Spring 2015 B.F.A. (exhibition catalog)

2014 -2015

All artwork and installation images from B.F.A. exhibitions in the Earl & Virginia Green Art Gallery at Biola University. All images provided by the artists; used by permission.

Cover design by John Griffith B.F.A. 2014-15 (senior show catalog: Issue #02).

Copyright Š 2015 Earl & Virginia Green Art Gallery All rights reserved.

Book design by John Griffith.

Published through Issuu.com Earl & Virginia Green Art Gallery Biola University Art Department 13800 Biola Ave., La Mirada, CA 90639 562.903.4807 • www.Biola.edu/ArtGallery

B.F.A. 2014-2015 senior show catalogue

Spring 2015

Angelica Nicolle Abalos www.angelicanicolle.com | hello@angelicanicolle.com

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Interdisciplinary

RUIN / / REPAIR This body of work comes from a personal journey of breaking, healing and growing.

It reflects three conscious decisions made in the midst of brokenness: To let my walls down.

To allow others to reach in.

To accept their influence in my life.

The process of creating reflects this journey. Each of these hands becomes a tangible representation of a relationship that has helped shape my life along the way. The hands are shattered into multiple, sometimes unworkable, pieces through self足inflicted blows and are reassembled by the hands of select individuals who have been a part of my own personal repair.

Each individual engages in a meditative process, both in reconstruction and written reflection. These meditations focus on the worth of the broken objects in light of the bond we share. The process includes accepting brokenness, acknowledging the weight and limitations that come with it, and embracing it as a necessary season in life.

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Jacob Adent

Interdisciplinary

jradent@hotmail.com

Seventy Times Language uses repetition in form to further explain ideas, objects, and concepts, as if one word was not enough.

We use sequences of the same words to further intensify its meaning, or its description of what it identifies with.

Scripture is a place where words and phrases are repeated in sequence to further explain its definition or the ideas they connect with. In this body of work, I am experimenting with the placement and abstraction of text in a way that conveys information, not through legibility, but through relation to itself, or one another.

This printmaking helps shift text to image as a priority, rather than transcription. The repetitive process of carving the same stroke and printing the same block add a physicality to my work that connects my ideas to my creativity.

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Dust & Dust

I am a designer working primarily with branding and print collateral.

I treat graphic design as a form of storytelling, so I try to tell those stories beautifully and interestingly as I can.

To do this, I try to incorporate as many materials and mediums possible into my designs—everything from ceramics to organic sculpture to bookmaking.

Concept is key in my work, and all visual choices flow from it in order to result in an engaging and cohesive product.

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Katya Austin

Interdisciplinary

design@katyaaustin.com | www.katyaaustin.com

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Aaron Cantleberry

contact@aaroncantleberry.com | 920.698.6970 | www.aaroncantleberry.com

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Design

Fine | Motion Motion: an intangible expression with visible results. Capturing movement grants the eye a glimpse of a frozen moment. FINE | MOTION slices into the trice of explosion, stretch and rhythm of human form. Reveal the invisible. Analysis, retrospection, and admiration follow, but the power remains intact, unwavering.

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Hannah Efron hannahefronstudio@gmail.com | www.hannahefron.com

Interdisciplinary

Somethings Humans experience each moment of day to day living with different levels of attention and intention. A single fragment of one’s day can be experienced with a multitude of different responses from disregard to delight.

Within these series of moments, I am drawn to the ones that appear as unremarkable. I find something spectacular about the way I respond to the shapes and colors that are present in these occurrences. There is something lovely about the way they demand my attention in the midst of ordinary tasks.

As a process driven painter, I construct each painting by translating these moments into visual fields of color and texture. Through exploring these moments, I am left to wonder if they were ever unremarkable or if they had always existed as wonderful.

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Lauren Higgins

laurenmhiggins@icloud.com | 619.952.0541 | www.laurenmhiggins.com

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Interdisciplinary

An Efflorescence A captive bird cannot maintain its natural exhibitions of social behavior, yet it will adapt, and may even thrive, in its appointed artificial environment.

To effloresce is to reach an optimum stage of growth or development, a state or period of bursting forth, or flowering. In my pieces I render a bursting forth of fluorescent, organic forms; birds, compressed and intertwined in active and stimulating compositions.

I am embracing a study of the abnormalities of natural design, and the fragility of our own environments, physically, socially, or otherwise. I’m interested in pursuing the relationship between accurate and false perceptions of expressions of well being, just as say, one chooses to perceive a bird in a cage.

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Melinda Kaun melindakaun@gmail.com | 714.801.2741

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Design

Tactile Spectrum Color can determine whether we like or dislike something. There is a whole study of how it affects psychological states. And yet, it is so very fleeting. If I turned the lights off, the colors would cease to exist. If I changed one color on any of these canvases then the others would be perceived differently.

Color is so ethereal and yet here I have coupled it with the tactile. The act of touching places an object in space.

It brings reality and presence to idea, concepts and, in this case, color. It allows the pieces to be examined further and better than otherwise possible.

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Even in Memory This work is an opportunity to understand my home, to reconcile memories of the past with realities of the present. While the place itself has been a constant in my life, there are elements of home that have changed over the years or are in the midst of change now.

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Various shifts and developments in my life affect my approach to the idea of home. These photographs explore

the complexities of change through transitions of light, movement, and memory. Life is a time of entering and exiting, and as home plays stage to a persistent dance of fleeting light.

In the rush of changing conditions, I try to find stillness, rest, and security in moments of memory, recalling times past and those yet to come. This project allows me to enter into this time of change and grow to understand what home means as I move forward.

Alyssa Martin

Photography

alyssanmartin@verizon.net | 909.238.4431 | www.alyssamartinart.com

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Haley Martin

Design

nelmathyria@comcast.net | www.haleymartin.net

Before the Eye

Super Fine I am very intrigued by simplicity in drawings and how just a few lines have the potential to be incredibly expressive and tell engaging stories.

Simple ink drawings such as the ones I have created may seem flat and shallow at first glance, but I have layered them on top of each other, adding depth.

If you are willing, you can become immersed in this story I have crafted

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and read it beginning to end. Stories are important to me, and for years I have wanted to tell this particular story in a way that is visually appealing. The characters I have created are not based on real people, but it is my hope that their characterizations are believable and the viewer can find something in these characters that resonates with them.

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Randi Martinez

Interdisciplinary

randi.a.martinez@gmail.com | www.randimartinez.com

Emergence Emergence is the process whereby larger entities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities that individually do not exhibit such properties. Natural systems interest me, specifically in the way certain animal groups exhibit emergent behavior by

herding, flocking, or swarming. Nearly all types of life forms, from butterflies to roaming wildebeest herds, tend to cluster together. These gatherings are often contradictory: the members react only to their surroundings but the overall motion is fluid; the interactions are simple but the forms are complex; the control seems centralized but movement

results from individual decisions. This clustering, when removed from its immediate environment, reveals beautiful abstracted forms. I study the visual forms that these animal groupings naturally create, and then repeat these forms over and over. The individual fades into the mass, and the minuscule becomes a bridge to the macroscopic.

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Eddie Moon

Interdisciplinary

es.mooon@gmail.com | 949.838.7870

Return “All go to one place. All are from dust, and to dust all return.” Ecclesiastes 3:20

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Through my series of clay work, I am fascinated by the connection between clay and human beings. I find it compelling that God used dust, an insignificant material,

to give life to the mortal body of man. The human body naturally ages over time and becomes dust.

Through clay, I am able to visually present the natural material of the human body. By incorporating video, I am able to visually show the nature of humanity over time.

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Laundry

Clothing is a foundationally human trait. I find it interesting that clothing is used to hide private parts as well as selectively used to reveal choice things.

Outfits of specific functions or styles are chosen to show how a person wants to be identified. Hipster, jock, skater, surfer, street-goth, sneakerhead, trendy, cool, wealthy, unique: I find that clothing is used to show how a person wants to be identified as a human.

My work explores the common human identity in its necessities and longings using clothing. The vivid, appropriated visual style is meant to boldly draw attention to itself, and its vehicle of the basic cotton t-shirt brings new, functional considerations to these visual artifacts.

Just as the meaning of the word laundry can flip between clean clothes and dirty clothes, this body of work explores what I believe to be a battle between human desire and human fulfillment.

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David Rhee

Interdisciplinary

davidrhee671@gmail.com | 714.269.4498 | www.reeformed.com

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Julia Smith

Painting

julia.margot.smith@gmail.com | 408.455.4800 | juliamargotsmith.com

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Round 2

Every painting has a story that the gallery never sees. Hours and hours of work go into the curation of visual elements on a canvas. I aim to make the history of my work fully transparent. I have created two of the same painting, on two separate canvases, and have photographed both paintings at each step of the process.

I then compiled the images into a looping video, showing the journey the canvas has taken. The image blooms to completion several times along the way, and then recedes to its first strokes and its blankness. I present the canvases along with the video, made blank once again. The whitewashed canvases are merely the physical traces of the piece; the video is is the visual record of the piece. Through concealing the painted canvases and showing the video, I create pieces that reveal their full identity.

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Katelyn Seitz katelyn.s.seitz@gmail.com | 916.878.6518

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Design

Excavation Excavation is when the ground is disturbed.

My work is concerned with process and artifact. This process of accumulation, layering, and unearthing begins with the gathering of ephemera, curated on to individual surfaces. Layer upon layer of material builds up into an excavation site to be rummaged through, wrestled with, and acted upon. I engage these sites with tools that disturb the ground, that leave a mark, that give and take, push and pull. I grind, sand, chisel, chip, drill, and cut into surface upon surface.

Layers blur into one another; complexity bleeds through; everything slowly becomes something else.

Covered and recovered. Buried and unearthed. Some items lost, some found, all affected. The artifact is what bears the mark, what was already, but not yet. It is what remains.

All residue.

Unresolved, still shaking dust.

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Amanda Upp

Painting

www.amandaupp.com | 509.953.2529 | amandauppstudio@gmail.com

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Embrace In life I have experienced the suffering of the innocent, the questioning of God’s goodness, the faltering of my faith, and the searching for what it means to be human. My little sister’s genetic disorder, CDKL5, has left her mentally disabled and wracked with three hundred seizures a month. I see the horrific way she is imprisoned by her own body. I desire to feel and understand more acutely what her soul wrapped in this flesh feels like. My work is a meditation on and an expression of her condition.

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Burn / Grow / Repeat The scorching of wood using branding tools and a woodburner requires focus and steadiness, resulting in a slow, methodical movement of mark making. This action allows me to enter a meditative mindset as I calmly focus on and deeply engage in the marks I am creating. Because burning is by its nature a destructive and unforgiving process, it also forces me to let go of my desire for control and embrace the imperfections.

This piece represents a daily practice of meditative mark making. I burned two blocks per day for fifty days with the restriction that I could not spend more than 15 minutes on each. The marks reflect the emotions and thoughts I had on each particular day and document the pattern of anxiety I experienced.

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Amy Van Vlear

Design

www.amyvanvlear.com | amyvanvlear@gmail.com

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Fall 2014

JosuĂŠ Abraham Luna josuelunastudio@gmail.com | facebook.com/josuelunaart

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Interdisciplinary

Nuestras Historias [Shared stories] As I continue the process of discovering my identity, It can often feel like I don’t belong My parent’s come from El Salvador, I do not.

I was born in California, but I’m not always sure how I fit in.

In the act of painting I can take a step back; and in that process I find myself painting the people I grew up with.

I have painted my family - these people who have participated in my story, and I in theirs.

This is the place where I fit in: here is my identity. It is from here that I have and I will continue to find my way in the world.

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Carol Martinez

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carolvisuals@gmail.com | 951.249.1160 | www.carols-visuals.com

Design

The Exchange Being raised in a Christian home was not the most challenging part of my life.

The challenge was trying to get to know this so-called “God� and creator of the Universe who said He loved me. When doing wrong, I carried my burden and firmly held onto my guilt. Although, I was taught that after repenting from my sins, I was forgiven by God, it was hard to understand how such a divine being could still love me even after I would fail Him on a daily basis. As I continue to explore and accept this concept, my desire is to invite others to witness my journey in efforts to understand the power of Christ’s redemption. I plan to do this by capturing the detail and authenticity of a human figure through their gestures and facial expressions, by incorporating and combining both illustration and typography.

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David Wahlman

Interdisciplinary

david@wahlmanphotography.com | 530.355.7576 | www.wahlmanphotography.com

“Dear Child” As I write you this letter, I marvel at how much there is to say. You will find as you mature that people will say things like: “grow up,” “act your age,” “stop acting like a child.” I’d like to caution you. It is not all bad to be like a child, there are many good things that adults can, and should, learn from children.

The world encourages you to work harder, be independent, focus on reality, avoid risk and don’t be so foolish to attempt the impossible. But sometimes the opposite is worthwhile. Never ignore the value of play, the support of others, the power of imagination, and the courage to risk trying new things.

As you grow, be discerning; hold on to that which is truly important. It isn’t easy, but it is good. As Madeline L’Engle says, “Only the most mature of us are able to be childlike.”

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The B.F.A. Program

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree in Art is the professional undergraduate degree that is highly desired by serious students intent on pursuing careers or advanced degrees in the visual arts. The program is designed to give art students flexibility to choose from one of five emphases: design, painting, photography, sculpture, or interdisciplinary.

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Design integrates a fine arts perspective into a curriculum that emphasizes conceptual thinking and develops technical proficiency in a variety of areas including print-based graphic design, web design and motion graphics.

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Painting embraces traditional and non-traditional approaches to drawing and painting while engaging students in current discourses within the discipline.

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Photography focuses on integrating the skills of black and white darkroom techniques with contemporary digital color practices to produce conceptually driven, photo-based art.

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Sculpture equips students to think creatively while developing proficiency in a variety of threedimensional fabrication techniques including additive and subtractive processes, modeling, carving, mold-making and casting.

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Interdisciplinary emphasis allows students flexibility in developing a custom art curriculum that blends upper-level studio courses from multiple disciplines.

The Art Department The Biola University Department of Art creates an academic environment that thrives on the interrelationship of biblical Christianity and artistic practice. It offers students a professional visual arts program with a rigorous curriculum that reflects a strong liberal arts emphasis and a solid Christian worldview. The Biola art program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. www.Biola.edu/Art

The Green Gallery The Earl & Virginia Green Art Gallery presents a program of rotating contemporary art exhibitions on the campus of Biola University.

Located in the greater Los Angeles area, the Green Art Gallery is well positioned to represent a vital Christian worldview within the critical dialogue of contemporary visual art and to produce engaging exhibitions that grapple with issues concerning the intersection of faith with art and culture. The Green Art Gallery also provides professional development opportunities for Biola art students through gallery exhibitions and internships. www.Biola.edu/ArtGallery