From left:
Danielle Henneborn, Jordan Isaac, Martyna Kaminska, Michael Kearney, Zhengnan Li, Nathan Malak, Ekaterina Merkulova, Max Pitaro, Samara Steinbock, Tabitha Voisich

Senior Honors Project in Studio Art and Art History – Spring 2023

We are proud to present the Senior Honors projects. Students who complete Honors Projects in Studio Art engage in research and artistic creation, culminating in a written thesis statement and an exhibition of their artwork. The students who have undertaken the Senior Honors project are exemplary both artistically and academically. They have committed to planning and creating a substantial body of work under the mentorship of a faculty member during their senior year.

These projects often reach across disciplines to expand the conversation on a wide range of themes and issues. Students use this opportunity to challenge themselves with their ideas, techniques, and professionalism in installing their work in a public space for exhibition. The written component of the project gives the artist an opportunity to distill their ideas and articulate the themes they are exploring in their visual work. Project media used in the current projects includes drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, and installation. This semester’s Honors Projects encompass a wide range of themes including: perceptions of underwater environments while scuba diving, feelings of disconnection while participating in social gatherings, nostalgic translations of travel snapshots using traditional printmaking techniques, ceramic confections, paintings inspired by a musician’s synesthesia, stream of consciousness fantasy drawings, reflections on personal insecurities symbolized by roadkill, personal growth referenced through nostalgic depictions of electronic games, and dramatic surreal psychological spaces and scenarios.

Students who complete Honors Projects in Art History focus on completing a substantial research project with a written thesis. This semester the title of the research project is: “Threads from the Liminal Space: Avijit Halder and the Navigation of Belonging within Indian Diaspora Art”.

Lorena Salcedo-Watson
Lecturer, Director of Undergraduate Studies

Advisers:

Brooke Belisle
Toby Buonagurio
Martin Levine
Jason Paradis
Howardena Pindell
Lorena Salcedo-Watson

Spring 2023 Exhibition

From top left; Fiona Agababian, Jack Dambrosio, Alyssa Denis / From bottom left; Ashani Escoffery, Kristin Hess, Amber(Di) Li, Nicole Lundahl

Senior Honors Project in Studio Art and Art History – Spring 2022

We are proud to present the Senior Honors projects. Students who complete Honors Projects engage in research and artistic creation, culminating in a written thesis statement and an exhibition of their artwork. The students who have undertaken the Senior Honors project are exemplary both artistically and academically. They have committed to planning and creating a substantial body of work under the mentorship of a faculty member during their senior year.

These projects often reach across disciplines to expand the conversation on a wide range of themes and issues. Students use this opportunity to challenge themselves with their ideas, techniques, and professionalism in installing their work in a public space for exhibition. The written component of the project gives the artist an opportunity to distill their ideas and articulate the themes they are exploring in their visual work.

Project media includes drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, digital media, and installation. This semester’s Honors Projects encompass a wide range of themes including personal perspectives on religion, the fluidity of self-identity, the physical and emotional journey of a gender transition experience, personal memories related to connections with the sea, overcoming emotional disconnection, imaginative fiction and fantasy character development, and poster designs.

Lorena Salcedo-Watson
Lecturer, Director of Undergraduate Studies

Advisers:
Isak Berbic
Martin Levine
Jason Paradis
Howardena Pindell
Lorena Salcedo-Watson
Maya Schindler

Spring 2022 Exhibition

Senior Honors Project in Studio Art in Spring 2020

We are proud to present the Senior Honors projects for Spring 2020. Students who complete Honors Projects engage in research and artistic creation, which culminates in a written thesis statement and an exhibition of their work. The students who have undertaken the Senior Honors project are exemplary both artistically and academically. They have committed to planning and creating a substantial body of work under the mentorship of a faculty member during their senior year. These projects often reach across disciplines to expand the conversation on a wide range of themes and issues. Students use this opportunity to challenge themselves with their ideas, techniques, and professionalism in installing their work in a public space for exhibition. The written component of the project gives the artist an opportunity to distill their ideas, clearly articulating the themes they explore in their visual work. This year, project media include photography, video, website design, drawing, painting, and printmaking. Honors Project themes include personal reflections on cultural traditions and familial relationships, personal anxieties, environmental and social concerns, and reflections and responses to the current pandemic.

Lorena Salcedo-Watson
Lecturer, Director of Undergraduate Studies

Advisers:
Isak Berbic
Patricia Maurides
Howardena Pindell
Jason Paradis
Ian Alan Paul
Maya Schindler
Lorena Salcedo-Watson

Spring 2020 Exhibition

Advisor: Isak Berbic

Days

In the world of art, you can easily turn your existing imagination, the name given to things, the theory we know, into imagination. This is called ‘unfamiliar or unfamiliar viewing’. A work of art (like photographic work) is the work that leaves the impression and impression of things you have experienced in a moment. I try and enjoy seeing things unfamiliarly without seeing them as they are, bringing emotions to objects with a rich imagination. One of the methods that I like to use by taking very expand pictures. That way, it is more abstract but looks very detailed at the same time to enjoy my ordinary everyday scenes to document them.

I think that the act of taking a picture is to show the beauty and feel of any part of the world. Through the observations, many artists have been inspired by everyday nature, landscapes, and things. Like them, I observe objects with various angles, and I realize the colors of ordinary things will look different every second, then it is my job to take a picture when it catches my mind. The harmony of light and shadow is revealed through observation of the beautiful curves that things have, the fine details that cannot be seen from a distance. I find small, delicate details that I couldn’t see before. I can see the space in which the object is placed and get to know that things are in a relationship with the background. It also allows things to look completely different depending on where I look. I try to get out of visual height and realize that there are many worlds in it.

The title Days of my two series of my work show the preference of my photography habit to discover, record, and seriously observe something around me, rather than finding a subject or material from a distance. Photos taken in everyday frames act like a diary that expresses each of my emotions, mostly expressions of loneliness and quietness that happened during the time of the quarantine.

Manhattan Bridge looking up, 1936 by Berenice Abbott https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/259863

My inspiration is from Berenice Abbott’s Manhattan Bridge looking up, 1936. She was a pioneering American documentary photographer. She took landscape and architecture pictures during the Great Depression as a documentary purpose. As I am stuck in my home for 14 days, the only thing I am doing is opening the window and watching the view from there, and doing my school work.

Title: From the upper view, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 1800×1200 px.

Title: From the upper view, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 1920×1280 px.

Title: From the upper view, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 1834×1280 px.

From the upper view, 2020

As I looked and observed from the window more open about what was going on, I wanted to document the quietness of the city due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the artist that I mentioned above who took pictures during the Great Depression to document the raw pictures. This is my version of observation with different points of view and historical events and titled From the upper view for the series photographs.

Central Park Reflection, NY, 1952 by Ernst Haas https://www.moma.org/collection/works/53165 http://ernst-haas.com/color-new-york/

This is the picture by Ernst Haas, and this picture gives me a new observation of the water reflection. This picture with distorted shapes of the lines makes the picture very abstract. Most of my work comes from everyday life. I don’t find any place or set specifically for shooting. There are moments when the scenes of everyday life are strangely beautiful, and I try to capture that moment with my camera. However, when it comes to photography, there is not a lot of probability that it captures the emotions I felt at the moment.

Title: Green, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 1920×1280 px.

Title: Green, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 1548×1280 px.

Title: Green, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 1920×1280 px.

Title: Green, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 1920×1280 px.

Green, 2020

Most of my work comes from everyday life. I don’t find any place or set specifically for shooting. There are moments when the scenes of everyday life are strangely beautiful, and I try to capture that moment with my camera. However, when it comes to photography, there is not a lot of probability that it captures the emotions I felt at the moment.

However, these pictures are showing the moment of peace. During the self-quarantine, as everyone would have the same feeling, I was feeling so tired even though I stayed in my room for so many days! I was sick of watching the computer screen. So the first thing I did after 14days of self-quarantine was going out for a WALK! The Green is titled after I walked through the park and was thankful that I am healthy and can enjoy nature again. Not only did I enjoy being outside, but I also did not realize that I could smell the water and grass after the rain. And by taking the water reflection picture of the tree is that the visualization of that moment with the smell of water and grass.

Advisor: Isak Berbic

Digital Phobic: Light in Analog

< Artist Statement >

I started to love photography and camera when I was in high school, so I had many experiences with diverse types of cameras. However, I did not have a good skill of photograph. I tried several years, I could have a skill, but I did not think I had enough ability to take pictures. Suddenly, I fall in love with analog, so I printed out all my pictures because I did not want to keep my pictures in a digital album. Also, I bought some old stuff, and my final step was a film camera. My first roll of film was horrible, but I was getting better. I thought that film and light cannot go together, so I wanted to combine them. I tried several times, so I threw away many film rolls. However, I found out that they can be friends, and film and light became my honors project concept.

My honors project has six main pictures and three motivation pictures. My motivation pictures are taken by me because they were test pictures for the honors project. I took them in late 2019 and early 2020 in the United States. My honors project pictures are film photographs. In honors project pictures, Light and restriction, Light and sunset, Light and light are color film, and Light and leaves, Light and décalcomanie, Light and tree are black and white film. In my motivation pictures, The bird and Lamp_c are color film, and Lamp_r is a color film, it is edited in black and white.

I focus on the sunlight in the honors project because after developing the light, a human does not need the natural light anymore, so I want to combine two things that have been forgotten in nowadays by technological advances.

< Motivation >

In 2017, my home country South Korea, the film camera trend has begun. For me, a film camera was my mother’s period, but after this trend, I want to try taking a picture with a film camera. Therefore, I bought a disposal film camera and took some pictures. I did not know how to use a film camera, so I just pushed the shutter. My first film was almost black because I never had experience with the film, so I took pictures like a digital camera. After I got the first film pictures, I studied about film camera, and I bought my first film camera. I was a cheap one, I did not want to waste my money. I thought I would get tired of it quickly. However, I was not. I was immediately immersed in the sensibilities of not being able to check the status of the picture. I usually focus on daily life routine, so I take many pictures that interpret things that are easily found in everyday life differently. ‘Light’ is a part of my life as it is essential to me, and no one thinks special, so I put the light on the film.

Light is indispensable to human. Therefore, human life is mostly connected to light. In the past, all activities continued during the time the sun was up, but after the light was discovered, activity restrictions were removed, and night and day distinctions were removed. However, after the light was discovered, humans began to use it for themselves. At the same time, I began to lose interest in natural light. As the scope of indoor activities expanded, the number of outdoor activities decreased dramatically, and most of the time was spent indoors. Is that why? Humans have begun to bring everything into their radius of action. Especially, they wanted everything in nature to be next to them. At the same time, the desire for natural light, sunlight, grew bigger and bigger. However, sunlight has never abandoned humans. It was always on the side of humans, and it was just holding everyone together. Digital Photographic: Light in Analog is a film about how much nature, especially light, is affecting their lives.

I liked my second film roll because it gave me diverse concepts of film pictures. After the first roll and before the second roll, I did not want to take a picture because the film developing cost is pretty expensive. However, I wanted to go toward it, so I went to go outside, and took diverse things. I took sunlight, ocean, and grass. My figures were nature, but I did not take a nature that much, so it was challenging for me. When I got my second film pictures, I chose an honors program topic.

I did not make a title for this picture, but the rhombus on the top is sunlight. My setting was not enough to take sunlight, so I got the rhombus shape of sunlight with a flying bird. I was inspired by this picture for light, so I want to know how it looks like the light in the film.

After that, I wanted to know artificial light in the film, so I tried several times, and I found that out light in the film will satisfy my concept film concept.

This light was on the ceiling, so it could not move, but it was in my room. So it did not have enough natural light. However, it came out very clearly, so I knew that the inside film picture can have a clear resolution and clear line.

This light was car light, and the car was moving, and it was night time. So the camera did not have enough light and time to capture, but it came pretty clear. It seems like a little bit burly, but the clear line and right color.

It was my last test of light in the film. This street lamp was very tall, and my film camera lens was not able to zoom. It was a very late night time, and only this light was on the street. I thought that my camera cannot capture the light, but it can. I was very satisfied with this picture because of the clear line and right color.

These three pictures gave me clear ideas of light in the film, so I want to connect with daily routine and light. I can see countless light in my daily life, and they have different properties. Suddenly, I want to know the sunlight and my daily life. I cannot see the sunlight a lot, but I can see every day. Also, it has a different feeling every day with an object.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and restriction, Date: January 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Modern people are with countless lights. If you go outside, you can see the intense sunlight. People know that sunlight is very beneficial to them, but modern people are accompanied by human-made interior lights among the many lights. How long do you think you’ll be under the sun until you wake up in the morning and fall asleep at night? Or will it be more than 10 hours in the sun by turning it on for a whole week? Modern people always say “We don’t have enough time to do outdoor activities, and we don’t have enough time to get sunlight, so you have to take some health supplements like vitamins.” However, if you think about it, no one stops outdoor activities. In Light and restriction, the sun is waiting for people, but people may not be able to see the sun because they are blocked by themselves.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and sunset, Date: October 2019, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

It is very hard to see the morning sun rise. However, setting the sun is easier to see than you think. Nevertheless, it is not easy to remember when you saw the sun set. Each person has reason for why he or she cannot see the sunset. For example, company’s work may lead to the end of the day and return home, or may not realize that the sun sets due to study. However, how unfair would it be if you were stuck indoors all day and couldn’t even see the sunset when you couldn’t see it? And sunset is more beautiful than any sky or sun-themed work, and the sky created by sunset creates an atmosphere that cannot be changed from anything else. Your sky, which you face while walking down the street around 6-7 p.m., will be more beautiful than Light and sunset because of the light from nature.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and sunset, Date: March 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Light is moving around you countless times, but you can’t confirm that light is moving. Because human body structure cannot detect moving light. Nevertheless, there is one way to confirm it. It is taking a picture. It will be very difficult to take a picture without shaking or smudging when you take a picture of light. It can’t be helped. Because that’s the nature of light itself. What if I took a picture of the light on a moving object? You can meet a world that leads to an entirely unexpected line. Those lines are not man-made, but they can be art works or someone’s research topic. In Light and light, two lights coexist, both of which move Will everyone move together because it’s a moving light? Can you capture the same moving light at once?

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and leaves, Date: March 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Light is the most important factor for plants. However, human greed has led them to lose their freedom. The plants in Light and leaves also enter the man-made world of nature, regardless of their intentions. Man-made artificial interior spaces are bound to have less natural light, so the plants in Light and leaves receive only a very limited amount of light. Because of human greed, plants are not in place, and even if they have been deprived of such freedom, they are not given the condition to live properly. However, even under such circumstances, light is everywhere, and plants depend on it to live from day to day.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and décalcomanie, Date: March 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Light makes a lot of thing, and it is also the most commonly used material in art works because people can use light to create new things. However, when light occurs on its own and produces something that it never thought of, humans cannot follow the work. Natural light is in outdoor, but when the natural light enters the room, it can also be a way to create new works. Indoor and outdoor are mostly flowing into different worlds. With man-made windows between them, music flows out loud outside and people giggle along the street, but inside, it seems like a quiet time for individuals. However, as light enters through and shadows are created. The shadows work together inside and outside, the same but completely different world unfolds and becomes a work of art itself.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and tree, Date: February 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Have you ever been to a forest where trees are densely packed? Modern people have become so accustomed to the life of the city that it has become very rare to find a forest. Even going into the forest was converted by humans. But if you happen to get into an undeveloped forest by chance, you will easily get lost. Because the trees in the forest will not give you a chance to see the light. If you don’t see the light and keep walking the wrong way, you’ll find it even harder to get out of there, and no one will find you. However, in the meantime, trees give you a chance to see the light. Through some cracks you will be able to find light. I don’t know if the gap was made naturally or by humans. I’m just glad to see the light found through the cracks in Light and tree.

< Motivation picture Description >

The bird, 2019, Film photograph, 36 x 24 inch

Have you ever tried to take a picture of the sun outside on a very clear day? If you have, you might have trouble taking a picture of the sun because the camera cannot take the sun or light well. Think about it, you cannot see the light directly if you want to see the sun, you have to wear sunglasses. The camera is the same as well, you can take a picture of the sun, but you will not like it. You cannot get clear sunlight, The bird is the same as well. The pentagon is sunlight, but it comes out some shapes, not the light. Maybe the clear day with no cloud makes different light shapes.

< Motivation picture Description >

Lamp_r, 2019, Film photograph, 36 x 24 inch

Nowadays, the life span of light bulbs increases due to technological advances, so there is no need to change more than once a year. I do not know it is good for people or not because it means that people do not need a lot of around their lives. In the past, people have to keep attention to their environment, but now people do not think that much. Even though Lamp_r turns on only one bulb, I do not think a lot. I do not spend much time in my room, and I think one bulb is enough to light the whole room. However, I do not know this bulb’s last moment, if it at the end of one’s life, I will change.

< Motivation picture Description >

Lamp_c, 2019, Film photograph, 36 x 24 inch

My father always tells me that does not turn on the car light when the car is moving. Therefore, I almost forgot about the car light in the back seat. However, the car light has meaning for staying there, if it does not need to be there, no one puts in here. Think about it how many times you turn on the car light, you turn this light very rarely. When you lose in the car at night time, you will turn the light. You will often forget many things because you do not need them. If that is the light, then you will need necessary when you are in danger or need help.

< Conclusion >

I am living with countless light, it can be daylight, sunlight, and artificial light. However, I usually stay with artificial light even though outside has bright sunlight. Also, I am taking at least 10 pictures every day, but pictures are taken by cell phone, not a camera. When I take a picture, I check the light for a good result because light makes a nice shadow for figures and looks nicer. However, I do not think that I should take light itself. Maybe the light is an essential material for my life, so I do not think it is a special thing for me.

However, if I were in the past, I would not live like right now. I cannot take a picture anytime, and check right away. I have to take a picture with a film camera, and I have to wait until spending the roll and developing the film. Also, I should go outside to take a picture because in the past I cannot control the light.

Living in digital life has numerous advantages, technology makes my life very easy, and I am enjoying this life. However, sometimes, I want to escape this life because digital makes my life simplified. Can I live analog life with digital life? I can say yes. I can find a diverse way to find analog things right now and I can use or enjoy it.

In short, after light invention, the analog period was gone, but if I want the analog, I can bring it now. Also, I can combine these two different things in my picture. The film is one of the representative items of analog, and light is one of the representative items of digital. When they put in the same frame. They make a new world like pictures in Digital Phobic : Light in Analog

Advisor: Isak Berbic

Thesis Statement

I always love taking pictures with flowers and nature, I think it is the most beautiful scenery I can get compared to anything else. I am glad that I live in a colorful and fragrant world. My mum has the same thought as me. Properly she is the one who influenced me to have this thought. Whenever she sees blossoms, flowers, or an attractive natural view, she asks me to take a picture of her and the view. In this meaningful honor project, l wants to capture my mother’s 50th, a milestone of her life. Since we are all going through a tough time, staying at home limits the places that we can go for photo shooting. My plan was to bring my mum to those famous tourist spots in New York since she didn’t even officially visit New York as a tourist. We moved to New York 4 years ago, and she just threw herself into work right after we arrived in the states. Unfortunately, it is too dangerous to go around right now, so I decided to make her a fresh, sweet photo album. We attempted several times, going to different places, using different concepts. Eventually, the simplest is the best. This series was taken in Bayside Park, which is very close to our house. We walked around and had fun on that sunny day. It was enjoyable, especially in this quarantine period, a fresh air day is precise and delighted. I named the series as “In a dream”. During the shooting time, I asked my mum to recall the happiest moment in her life and her young adult time. She said everything is like a dream, including life, she couldn’t believe she is already in her 50th and I am turning 24. Everything happens so fast like a blink. Thus, I named the series based on her thoughts.

In this series, I tried to create a dreamy atmosphere and make her look like a magazine model, telling her what to do, and showing her best angle. I think the concept has to be shown in the picture. Just like when a singer releases an album, they have a complete concept and shoot the wallpaper based on the concept, so that the audience can understand it better. I want to show that although my mother is not a young teenager anymore, she has a young beautiful soul inside. She is always the one I beloved and respect the most.

Title: Dreaming of…, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 10″ x 8″, Medium: Digital Photography

Dreaming of…

I considered this one as the cover picture. I took this picture from a high angle and put some flowers next to my mum’s hair to embellish the picture. I told her to enjoy the fresh air and to chill, that’s why you can see her facial expressions really show the joyfulness. Her hair color and lip color make a strong contrast with meadow; red and green.

Title: Flower Shower, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 10″ x 8″, Medium: Digital Photography

Flower Shower

This is a close up of my mum’s joyful face. She is enjoying a sunlight shower. The strong sunlight made her unable to open her eyes and used her hand to block it. It created an interesting shadow on her face. In this close up picture, you can see more details.

Title: Touch, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 10″ x 8″, Medium: Digital Photography

Touch

This is the warmest hand in my life. With the sunlight, it looks soft and tough at the same time. Her skin is softly touching the meadow whereas her hand is full of wrinkles and lines. Before we came to the states, my mum loved doing her nails. However, she never has spare time to do her nails. I love the way she is anyway.

Title: Teenage Dream, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 10″ x 8″, Medium: Digital Photography

Teenage Dream

With the white sneakers and long skirt, my mum looks like a 20-year-old. Imagine, she would never wear a pair of sneakers in Hong Kong since she loves high heels. She changed a lot because of me and my sister, including making the decision of moving to the states. I know she sacrificed a lot for this family and I want to give her the best in the future.

Title: Miss Sunshine, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 10″ x 8″, Medium: Digital Photography

Miss Sunshine

In this picture, I kneeled down to stay on the same level with her, so that she looks straight to the camera. She is always a Miss Sunshine in the other’s eyes. She has been telling me always to stay positive since I was little. In order to capture her natural smile, I took this picture in a second when I called her, “mama”. She always answers me back in this most beautiful smile.

This is not only a project to me. It is more like a gift for my mother. I know she actually loves going around and taking pretty pictures, but as she can’t really speak English, she doesn’t usually go out without me. Doing this project gave us a chance to be together creating great memories. I realized that we always should spend more time with family since they are your strongest backup and tightest relationship in the world.

Advisor: Isak Berbic

The Art of Concealment

Project URL: https://theartofcocealment.wordpress.com/

The Art of Concealment began in January 2020 where I wanted to investigate the world outside of myself, how people have concealed and still conceal themselves with cosmetics and fashion, what drives them to do so, and how this relates to broader political and social paradigms.

As the process for this project progressed so did the COVID-19 pandemic which I felt forced me to redirect my process. Initially, I had hoped to travel to New York City to embark on street photography to gather images of the wonderful pedestrians and how they express themselves through fashion and cosmetics. This option is no longer safe therefore I substituted myself as the subject of the work and this developed into a self-portrait photography and digital art project.

Another challenge was that I no longer have access to studio facilities and equipment at the university. Nonetheless, as an artist you can never give up, you must persist, be flexible, and work with the tools, budget, and access the current situation permits. I have an old microscope, a decent DSLR camera, a functioning PC with editing software, and a somewhat stable connection to the internet. Therefore, I still had the ability to photograph make-up microscopically to create a significant photographic body of work with forms, shapes, and textures captured for their artistic aesthetic rather than the scientific. This collection was then applied to a series of self-portraits in Adobe Photoshop to mask, to conceal, and to cover the subject, myself, in order to, at times, express or suppress the reasoning for concealing one’s self. Some images are direct in their meaning, others are obscure and open for your interpretation.

Advisor: Jason Paradis

2020001M “Together in Isolation”

Project URL: https://coronaartist.gallery/

This project is comprised of crowd-sourced photographs gathered from people impacted by the coronavirus, COVID-19. It will examine those who are social distancing, in quarantine, and sheltered in place. The goal is to create a snapshot of the changes this pandemic has wrought on our lives, and the coping mechanisms that people are exercising daily to deal with our world in isolation. As with many of my works, this project deals with mental health and the impact of specific events on one’s life, and how that initiates certain coping mechanisms.

The photographs are arranged in a cascading mosaic displayed on the website https://coronaartist.gallery/, allowing the viewer to scroll endlessly through the submissions. The work will continue to grow as submissions will remain open to add to the gallery. The website is a single work of art with only one active page. An external link will lead to information about the artist, for those interested.

The work is also meant to be displayed in a physical gallery space. The collected images would be printed in varying sizes, but all of them would have the same width. They will be hung with minimal space between each image to imitate the online format. The exhibition is meant to be overwhelming, but should still allow the viewer to focus on each image. Ideally, the physical display would use all gallery walls, including the ceiling and floor, to immerse the viewer within the photographs. This immersion should mimic how the pandemic has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, but the flat, two dimensional format of the mosaiced photographs will show the importance of digital communication during isolation by imitating the format of our digital screens.

The experience of gathering images was challenging mentally. I did not filter the images as they were submitted, and let everyone express whatever they were feeling at that moment. Many of the pictures show personal protective equipment in use while people move about their daily lives, as well as activities used to stave off boredom, and a plethora of memes. It seems as though many of us are attempting to cope with this dramatic social shift through humor, and busying our minds to not fully acknowledge or deal with the long lasting impact that this will, no doubt, carry into the future.

Title: “2020001M: Together in Isolation”, Date: 2020, URL: https://coronaartist.gallery/, Medium: Digital photograph gallery

Advisor: Jason Paradis

I am interested in painting landscapes because I have always been drawn to the beauty of nature. Previously, I created a triptych of Monument Valley where each canvas was set during different times of the day. The first one was dawn, the middle one was noon, and the last one was dusk. These canvases connected to form one landscape, set at different times, to showcase the various colors we can see in the sky. These colors impact how we see everything around us.

My current project, Sky Series, stems from seeing the stark differences in color however, I only wanted to focus on the sky. Each painting is from direct observation of the sky at a particular moment in the day. To ease with painting outside, I set up a traveling case that held my oil paints, brushes, and panels. What captured me the most with this project was how quickly the sky changes. The clouds move very fast and the sun sets and rises within minutes, changing everything. There were a few times that I started a painting and the sky changed completely before I could finish, forcing me to improvise and work from memory. This also allowed me to learn to paint faster and with less brushstrokes. I had to be deliberate with my time since I had little time to capture the essence of each painting.

Sky Series is displayed in chronological order. The first panel is set in the early morning while the last panel is set at night. They were not all painted on the same day, but rather, over the course of four months. The weather varied every day and the season changed midway through the project, which is why in some of the panels, the sky is still bright during the evening. One of the things that inspired me to do this project was knowing that, depending on the location of the sun and the clouds, the full spectrum of color can be visible; colors not usually associated with the sky like purple, green, and red. I hope this series reminds viewers to take a few minutes out of their day to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. I want them to experience the same sense of wonder I felt while making these paintings.

Title: Sky Series, Each Dimension: 6” x 6”, Medium: Oil on wood

Advisor: Ian Alan Paul

Divine Ascension

There is a magic in Animation that I have yet to see portrayed in any other medium. The world of digital art is a new one, and I am incredibly intrigued by the endless possibilities animation opens up. While Animation is often utilized as a storytelling tool, it can be crafted and molded into any thing we see fit. “Divine Ascension” is a perfect example of the kind of world I’m interested in exploring. An art piece should take you on a journey, and while I believe there is an art to entertainment, being able to move a viewer is the crux of what a truly good piece of art should be capable of. Animation becomes a tool to form inimaginable muses. I specialize in digital art as well as animation, and it was by utilizing many different Adobe softwares such as Animate, Photoshop, and Premiere, “Divine Ascension” was able to come together. As a piece about religion, as well as the sins in ourselves we often face, “Divine Ascension” works to be a surrealist story that takes the viewer by the hand and brings them to an entirely new world. This process involved writing, storyboarding, timing, background design, character design, as well as the time intensive hours Animation calls for. Despite all these hurdles, the Animation process always comes together to bring life to something impossible.

Advisor: Ian Alan Paul

Introduction:

My senior thesis project was going to be Sonic Space, a solo gallery show in the Tabler Arts Center. I intended the show to be a collection of art pieces that were capable of producing sounds, with several steel and/or wood sculptures which could be played as percussive musical instruments, along with two creative coding projects. Unfortunately, the Coronavirus pandemic led to my show being cancelled, as well as leaving most of my sculptures trapped in the Staller Center basement until further notice. As such, I will use this document as a chance to describe my artistic practice, as well as provide descriptions for my documented pieces.

Artist’s Statement:

My first artistic inspirations came from math. In my mind, mathematics is almost holy, a beautifully intricate web, where pure ideas can connect in genuinely euphoric ways, existing only in the minds of those who understand it. The craftsmanship of mathematics is unrivaled. Every idea is rigorous, it can be demonstrably constructed out of a few bedrock axioms. And math seems fundamentally real and true. No matter who or where you are in the universe, when you draw a circle, π will inevitably pop up

As a sculptor, I am drawn to the mathematical forms found in Geometry and Topology, such as the platonic solids (the “basic building blocks” of three dimensional space), and repetitive/self-similar objects (fractals come to mind first). I am fascinated by how these forms seem natural and organic, despite coming from the platonic realm of mathematics. While much of math is inspired by natural observation, it exists in a realm separate from the physical. By creating forms which mimic nature, I create visual evidence of the deep connections between reality and math

I have no preferred sculptural medium, fabricating with wood and metal, casting in bronze (and occasionally chocolate), as well as incorporating found objects and electronic media. And as a digital artist, I often find that code allows me to express myself with mathematics, creating generative art that mathematically combines sound and color.

My other source of artistic inspiration comes from the world of contemporary percussion music. Unlike other classical instruments, classical percussion is an inherently modern practice, less than a hundred years old. And while most musicians only need to learn a single instrument (or a small handful of related instruments), percussionists must be generalists; our instruments include anything that makes a sound when you hit it. In my art practice, I combine sculpture and percussion by creating sonic sculptures; pieces which are simultaneously sculptures and musical instruments. These pieces are interactive, and are often coupled with musical performances.

Artwork Descriptions:

Modified Bicycle Wheel:

This piece was inspired by beFORe JOHN7, a percussion quartet which used the spokes of the bicycle wheel as an instrument. With this piece, I wanted to expand the sonic capabilities of a bicycle wheel, to include as many different sounds as possible. The most notable addition is the steel cone I fabricated and attached to the middle. I added short steel tubes up the cone in a spiral, which I can trigger with a metal rod to create a bright high-pitched “twinkling” sound effect. I also added jingle bells to the bottom spokes of the wheel, which are triggered by spinning the wheel back and forth. Finally, I include three implements to play the instrument, a metal triangle beater, a plastic brush-stick, and a playing card, which can either strike the bicycle wheel or be placed in the spokes as it rotates. This object functions as both a sculpture, and a musical instrument. Independent of interaction, it is still a visually striking object, and could very well be just a “regular” sculpture. And by putting all these sonic possibilities into the object, I make it interactive, allowing viewers to play with it.

Title: WoodOnMetal/MetalOnWood, Date: December 2019, Dimensions: 60” x 48” x 60” , URL:https://youtu.be/axqN1kFl9Rg, Medium: Steel Hollow Bars, Pine Planks, Plywood, Steel

MetalOnWood/WoodOnMetal:

My second sonic sculpture is MetalOnWood/WoodOnMetal. I would like to thank Olivia Gatto, Owen Lewars, and Kevin Vucinic, who you are about to see perform on this sculpture.

As you probably noticed, the two main sounds of this piece are wood and metal. Classical percussion music often divides its instruments into three groups of sounds: skins, metal, woods. I find that skins, which are usually synonymous with “drums” (including bongos, kick drums, and snare drums) are the most often recognized by non-musicians, so I wanted to make a piece which used the less common sounds, metal and wood.

What I find most interesting about this sculpture is its modular design. It is made out of six separate sub-modules, which fit together to create a hexagonal percussion set-up. There are two different instruments: pine planks and steel hollow-bars, each with three pitches: high, medium and low. The title of this piece comes from the construction of the modules. Each wooden plank is supported by steel bars, while each metal bell rests on top of plywood planks. The modular design makes transporting the piece much easier, while also allowing the piece to take up a lot of space when set up. In a gallery setting, I would place this piece in the center of the space, inviting gallery visitors to play outside or inside of the piece with others.

The next two pieces I want to talk about are creative coding website projects

These pieces share a similar theme, a synesthesiac connection between color and sound. Both of these phenomena exist as waves, either electromagnetic or acoustic. Our eyes associate different frequencies of light as different colors, and our ears associate different frequencies as notes. But while each color has only one frequency, the western musical system has a notion of “octaves”, where two sounds are the same note if their frequencies have the right ratio between them. For example, if you play a low C on a piano and then play the same C an octave higher, the frequency of the higher note will be twice as high as the lower note. And if you go another octave up, you get four times the frequency of the original note. You can keep doing this doubling octave thing as long as you want, until the frequency becomes too high to be transmitted by sound waves. But at that point, it can be thought of as an electromagnetic wave. And you go 40 octaves up, you can get the frequencies associated with visible light. In this way, you can map all 12 notes to their own distinct color, which I do in both my pieces.

https://boriskishinevsky.github.io/NagoyaMarimbas/

Nagoya Marimbas:

This piece is a Javascript loop, which takes Nagoya Marimbas, a piece by minimalist composer Steve Reich, and adds a minimalist visual element to it.

Nagoya Marimbas is a marimba duet, which I had the privilege to perform my sophomore year. In this piece, Steve Reich uses a technique called “phasing”. Each musician plays the same melodic and rhythmic line, but shifted to start at different times. This creates a distinct shifting melodic line, which harmonically evolves as the piece progresses. My piece splits the screen in half, and associates each half with one of the marimba players. Then, I translated the score into approximately 3,000 lines of Javascript if-statements, which triggered the right color to appear when it’s associated note was played.

https://boriskishinevsky.github.io/SonicSketch/

Sonic Sketch:

This website is interactive, and allows users to create their own drawings, and then turn those drawings into musical compositions. The color pallete is designed as a playable keyboard, which displays each note’s associated color. When the play button is pressed, the website turns the canvas into a score, reading each pixel (left to right, top to bottom) and playing the appropriate note on each color.

The first drawing-to-sound program was called UPIC, and was designed by composer Iannis Xenakis. As a side note, Xenakis is a super interesting guy. He’s famous in the very specific field of modern classical music, but pretty much unknown to most people. He wrote some of the first solos for percussion music, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff that I’m not gonna get into now. Anyway, UPIC allowed users to create line drawings, and then read them, with the vertical x-axis being pitch, and the horizontal y-axis representing time. My piece uses a different system to translate drawings to sounds, adding color to represent pitch (instead of height) and reading the picture pixel by pixel, instead of a horizontal scan.

I would say that the hardest part of this piece has been the web-development side. At the time of this recording, there are still several bugs in the code. The website doesn’t like being run on Apple devices, or Firefox browsers, and it’s unnecessarily difficult to figure out why and fix it.

Conclusion:

I would like to thank several people for helping me with this project. First comes, Ian Alan Paul, who was my faculty mentor, and is a huge inspiration and role-model to me. Dan Richolt, who gave me tons of advice and free steel while I was making my sculptures. And Paul St. Denis, who helped me turn Sonic Sketch into a functioning website. Lastly, I’d like to thank my parents for their financial and emotional support.

Advisor: Howardena Pindell

Left Behind

After spending the last decade bound to Long Island, I’ve become fixated on two things: I am homesick, and I don’t know who I am. Having lived for eight years as a Filipina, then sixteen years as an American, I find that I cannot fit comfortably into either identity. This project began when I realized by navigating through Google Maps, I can “walk” through parts of Manila, through our old neighborhoods. With five paintings I attempt to reach back toward places left behind, lost and far away to me, to achieve some sense of authenticity for myself as an artist, and as an immigrant. In part, I intended to soothe my anxiety that as I age, and as I spend more years unable to visit home, I lose chances to establish my identity.

With imagery of Metro Manila, I have materialized my nostalgia, as I struggle to solidify sparse childhood memories. Growing up there, I saw scrap wood, metal, and plastic everywhere. Those colorful, battered polygon scraps made good fences, walls, roofs, doors. Homes and transports were made of scraps out of pure necessity. Growing up in New York, I became educated on what we were doing to our planet, and I learned that the trash of the first-world litters the roads of the third-world. I needed to reduce my material waste and I also sought to emulate the Filipino practice of using what’s at hand, what’s there in the street, to create the substance of this project.

I’ve merged the use of recycled materials with the modern technology of Google Street View, and incorporated Arduino as a kinetic art-making mechanism. As an artist, a child of a developing country, and a human being facing the consequences of climate change, my objective was to experiment with methods of art-making new and exciting to me, while minimizing the waste that I contribute to the planet.

Title: Tricycle, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 28″(h) x 22″(w), Medium: Acrylic on packaging paper

Tricycle, 2020

One of the first images that excited me as I “walked” through Metro Manila was a view of an empty tricycle parked on a wall. These motorcycle-sidecars were the most familiar means of transportation for me, and their invention signifies the Filipino spirit of building by necessity and with cheap material. I repurposed old packaging paper as my canvas; The shape of the tricycle reminded me of a child’s toy, and the playful colors of this painting would inform my palette for the rest of the show.

Title: Sunday, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 12″(h) x 17″(w), Medium: Acrylic on wood

Sunday, 2020

Sunday speaks to the strong presence of Catholicism I felt in the Philippines. It is my first work handling the theme of religion, as well as the first abstract painting I’ve produced in my undergraduate studies. I chose to paint it on a scrap piece of wood that had been broken and punched all along the edges with nail holes. The silhouette and position of the church in Sunday signifies the awe that I felt for it as a child, and the respect that it commanded from most people of the Philippines.

Title: Sampayan, Date: May 2020, Dimension: 15″(h) x 20″(w), URL: https://vimeo.com/419138367, Medium: Acrylic on wood, Arduino, fabric

Sampayan, 2020  https://vimeo.com/419138367

While trying to find one of our many old apartments, I came across a view of sampayan, which means clothesline. As machine dryers (and the electricity needed to power them) are a luxury in the Philippines, indoor and outdoor clotheslines are used in every home. What struck me about this image was the shape of the windows, their relation to each other, and that they were not barred or wired for protection, unlike most homes that have windows facing the streets. I seized the clothesline as a way of implementing my experiments with Arduino into Sampayan. I created a sketch that would turn a servo motor 15 degrees on a loop, and uploaded it onto an Arduino Uno. On the motor, I hung pieces of miniature clothing made of scraps of thrifted fabric. The motion of the motor simulates a clothesline swaying in the breeze.

Arduino for Sampayan

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Title: 15th Ave, Date: April 2020, Dimension: 40″(h) x 26″(w), URL: https://youtu.be/abPXelLXgoU, Medium: Acrylic on wood, Arduino

15th Ave, 2020  https://youtu.be/abPXelLXgoU

15th Ave is the heart of my project, and the street it is based on contains our family home. I combined the images of two different areas on 15th Avenue—a neighbor’s doorway, and fenced yard, where outside a caged chicken sits on the sidewalk. Roosters and chickens are often kept caged or leashed with shackles in the city, and I would hear them crowing in the mornings. I was given a disused wooden door to paint on, and the hole of the door handle allowed me to incorporate Arduino once again. The chicken is the only living creature depicted in this show, and I empathized with it as I composed 15th Ave. I felt that it was restless, and somber. On a disc, I painted dreamy clouds. I employed the Arduino and motor to rotate this disc beneath the hole of the door. Behind the metal fence, the moving image of floating clouds indicate the daydreams of the trapped bird.

Arduino for 15th Ave

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Title: Nova, Date: May 2020, Dimension: 12″(h) x 26″(w), Medium: Acrylic on wood

Nova, 2020

The title and imagery for Nova is derived from my paternal grandmother’s old apartment in Novaliches, Metro Manila. It is the second abstracted painting of the show, though unlike Sunday, the positive spaces are symbolic, while the negative spaces of natural wood provide the setting. The two large windows were the eyes of her apartment. I recall that you could not see into her one-bedroom apartment from the street, but the windows provided plenty of light indoors. The gate, the most carefully detailed element of Nova, represents a great deal of nostalgia: my small cousins and I used it as a jungle gym.

Completion and the impact of covid-19

Through the course of this show and through conversations with my family, I’ve cultivated a stronger intimacy with my mother culture and country. I’d planned to have a long visit to Manila for late 2020, having much more free time upon the conclusion of my undergraduate studies. Unfortunately, the outbreak of coronavirus worldwide has robbed my graduating class of proper closure during our final semester at Stony Brook University, and has made overseas travel very complicated for the foreseeable future. After processing this grief, I’ve resolved that the constructive way forward is to continue studying this part of my identity through research and art, until I can safely venture back to these places I’ve left behind.

Advisor: Maya Schindler

I Was an Angel Once

I’m a Latinx Sagittarius born in 1994 and raised on Long Island, NY. I’ve been artistically inclined since childhood, a shy kid spending most of my time drawing portraits with pencil on computer paper. I studied English briefly at CUNY Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, later moving on to study art at Suffolk County Community College where I drew and painted portraits and still lives primarily, focusing on realism, and then later exploring abstract mono-printing. I received an Associate’s degree in visual art and am currently completing my BA in studio art at Stony Brook University with a concentration in drawing, painting, and printmaking. Despite my concentration, I’ve also been experimenting with music, poetry, performance, social media as medium, divination using UNO cards, and with animation and video art. My art began as a practice of realism but has evolved into an investigation of sorts after having a profound, beautiful, yet highly traumatic spiritual experience within the past two years. Since then, I’ve found my purpose for art-making, but my art is currently in a developmental stage; I am still figuring out a language with which to communicate my ideas. I am invested in the idea that we are living in an organic simulation, an ancient chain reaction, that we are simply light possessing matter, learning how to flow through life like water down a stream. I believe that our lives are simply a metaphor, our brains constructing what we know to be reality from the information our senses perceive. I don’t believe in the idea of chaos, I believe that the universe has an order dictated by mathematics, that our lives follow a pattern, and when someone has a premonition (like I have in the past) or experiences a synchronicity, it is a glimpse into this divine pattern, seeing for a moment beyond the veil of our constructed reality.

So far, the progress I’ve made in terms of visual language includes using what I call “squiggles” (I enjoy using this word because it carries a certain silliness, and while I do think life can be serious, I also think divinity has a sense of humor) to represent waves of energy as well as the self moving through spacetime, repeating numbers as messages from divinity, circles as the eternity of the present, spheres as the shape of the universe, pink for divinity, femininity, the frequency of the universe, green for nature as well as the heart, blue for sadness, but also wisdom, yellow for joy (the happiness experienced after a hardship), orange for creativity and infinity, turquoise for truth, red for masculinity, for courage, but also fear. I’ve assigned meaning to different colors based on my own personal experience with them as well as the collective associations (such as colors assigned to different energy centers or “chakras” in the body). Life as a part of reality is an association game: the mind can define and shift our reality in that the associations we make with certain patterns (letters) and certain colors (red means stop, green means go) alter our movement through it. I think the ability of the mind to have developed language and have developed these associations is a miracle.

What also strikes me as a miracle is the invention of the internet as well as smart phones to access it from virtually any location. Phones have become portals of sorts for light and sound, sucking in light through the cameras, sound through the microphone, and spitting them back out in a million or so different directions through use of cellular data or wifi. I think that in a sense, they’re like man-made wormholes, allowing us to share visual and auditory information and make contact with one another in ways we never used to be able to. I am drawn to using my own phone and social media to create art for several reasons, including that I find that it is a form of art-making which is accessible; I can create works of art from the comfort of my bed on days when I am physically and mentally unable to leave it. I am also taken by the concept that a phone, especially one equipped with AI, is an extension of the self; it is an extension of our senses of sight and hearing, of our cognition, molded to our bodies in that it is made to interact with our hands. Emojis are like modern hieroglyphics, a visual and wordless emotive language, and predictive text is like artificial intuition. Lastly, I find that social media is often overlooked as a medium. An Instagram feed is the visual manifestation of time passing, of the light that we see which we then capture with our extended selves (phones) to create an artificially-living self portrait. Feeds (as well as a phone’s photo album) are highly intentional and can be curated, used to create patterns and compositions, digital drawings, paintings. I am interested in not only creating these digital compositions, but also transforming them into physical paintings, giving them tangible weight, presence, and altered scale, framing them traditionally as the paintings which they already are. I’ve been heavily screenshotting my Instagram feed, my text conversations, the pictures within as well as the process of scrolling through my Camera Roll, and my most recent emojis, as through this process I’m taking virtual photographs which can not only be used to create compositions, but can then also be used as frames to create animated videos that illustrate the passage of time, this inhabitation of the self in a digital dimension. For many of these screenshots, I like to keep the original cropping as this is the manner in which I view the information through my phone and this cropping often includes a time stamp at the top or shows the folder or feed through which I am exploring, adding another layer of time and context, assigning visual evidence to the revisitation of old moments. The video that I created for my project, titled Green (555) is a self portrait composed primarily of screenshots of images off my Instagram feed and from my camera roll which I felt embody the experience of seeing into the divine pattern which I discussed earlier. It also includes screenshots of my usage of social media to create moving forms and shimmering visuals, such as my using the perspective tool and the filters in Instagram to make a picture “dance” and change colors. Ideally, this video would have been projected onto a canvas measuring 36” X 64”, meant to mirror the viewer (really myself as the canvas is just over my size) who stands before it, a reminder of how much of the self is contained within our phones and how often we’re visiting this virtual world.

Although I’ve experimented with many media, I still consider myself a painter and drawer at heart. I think the practices of each are metaphors for life in that they too are illusions and are light (the self/god) processing light (using one of the senses, in this case sight) and moving matter (in this case pigment). They are practices of moving matter with intention in order to create an illusion and as such can be used as a means of communicating the experience of seeing beyond the illusion of reality. Part of what I observed during my experience is that this pattern of processing light and moving matter can be seen throughout every living interaction, from art-making, of course, to eating, reading, walking (this pattern still applies to people who are unable to see). In my opinion, it is a law of life. My most significant artistic influences include Hilma af Klint, Ana Mendieta, Frida Kahlo, Allison Schulnik, and Dan Gilhooley, all of whose work have a distinct level of emotion, spirituality, and symbolism. I am still learning and developing as an artist, taking inspiration from the signs and synchronicities I experience on a daily basis, experimenting with different media, trying to find a way to communicate my interpretation of reality with the world.

Advisor: Lorena Salcedo-Watson

In the Waiting Hours: Illustrations by Ysabel Simon

In all honesty, this project did not initially come from a place of inspiration or curiosity, however, it did come from reality, or a reaction to it. Explaining it would be quite simple, for even without understanding the context of the illustrations, they are fairly straightforward. Just like most people in the spring of 2020, I am also in isolation. Admittedly, I am fortunate to be living in a home where my days cycle around the comfort of food and family. However, I cannot help but feel a growing sense of loneliness, anxiousness, boredom, and dullness, lacking in motivation and inspiration. The timeline for this project was cut short, and the resources required for its original blueprint were no longer accessible. Personally, for those reasons among others, there was no enticement to create or explore, and so this project was on hold for a while. A few weeks into the lockdown, and I realized that although it felt like everything had halted, they did not. Classes were ongoing, we were cooking, baking, our plants were growing, and the days were passing whether I kept track or not. All the while, I was just watching the kettle boil—waiting.

It was with these sentiments that I decided to start this senior project entitled, In the Waiting Hours, a compilation of illustrations taken from my daily life in isolation. Many of the objects are things found in my room or around the house, perfume bottles, books, tea tins, and figurines. Three repeated figures are featured in all the works (me and my older brothers as children). I chose to repeat certain images to reiterate my daily cycles as of late, images such as the clock, which also exists as a lithograph, my original medium of choice before the lockdown. Although the lithograph is not in the series, another form of printmaking is included—an attempted block print titled Cul de Sac is attached to one of the illustrations.

As the project progressed, I came across the French artist, Léopold Chauveau. He made these beautifully simple yet intricate drawings using textural lines and shapes, which influenced a few of my pieces. Another big influence was Shin Sun Mi, a South Korean artist who uses minimal mark making, color blocking, and beautiful Asian modern and contemporary compositions.

There is a narration, a story in the images. Many might be able to relate to having more time sitting around, stocking on a few canned goods, working from home, maybe planting a few vegetables, and taking far too many naps. Each illustration was made to complement another group of pieces in the series, so with this in mind, I decided that displaying them in groups would enhance the effects of the illustrations. By stacking them, they also got the added illusion of being in different compartments of a bookshelf, intended to resemble stored memorabilia.

In the Waiting Hours is autobiographical, partially prevalent to many living at this time, yet lighthearted in its making. Surely it will serve as a reminder of my sentiments. The beginning of the project was undeniably rough, but the process in itself was a healing one—it gave me company to pass the waiting hours.

Advisor: Ian Alan Paul

Artist’s Statement:

In my four years in Stony Brook, I’ve become aware of many stories of my friends who’ve had questionable sexual experiences. Four volunteered to tell their stories to show how common sexual assault/harassment is, and how so many people all around us could tell you a similar story, if only you would ask.

Sexual Assault is defined as sexual contact that occurs without consent from the victim and can take many forms such as attempted rape or rape, fondling, or forcing someone by physical pressure or emotional coercion and manipulation to perform sexual acts. There are many people who go through some form of assault and even if they have a hard time labeling their experience as such, these instances have a profound effect on them. For example, it can affect future relationships, perceptions of self, and one’s relations with others, as well as induce feelings of great anxiety or anger. I’ve talked to a friend who, after an experience became hyper-aware of her appearance, and was reluctant to wear outfits that made her feel good about herself because she was afraid it would “invite” people to harass her. Another friend has some trouble opening up in her relationships. Meanwhile, my own experiences include unwanted flashbacks and difficulty recalling aspects of the event. I wanted to shine a light on these stories, and to let people know that no matter what their experiences are with sexual assault, whether they think it is “not a big deal” or not, that they are not alone, and their feelings about their experiences are valid.

Being such a sensitive topic, my first priority was that any persons who would be willing to be interviewed would have to stay anonymous. When the interviews were concluded and edited together, I was struck by how emotional it was. Truly, it was difficult to listen to my friends talk about these events again and again. When I conceptualized this project, I meant to have more active animation, but suddenly that seemed out of pace. I wanted the audience to really focus on the words, the way the interviewees talk, and the weight of emotion behind their speech. While my art is usually a lot more visually driven, I had to take a step back and re-evaluate what form would best suit the function I intended for this project.

Acknowledgment

I want to thank a few people who helped me with this project. First, of course, would be my friends, without whom this project would not exist. Thank you for believing in this project enough to revisit unpleasant memories. Ian Alan Paul, my faculty mentor who was really patient with me and whose input was invaluable in determining the direction of the work. Lorena and Takafumi for being so patient during these particularly difficult times. Finally, all my friends (whether or not you were interviewed), my significant other, and my family who have been my biggest supporters.

Advisor: Patricia Maurides

Artist Statement

This project is a visual journal using the cyanotype method to cope with the stressful time we are in right now. I am currently creating visual narratives with things I find outside and inside my house. The project transformed from the observation of flowers and plant growth into the documentation and meditation of them. My initial expected outcome for the project was to make a narrative with all the prints I created. However, since the project is still ongoing, I decided to focus on creating compositions that helped me cope with emotional stress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with the cyanotype method was a meditative experience; creating the composition and exposing the image helped me to take my mind off the pressing matters going on around and within me. I am now looking into ways to incorporate digital photography in the cyanotype print using acetate paper and creating narratives using layering and alternating exposure times for different elements.