Diverse Directions - B.S. Senior Exhibition

Author/Artist Name

• Luca C. Schaefer-KnightFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Spring 4-17-2026

Artist Statement

My art focuses on human connection, narratives, and emotions. I explore how people relate to themselves, to nature, and to each other, especially as they relate to shared experiences and mental health. My comic and zines detail the lives of teen characters and how they cope with trauma or mental illnesses. This is centered in how people seek to escape reality through reflection because of their fascination with stories and imagined characters that embody their struggles. The artist Lucy Kagan inspires my work for zines as well as characters, as she also uses zines to share about her characters and creates characters that are unique. Showing how people are different is important to me, as each person is unique but we’re all similar in our differences as well.

In my process, an individual’s expression and detail are crucial. I closely observe how subtle body language and movements are used to generate empathy and emotional truth. My character expressions and styles are influenced by the popular contemporary artist Jin Kim, who worked on younger characters, such as those in Encanto and Frozen. In particular, color is quite essential to my practice. Particularly when it comes to conveying emotion and experience, the colors I use help convey the deep emotions that go along with people’s lives. My palette mostly consists of high contrast between bright, light, dark, and muted colors to accentuate these diverse emotions. The character, Wren, that I created is a great example of this contrast as their virtual identity is bright and colorful while their real-life identity is dark and muted, showing how they feel constricted stricted at home and free in the virtual world. The visual language in my works are influenced by contemporary media that explores alternate worlds and changing identity, such as the shows No Game No Life, The Owl House, and Sword Art Online. The story-telling in these shows, as well as the lead designer Joe Sparrow–who worked on The Owl House and creates comics in his freelance work–helped me to create the environments and engaging story of my comic and characters. These influences help me to create spaces that make people feel emotionally connected and immersed, while also being very symbolic to the story.

I am driven as a designer and artist by the conviction that art is fundamental to understanding and human connection. I aim to use my art to facilitate empathy, to show audiences how creativity can promote healing and connection, and to help them see aspects of themselves in others. As I continue to use art as a bridge between experience, identity, and emotional truth. I'm eager to investigate new media that broaden my storytelling, especially in character and narrative design.

Advisor/Mentor

Professor Jim Bryant; Professor Gregory Scott Cook; Mike Martin

Description

My work combines stories and narratives with visual elements. I create imagery of characters going through different stories. The works range in size, but are all digitally illustrated first. The zines are 5" by 7" and the prints that are mounted to hang on the wall are 24" by 11" or 17" by 24" in size. The animations are all created for screens but vary widely on length, the longest being 2:24 minutes. Viewers are encouraged to engage with the exhibition by reading through the zines and learning more about the characters. These pieces all reflect going through change and/or mental illness to relate more to the viewer.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Schaefer-Knight, Luca C., "Diverse Directions - B.S. Senior Exhibition" (2026). B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499). 92.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art499/92