents, but also feel informed and educated as they read it.

  Spectrum is meant for those who relate to queer life, but also for those who are wanting to learn more about this community. The fonts and colors are used to create a modern yet refined feel to the magazine. The color palette stems from wanting to be professional, with moments of high upbeat energy. Employing cyan and reds which play into gender stereotypes to create the intersection between masculine and feminine. When creating the layout and background for this magazine, no rectangles are used for shapes other than text and photography. By doing this, the intent is to create a sense of breaking out and being different from other magazines and what norms have been set. Triangles and circles have connotations to gender and sex, both having the ability to be masculine and feminine depending on the location and use of the shapes. Editorial photography reinforces the articles of the section. The photography has a sense of fashion photography to it but will allow the viewer to perceive the intersections of gender through clothing and stance. The life and energy the models and designs exude should encapsulate the viewer to recognizing that queer individuals exist outside of the stereotypes that are placed on us.

  Inspired by both Ben J. Crick and Raine Bascos, I want Spectrum to exist in a place where queer can live freely. These designers create bold and energetic designs to keep their pieces youthful and modern. Those ideas and designs are the kind that can make this happen. It should be a visual playground in which these ideas can wander and be freely discussed. This work exudes dynamism and life to make it live alongside in this contemporary setting. Being queer is one of the best aspects of my life and it is only right for me to discuss other apects of this community outside of what the media provides. It deserves to be in a contemporary spotlight.