BFA
Katelynn Acord
Taylor Chavez
Ilyssa Chavez
Dee Mejia
Nairoby Mello
Natalie Miraziz
Jordan Monteiro
Tiffany Pech
BA
Azhar Akram
Alma Carrillo
Sydney Castle
Katherine Crossley
Elizabeth Davies
Fabian Espinosa
Christina Guerrero
Patricia Martins
Tiana Moua
Randi Newburg
Destinee Perales
Alexsandra Ruiz
Alexis Sanchez
Peter Shallow
Edward Silva
Chentelle De La Torre
The University Art Gallery is delighted to present this year’s Graduating BFA/BA Seniors’ Exhibition. This exhibition and accompanying catalog showcase the many talented artists graduating this year from the Department of Art at California State University, Stanislaus. The past few years have been very challenging, but it is wonderful to see that our students have demonstrated the patience and perseverance necessary to meet those challenges and make meaningful and important works of art.
As Gallery Director and Professor of Art, I have had the pleasure of working with students in their endeavors to complete the BFA and BA programs. These degrees are a pivotal part of their development as artists. As a result of their accomplishments, I am pleased to call these graduating students “colleagues”. I look forward to seeing them have wonderful and meaningful careers in the arts.
This year I would also like to acknowledge the contributions that Dr. Patricia Eshagh has made to the gallery programs and to the Department of Art. When I arrived at California State University, Stanislaus, Patricia worked with me as the gallery assistant. In her role she helped to make the galleries better and to expand our presence on campus and in our community. As a professor of Art History Patricia has had an ever increasing role in educating our students. This year Patricia will be retiring and I would like to thank her for all that she has done for California State University, Stanislaus and our students.
Many colleagues have been instrumental in this exhibition. I would like to thank the BFA and BA students of the Department of Art for exhibiting their work. I would also like to thank Brad Peatross of the School of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus for the catalog design and Parks Printing for the printing.
Much gratitude is extended to the Instructionally Related Activates Program of California State University, Stanislaus, as well as anonymous donors for the funding of the exhibition and catalogue. Their support is greatly appreciated.
Dean De Cocker, Gallery Director California State University, Stanislaus
My work centers around dealing with levels of depression and anxiety that are overwhelming and personal. Painting and drawing processes are a way to navigate the aspects of the self that feel foreign. I continue to alternate between replicating dreams, memories, and the uncontrollable repetitive thoughts that negatively affect one’s mental health.
I typically work with mixed media, bouncing from digital means, acrylic or oil paint, drawing materials like charcoal or pastels, and textiles. My pieces communicate the out-of-body realization of losing the innocence from childhood and the feeling of losing comfort from what were once reliable sources. The current focus being the aspect of losing the blissful ignorance of childhood and the liminal space dreams can offer in navigating these repressed emotions.
The work I have developed expresses learning about internal and external struggles never acknowledged or understood during childhood but, now with proper context and reflection, were sources of loss and pain. I have developed this theme by primarily using textiles; often in the form of second-hand stuffed animals, as the core of this series. By adding another head, extra legs, or altering the proportions of these otherwise
wholesome beings, I express the subtle unease that hovers on the edges of our consciousness when we realize yet another thing we lost while growing-up. These plush toys are typically a source of comfort, they are often soft, cute, and easily remind many of a joyful simple time. They are a visual representation of childhood innocence now corrupted.
There are moments in our lives which shape the individuals we become. Feelings that are hidden deep inside emit in subliminal ways through our habitual practices. I aim to capture these emotions through my work. My work consists of a collection of found family photographs and film stills translated through oil painting. While some images are mundane to others, these moments were deemed worthy enough to capture, and therefore important to see as events of my life and for future generations to come. Through this work I hope to examine the memories and experiences connected to specific photographs. By appropriating and recontextualizing said imagery I hope to understand family dynamics, interpersonal relations, and moments of tenderness between individuals in domestic spaces.
The process is mostly instinctual, as I choose images that are most personal to me and spark immediate emotion. Some of the photographs found have similar themes such as an engaged figure and repeating motifs that I feel are most symbolic of my family. Color is used depending on the emotional pull from the image. I play with the interaction of color to destabilize the picture plane. This becomes a metaphor for how a memory is fabricated or ruined. Basing color on the photographs alone is insufficient, I pull out color and manipulate forms derived from the washed out film to convey specific emotions. The techniques used vary on
the image as some require a different hand depending on the expression being examined.
Through the translation from photograph to painting, I hope to express important emotional and interpersonal relationships within my personal life. The way memory impacts us through life is the holistic experience and by examining the relationship of the figures within domestic spaces I hope to make connections for myself and the viewer.
My work focuses on creating narratives based on personal memories and experiences. My art serves as an autobiographical time capsule of the people and events that have impacted my life the most. The desire to remember certain moments in time is important to me due to my sentimentality for the past during this ongoing era of social distancing.
My work has so far been primarily based around my heritage, the resilience of family and more recently, the emotional distresses brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. As someone who is Mexican-American, family has been at the heart of everything I do, and has been a major source of emotional strength during this pandemic. Losing numerous family members in a short timespan were painful reminders that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and became a drive to visually capture as many important faces and memories as I could to remember them. This work pays homage to the family members depicted and my relationships with them. Certain audiences may find a familiarity in the work, whether it be because of a similar cultural background, or a similar experience of loved ones.
The work takes on a notable shift as it moves to convey negative memories of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. I became focused on becoming freer in
my approach to painting, through the utilization of expressive paint application as well as Covid-19 related objects such as face masks and gloves in order to document emotional distress and experiences with the illness, as well as frustration towards people’s responses to the Covid-19 reality.
Social constructs define our perceptions of femininity and beauty and are constantly being advertised and reinforced within all aspects of daily life. I create abstracted, figurative paintings that elucidate the vast array of emotions associated with these unrealistic and unobtainable expectations. The collection of motifs within the work depicts the irreparable violence of societal standards placed upon women. This body of work is a response to moments in my life where opportunities have been lost based on others’ perceptions of me, a way to engage with and feel empowered with my womanhood. The work is a critique of beauty standards and expectations, and how those negative perceptions have psychologically impacted me.
Each painting explores a variety of media, processes, and methodologies. I work in an intuitive process, allowing myself to reflect and respond to the painting. I work in a fluid unplanned process, enabling amorphous forms to come into being. The work uses expressive mark-making to connote emotions of anger and frustration, while the dramatic use of chromatic color creates a destabilizing and confusing space. This accumulation of imagery mirrors the overwhelming presence of constructs that define our actions and demeanor. I juxtapose various motifs to emphasize the
strain between certain expectations and responsibilities. Working with a variety of media has allowed me to be expressive and unpredictable, paving the way for me to combat the perfectionism and expectations placed upon me and my work.
Conversations With Myself 04, pastel, 12 x 9”, 2022
Lost in Translation, mixed media, 20 x 24”, 2022
Am I Not Woman Enough For You?, mixed media, 20 x 24”, 2022
In this body of work, I scrutinize the impossibility of the expectation of expectations passed on to women throughout their lives. The Harsh Expectation encapsulates the many and often contradictory expectations that women are expected to meet in the domestic, academic, and professional spheres. I’m also interested in the expectations placed on women’s identity, sexuality, and physical appearance.This project is particularly important to me as I further investigate topics of feminist issues like this one, because I hope to utilize my own experiences and the experiences of other girls/women close to me, as inspiration for the theme of this body of work.
These paintings will depict figures intertwined in complex interpersonal situations within the home and institutional spaces. This series of work spans from multimedia drawings to large scale multimedia paintings. I create abstracted narratives with a limited palette consisting of fully saturated hues within a de-saturated field, to allude to transformation from one state into another. These cycles ask the viewer to reflect on the expectations placed on women as they navigate the stages of their lives. The use of line and surface texture also varies in order to signify transformation and/or scarring and ingrained trauma. It is my hope that the viewer can form a personal
connection with the work, that they feel invited to engage in dialogue about the expectation, and that they feel motivated to advocate for social change in their immediate environment.
Natalie Miraziz is an Assyrian-American artist based in California. She is skilled in a vast array of mediums and artistic techniques such as digital art, illustration, printmaking, collage, and painting. Her art practice consists of an emotional display of the self while utilizing automatic drawing and painting techniques to visually express reactions and sensations.
Natalie’s goal is to show self-portraiture through abstraction of the figure and her intention is to create works that show visceral human emotion that can be relatable to all. She is currently fascinated with how to portray hard to describe feelings and the multiple ways she can depict change/growth in a person. Her method involves distortion and dismantling of bodily form to create her own, working automatically without overthinking.
I Have No Mouth Yet I Must Scream, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48”, 2022
Styx, acrylic and ink on canvas, 39 x 59”, 2020
Layers of Pain and Fear, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48”, 2022
My interests lie in observations I make, and how they manifest themselves in paint. In a way, I think I would call myself an experimentalist. Things that are not typically seen or observed in the real world interest me. I like finding the questions they bring up and coming up with potential answers. For example, my still lives often have color that is more saturated. The nuance of color, the subtly, is what I like bringing to the forefront. As far as my medium, painting has been my preferred method of expression since day one. I feel it successfully gets the message across, especially when introducing more abstract concepts like symbology in dreams.
Artwork might give potential answers, but they are not definite ones. In my recent work, I have been exploring symbology in dreams. I keep a dream journal and develop a work of art based on one dream. Symbolism or imagery that stood out to me manifest themselves into the work. In a way, it starts to make sense as I put it together, but at the same time, brings up more questions for me. This is very interesting to me and serves as an everflowing of information that I can analyze.
I believe my artwork represents the cognition of humanity. My work might specifically involve iconography or themes that involve the life of a female.
In other works, I explored that unconscious theme. I came to realize much of it involved the life of a female. Since then, it has been a recurring theme in my work. That topic is a broad one, but I think it’s why I love it so much.
Dream Journal Entry #7: Nazca Dragon and The Red Throne, fabric, acrylic on porcelain, acrylic on canvas, 3D print, 2022
Dream Journal Entry #5: Act 1, acrylic and gouache on panel, 4 x 2 feet, 2022
Dream Journal Entry #4: I used to want to be a ballet teacher when I grew up, mixed media on panel, 2.3 x 2.56 feet, 2022
My work consists of found object sculptures that subvert the rigidity associated with building materials by presenting them within a domestic context. Recontextualizing construction materials such as bricks, mortar, and wood alongside personal found objects examines traditions of femininity, gender roles and domestic discontent. These spontaneous, unstable, impermanent, and soft iterations of building materials and household objects challenge the stability and practicality associated with the materials. These assemblages offer a lightness to the tumult of homemaking by subverting the weight and labor inherent of domestic narratives. The tactility of rough and flaccid objects serves as a reclamation of labor and process-based work. My practice incorporates leftovers and detritus. Carving creates dust and rubble. Rubble becomes components for new assemblages. A majority of the found objects are sourced from my home and emphasize the innate personalities of the objects that create the new sculptures.
Lady of the House and Rock Composition 01 bricks, step ladder, waste basket, found objects and embroidered digital photograph 57”x 22”x 20” and 36”x 45”, 2022 (sculpture), 2020 (photograph)
Tiptoeing Around Self Alignment bricks, mortar, wood, foam, fabric, and found objects, 2”x 5.5”x 4” (free standing piece) and 59”x 31”x 5.5” (mirror piece), 2022
Hang Ups and Misgivings, bricks, nylons, shoe, fabric and found objects, variable size, 2022
California State University, Stanislaus
Dr. Ellen Junn, President
Dr. Kimberly Greer, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs
Dr. James A. Tuedio, Dean, College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of Art
Martin Azevedo, Associate Professor, Chair
Tricia Cooper, Lecturer
Dean De Cocker, Professor
James Deitz, Lecturer
Daniel Edwards, Associate Professor
Patrica Eshagh, Lecturer
Jessica Gomula-Kruzic, Professor
Daniel Heskamp, Lecturer
Chad Hunter, Lecturer
Dr. Carmen Robbin, Professor
Ellen Roehne, Lecturer
Dr. Staci Scheiwiller, Associate Professor
Susan Stephenson, Associate Professor
Jake Weigel, Associate Professor
Mirabel Wigon, Assistant Professor
Meg Broderick, Administrative Support Assistant II
Alex Quinones Instructional Tech II
Kyle Rambatt, Equipment Technician II
University Art Galleries
Dean De Cocker, Director
School of the Arts
Brad Peatross, Graphic Specialist
