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BFA/BA Graduating Seniors’ Exhibition (over) University Art Gallery Department of Art College of the Arts California State University, Stanislaus

500 copies printed BFA/BA Graduating Seniors’ Exhibition 2011: (over) University Art Gallery Department of Art College of the Arts California State University, Stanislaus April 30 - May 24, 2012

This exhibition and catalog have been funded by: Associated Students Instructionally Related Activities, California State University, Stanislaus

Copyright Š 2012 California State University, Stanislaus All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

University Art Gallery College of the Arts California State University, Stanislaus One University Circle Turlock, CA 95382

Catalog Design: Kristina Stamper, College of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus Catalog Printing: The Print Shop, California State University, Stanislaus Catalog Photography: Kristina Stamper, College of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus, and Courtesy of the Artists

ISBN: 978-0-9830998-9-5

C O N TENT S

Director’s Foreword ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction................................................................................................................................................5

BFA Images and Artist Statements.....................................................................................................7

BA Images and Artist Statements.................................................................................................... 21

Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................ 60

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DI R E C TO R’ S F O REWORD The University Art Gallery is very excited to present this year’s BFA/BA Graduating Seniors’ Exhibition: (over). This exhibition and accompanying catalog showcase the many talented artists graduating this year from the Department of Art at California State University, Stanislaus.

As Gallery Director and Associate Professor of Art, I have had the distinct pleasure of working with these students in their endeavors to complete their degrees. I have been continually amazed at the hard work and dedication that our students have to their craft of being artists. As a result of their accomplishments, I am very proud to be able to call these graduating students “colleagues”.

I would like to thank the many colleagues that have been instrumental in this exhibition. A great amount of thanks is also extended to the Instructionally Related Activities Program of California State University, Stanislaus for their gracious support of this exhibition and catalog.

Dean De Cocker, Director University Art Gallery California State University, Stanislaus

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IN T R ODU C TION: (OVE R)

I was delighted to be asked by the Department’s chair Professor Richard Savini to write an introduction for the 2012 BFA/BA Graduating Seniors' Exhibition Catalog.

As a faculty member teaching sculpture, and a practicing sculptor myself, I have a natural love of methods and materials. I have taught undergraduate and graduate art students for many years, both here in California and at a number of universities in the UK. In spite of this I am amazed by the highly inventive ways the young artists in this exhibition find to express their thoughts and emotions.

The department’s art students have experienced a broad foundation of art and design subjects supported by the teaching of history and theory. This grounding enables students to deal with the profound questions at the center of art and design practice, “what to make and how to make it”.

The Department of Art at CSU Stanislaus harbors a deep belief in fostering young talent, and in strengthening and preparing our students for their futures in the world beyond the university. The exhibiting students this year have presented us with outstanding works, which engage with contemporary art. The BA/BFA Graduating Seniors' Exhibition is a celebration of the talent of a group of young artists, and offers us as an audience, time to reflect upon their very real recent achievements, and to recognize their capabilities and potential to succeed in their chosen field in the future.

Professor Gordon Senior

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BFA Images and Statements

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Jacob Been

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Talk About Refreshing, 2011, newspaper and acrylic on panel, 22" x 18.5"

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Joshua Bolin My work has recently been largely ink on paper with some use of gouache for color. The drawings consist of narratives involving animal characters, women, and mythological figures like ghosts. In the process of drawing I happen upon narratives, which can be very spontaneous, or thought of earlier. Sometimes the characters are appropriated, like Mouse resembling another famous rodent, Mickey Mouse.

The women are archetypal. I see my work as a sort of poetry of images. On one side the drawings are whimsical and funny, while on the other they are meant to be slightly unsettling or serious. There is, hopefully, an aesthetic appreciation of the crude or na誰ve, as well as a more refined, style. Drawing in ink is daring because one must work with mistakes, drips, accidents and erasure using only ink itself.

The unexpected becomes part of the thrill as I generally work quickly and try to avoid hesitation. Text plays a role in the drawing, serving to further elucidate or fragment meanings and readings. The characters occupy a sort of void or blank space, fragments of emotion, bits of a favorite line of verse, of a real or imagined place. They are pieces to a larger puzzle of which I may never quite solve; all the more reason to draw. The characters emerge.

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Mouse, 2012, ink on paper, 18" x 24"

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Spencer Carmona My work relies heavily on movement, color, and form. These three things in congruence with working abstractly allow me to create a visual language that is uniquely mine.

My work relies on the search for the truth, not the definite answers; therefore, my work is constantly pushing forward.

My paintings are the recreation of memories and experience.

Because of this, it is impossible for any viewer to completely comprehend the explicit intent given. However, due to associations in color, landscape, architecture, and gesture, it allows the work to trigger response. Each response is unique to each viewer.

Since the end of my last group of work, based mostly on memory and experience through the use of associations from colors and hard line versus gestural mark, this new work calls upon such themes in a much simpler way. I have stripped the forms down and have made the difference about the gesture and the plane, the human body versus striving to remove the artist’s hand. Through the removal of much form and compositional elements, these differences now speak to the viewer in the most direct way. This allows the viewer to see the image all at once, as one thing.

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Untitled

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Nuno Correia The best way to explain my art is to tell you what it is not. It is not a social commentary or a critical appraisal of politics, the state of our country, the environment, or the world. My art is not an attempt to elicit a particular emotion, nor is it a way of exorcising hang-ups. It is not an example of high art or kitsch. It is not an expression of my feelings or a function of my subconscious. It is not practical, functional, or representational. My work is not any of these things because it does not have to be. Art does not need justification, or have to reference reality in any way to be valid.

My work, as of late, deals primarily with the viewer’s spatial experience relative to the sculpture or installation. I have largely discarded ideas of content, subject, and narrative, because these elements distract from the more immediate and fundamental aspects of sculpture, such as form, line, shape, and surface. The success of the work depends on the spatial relationship between the objects, and the relationship between the installation and the viewer. The space in which the work is viewed has some influence on the sculpture, but my ability to tailor the arrangement of the objects to the space is paramount to the success of the work.

The use of industrial materials such as wood, medium density fiberboard and concrete allows me to build nonrepresentational objects with a fabricated or industrial quality. In this way, the viewer can see the objects for their own sake, and not be distracted by any reference to the familiar. The work operates in ways common to minimalism in that their spare, even aloof presence makes the work seem less accessible, the viewer struggles to relate to the objects, and the work actively occupies the same space as the viewer, which creates the tension necessary for the installation to work sucessfully. The objects I create do not reference reality, so that one’s thoughts are left to ponder the spatial relationships within the work, and to draw their own conclusions.

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Intersection, 2011, MDF, aluminum, vinyl, 20"

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John Fandl I create art in the digital realm. I believe that working digitally best reflects the message I am trying to portray in my pieces. With the use of digital media an image can be as large as I want, and it can be mass produced to carry my message to a much wider audience.

My pieces are specifically created with a mixture of found or created imagery that is digitally manipulated and collaged together to eventually create an environment that can be visually compelling, while mentally stimulating. Most of my ideas come from the world we live in. It can be as simple as a quote someone says, or as complex as the issues passing through government systems.

Most of my influences come from old propaganda posters from past wars. These posters are used to force an idea or belief onto someone. My goal with these pieces is the opposite, in which I want to open the viewers’ mind to the hard questions in life and bring messages that are thought provoking. Most of the hardest questions in life are ones that cannot be answered in one specific way. It is the viewers’ job to answer those questions themselves with their own opinions and hopefully leave with a better understanding of the complex world we live in.

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Always watching, 2012, digital print, 20" x 30"

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Diana Isho I’ve always had a fascination with creation. Since I was a child, I knew in my heart all things had some sort of meaning and purpose to them. If the world wasn’t what I thought it was, then perhaps it meant much more than my imagination could stir up. I began to be inspired by stories whether cartoons, books or theatrical movies. I loved stories that stayed with me and held deeper meaning than any finite understanding could muster. I knew in some way these other worldly stories were just a reflection of real life events surrounding our culture and history. Real life accounts that were meant to teach us something about who we are.

As I grew older I became interested in comic books, especially stories of underdogs becoming something they would never dream of. Through that time somehow the flame that was burning bright began to flicker and dwindle out and my art that began with light faded in the darkness of reality. I began to be drawn to the darker side of things that were influences from popular culture, tragedies and the issues that surround us in our world.

In today’s prevailing postmodern thought, meaning began to get fuzzy and rough around the edges. “What is truth? Does it really matter who I am? Who am I?” I asked questions like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, living in a world that lost its meaning surrounded by nonsense and why no one could give me a straight answer. In this context I too would ask myself if I really did fit in. I wondered if life had a purpose. I created my own Goliaths’ in my work that I could never defeat on my own. I listened to their taunts, believing their lies. I related to the Biblical account of David who took his stand against a giant, some how holding on to hope like he did. David’s faith wasn’t a fairy tale but a real hope that seemed to linger in my heart until that day I would be set free from my captivity. I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, but instead of falling I was caught by the arms of God. I grasped my faith like a sling to stand against my inner Goliath. As I began my search within my art, somehow there always seemed to be hope in the darkest places. I wanted to see light through the darkness. Hope seemed to stay and my faith grew as I was drawn closer to the Absolute Truth.

The flame that was out rekindled again and I was made new. Making art is now a new purpose for me. Redemptive themes always seem to surface within my art. As I look back I see a fragmented pattern leading to the whole.

My faith in Jesus Christ is the light shinning through the darkness, He showed me that I can defeat my Goliaths and stand up to them, If I was only going to face who I was and leave the rest to Him. Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies. Hope is what I want others to see in my work, taking things from popular culture in today’s obscure mood and showing the Light through them.

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Impossible to Possible

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Brittney Miller My art has grown and developed over the years. I began early on with pastel and charcoal drawings and soon found digital art. My first experience with Photoshop began a lifelong love affair. Soon after, I acquired my first digital camera and at that point I found my passion. Upon entering college as an art major, I began exploring different avenues of art making. After becoming familiar with painting, I was reunited with charcoal. These two hands-on media feed into my work on the computer.

In my graphic design work, I tend to lean toward photo manipulation and digital collage. Much of my work has been in reaction to the world around me. The piece, “Power”, is referring to the mental image I had when listening to an advocate of nuclear power speak on the health risks of wind turbines after the incident at the Fukushima plant in Japan.

The second of these pieces, “Hooker”, is based on the painting “The Stages of Life” by Edward Munch. This piece is more of a reaction to the original piece and it's place in a patriarchal society.

As I have progressed in my work, I have rediscovered my interest in photography. In it, I see a certain cutting up of reality. The moments in time are like pieces to a puzzle, a splice out of reality that cannot ever be retrieved in its original form. One cannot relive an event, but a picture is a 2-dimensional laminate of the real world, or a piece of it and these pieces can be taken apart and put back together in another fashion, suggesting a different aspect of it that may have been overlooked in the original.

Through photography, I found a new interest in people and continue to explore perception. Contemporary society tends to define people by their purchases and the ways and places in which they consume. In my day-to-day life, I am presented with glimpses of people and make assumptions about who they are, where they live, and their lifestyles. With a limited amount of information, I am beginning to categorize and visualize the image of a frozen moment in someone’s life that I will never know.

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Hooker, 2011, digital collage

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Rebekah Nelson I am revealing the mundane qualities of passing fancies using the medium of drypoint. The process divides into two distinct moments: the calm, meditative observational drawing and the emotive state of inking the resulting plate. There is a marriage of exacting control (in carving the plate) with gestural wiping (of the ink on the plate) that is essential to how I explore the objects. I feel there is more to investigate regarding understanding how I select the objects; as a collective I am curious how they relate.

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Inhale, 2011, dry point

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Christine Overby “It is important to look at death because it is a part of life. It is a sad thing; melancholy but romantic at the same time. It is the end of a cycle- everything has to end. The cycle of life is positive because it gives room for new things.” -Alexander McQueen My work is a direct reflection of my dreams, my fears, my joys, my nightmares; all the positive and negative of my inner clockwork. I find a meditative process when working with different mediums that help me to peer into the experiences, moments, and encounters that have shaped my person. I believe that everyday holds heavy with opportunity to learn and grow. Throughout life I hope to travel physically and spiritually, getting to know the world, to know others, and to learn myself.

My art can best be described as standing in the eye of a storm. There are rushes of disorder and noise, bliss and excitement, confusion and anxieties that can be otherwise all-consuming in day to day life. But in the center there is a peace, a security, and a balance that is offered through artistic self-expression. This storm envelopes the outskirts of my mind and comes in unpredictable waves over my body. By taking those feelings and thoughts and channeling them through my hands and into my works, they become physical products of ‘weathering the storm’.

The human experience is unique to each individual. I learn from the past, in the present, and for the future. I embrace life and in the end will greet death as an old friend.

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Vertical Alignment, Printmaking, 17" x 13"

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Nic Webber The creation of art, whether it be from concept or imagination, is something that soothes my soul and creates a sense of ease within my life. Within each process I learn something new about myself and the world around me. The more complex the work, the more I find out about myself and what each thing means to me. Dealing with norms that the art world before me has created, I attempt to step outside the box and create work that is meant to be touched by the viewer to evoke the deterioration of the work through the use of natural body oils, air and time. Over time the pieces of work will break down to such a degree that they will vanish and become nothing. Not knowing when the piece will eventually break down and deteriorate fascinates my thoughts toward what can be created and what already has been done.

Most of the work that I am completing is influenced by many different artists, such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, David Carson, Marcel Duchamp, Donald Judd, Richard Serra, Tony Smith, Maximo Riera, Dror Benshetrit, and Gerrit Rietveld. I also consider the professors, under whom I have trained, as a part of my influences, because they are constant mentors through the transformation from idea to creation and provide guidance in the process of transforming the idea into a full-blown creation. I look at Marcel Duchamp, because the way in which his pieces breakdown certain norms makes me think of something different when you look at them. Dror Benshetrit and Maximo Riera are both artists who create furniture, each of which has a different style and is both aspiring and inspiring. Whereas Riera creates furniture from realistic animals and inanimate objects, Benshetrit’s furniture installations show new and innovative ways to look at furniture and interact with them (??).

The work of Gerrit Rietveld, reflected in the SchrĂśder House, is nothing but inspiring. His use of clean lines and multiple-use rooms are amazing and offer new ways of thinking when developing floor plans for houses and buildings.

While keeping all the artwork that inspires me in my back pocket, I am pushing my own limitations. Creating furniture is something that has become a passion of mine, because the thoughts behind it are fascinating, as well as the different things that can be made into furniture. Taking a simple idea or single thought and expounding on it in different ways helps create a solid body of work for most, but for me, it is somewhat different. I am constantly looking at different items and imagining them in different media, as well as how I can transform them into completely different things entirely. For instance I have taken a bottle of stain remover and created a cast set of duplicates that all look alike in appearance and shape but different in one aspect, the stain on the bottle.

Each is made out of plaster and coated with something different that stains permanently, such as Kool-Aid, wax, pomegranate, wine, etc. This series speaks to how as consumers we buy whatever we believe will be the most useful, whether it be because of a pretty label or even a simple ad campaign.

The use of multiple materials helps me expand on the meaning of the piece that I am creating. Sticking to just one material in any given piece does not fully convey the meaning in the piece that I see or perceive. All the materials that are used speak to what I am trying to convey. Most of my work is open to more than just my interpretations and perceptions alone. My perceptions of what the piece is supposed to say are always expanding and changing with every new set of eyes that have a chance to look at what I am implying.

By looking toward the future and creating new things, while still keeping an eye on the past for inspiration, I will create a whole slew of artworks that engage, and entertain the viewer while being innovative in the way it is presented.

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Just Sit and Go, 2011, mixed media, 19" x 34" x 25"

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BA Images and Statements

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Mackenzie Alameda My artwork reflects the experiences of my life. It reflects who I have become as a result of my beliefs and the people that have influenced me. Most of my work is based off of a narrative. It takes a critical view of cultural issues and landscapes. I combine photography with text to explore new ideas and viewpoints. Painting and drawing is a continuous practice that I use to develop my work on digital images, intaglio prints, and photography.

The themes I use are primarily the outdoors and surreal images. I like to use typography in some of my images to help unify a whole story within my piece. I am still a student and figuring out new materials that can help expand my work.

Some of my artwork consists of collages of other images.

Even though I use different materials and I am still exploring my techniques, I have had a consistent style. I have a heavy hand and each thought is echoed through every brush stroke and pencil mark.

Each project more or less consists of different works and media, but they consist of a story that I want to share with others. As I continue to further my education I will see new influences arise and practice new styles of art.

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different view, 2009, digital print 10� x 10�

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Alex Campbell I have always believed that my art was for myself. Many people think they are a critic, looking at world-renowned artists and think they can do exactly the same or better. I myself have been guilty of this before. Nothing that anyone has imagined, produced, or constructed, will satisfy the masses at every spectrum. My work is for me; I do not strive for appeasement of critical and public opinion. This is my release, my sanctuary, and my solitude. Art is where I lose myself, within my self. Stylistically For me, my art is a window to my soul. It is how I am feeling, my mood, and my inspirations. I find satisfaction in creation and my imagination. I look up to the abstract expressionists, the ones who were the frontiers of subliminal expression. They were the first ones to open the art world up to the idea of art for arts sake, art for your own well being and not for a curator. My work strengthens me, and the world doesn’t have to understand why or how.

Starting out, as a child I spent most of my life doing pencil drawings. In high school I moved into using charcoal mediums and continued developing my drawing skills there. I learned how to paint in oil, and from that decided to experiment with acrylic paints.

I soon discovered the beneficial elements of acrylic medium, so from there I developed my painting skills with acrylic paints.

My main interests are in mixed media. I work on wood panels, and I use bold vibrant colors such as yellow, red, and purple, in my work. I tend to experiment a lot with combinations of gold leaf, acrylic paint, charcoal vines, and India inks in my work. My work is representational and figurative. I work in broad brush strokes, letting the colors bleed through each other, layering one color over the next.

I tend to work in geometrical blockings, in which each block holds a pictorial image. I feel this technique helps to give my paintings a sense of balance and over all unity. Most of my work has biblical influences, but are not outstandingly blatant. My spiritual beliefs have major prominence within my subject matter. I am currently striving to stylistically move away from realistic representation, an move towards producing works that experiment brush technique which emphasize the concept of “less is more”, in which fluid and loose brush work will a major stylistic theme in my work.

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Homeless

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Dana Heshimu I have always had an interest in finding ways to make things more visually appealing. Initially I was unsure of which career path would allow me to utilize my meticulous perception and attention to detail. I began pursuing a career in Engineering but soon changed my focus to Film & Video. As a camera operator I noticed that I would always pay attention to how my shots were framed; the overall view was very important to me.

As a member of my school’s newspaper and yearbook staff I would thoroughly enjoy the editing and layout processes.

Now as a Graphic Designer, through editing, formatting and designing layouts I feel I am in the best position to fulfill my need to create through revision.

I am currently pursuing my BA in Art at California State University, Stanislaus with future plans to receive a Master’s Degree in Marketing. Combining my art and marketing degrees will allow me opportunities to design for publishing companies and advertising agencies.

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Autumn Landscape, 2010, digital design, 16" x 20"

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Kelsey Knox I have always had a love for art and learning new styles and techniques. My art expresses the way I see the world.

With my artwork, particularly photography, I try to point out the good and beauty in life. I try to bring to light the details found in life that often go unnoticed and ignored.

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Untitled

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InĂŠs Leontiev-Hogan The focus of my art tends to gravitate toward images of women in some form or another, especially the female form.

The subject of women is important to me as a female artist.

Including images of the female form in my work helps me process life in a more spiritual and psychological way, and enables me to better understand my role as a multicultural woman in the world. The past year my work has been about experimenting with different mediums and about healing the spirit through art.

Working with mediums and materials that lend themselves to the element of surprise is my preferred way of working. I do not typically start out knowing what I am going to paint or draw‌.I try to let go of all expectations and enjoy the process. I feel that in return I create more innovative work. I enjoy the options mixed media affords me in that I can incorporate found objects or recycled materials in my work and always find interesting surprises along the way. As I add layer upon layer of paint, paper, and found objects onto a panel I get rewarded with various options that I can then work further into a cohesive piece.

Everything in my life affects my work whether it is my multiculturalism, my family, friends, garden, my travels, books I read, music I listen to, or movies I watch. My life experience is what drives my artistic process and what I try to express through my work. I tend to do better when I work on multiple pieces simultaneously because it feeds my very short attention span and keeps my creative juices flowing. If I get stuck on a piece and cannot seem to move forward I resort to building panels or canvases. Eventually the inspiration returns and I can resume where I left off.

I do not tend to think about what the audience will see in my work because my work is very personal to me. What I do hope is that the same experiences that have affected and shaped me will somehow be shared with the audience through my work.

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Pieces Of Me, collage of wood panels, 2" x 48" x 60"

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Wen Kui Liu I did not get any art training until I got into college, and when I did, I was amazed by digital media and photography. Digital media is such a very flexible way to work things around, and most importantly I can change my work anytime I want if I feel like it.

When I am working on my work, interpretation is not the first thing I will consider, rather, composition, colors, and pattern are the first three major elements I will be looking at because if an art work can not even please people visually, then there will be no reason for the viewers to continue looking at the work. Thus, I will try to make my work to look good first, and then I will think about the interpretation of my work later.

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Untitled, 2011, digital photograph, 8" x 10"

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Wendy Lopez My art work represents the memories, emotions and events surrounding my life. I am greatly inspired by my family’s past and present. As a child, I would listen to stories of relative’s lives that brought on happiness and sorrow. Woven deep within me are those stories that I am able to bring to life through my art work. Intricate details of my grandmother’s woven doilies can be found in my pottery. Secrets that haunt my family’s past and present are represented and exposed in my intaglio prints. I am an artist that uses a variety of mediums to transform my inner thoughts to an outer reality.

I have used ceramic, oil painting, stone sculptures, among other things, to create my art. Most recently I have used various different printmaking techniques to express my artistic ideas. My work at times may be uneasy to look at, but I believe it is therapeutic to release the demons of our past and embrace our unique existence.

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Untitled No. 1, 2011, print collage

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Nipon Moua My work is about how imagery manipulates emotion using social commentary. I try to make my work simple and to the point. Sometimes less is indeed more effective. That is certainly true in the world of design. An influence of mine is legendary Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. Gilmour is not the fastest or most technical guitarist out there, but he makes his guitar sing and makes every note count; nothing is wasted. So I strive to do the same in my artwork, making them aesthetically pleasing and interesting, yet simple.

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An Anthology to Dead Ends, 2012, digital illustration, 20" x 25"

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Aziz Yonuss

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Lady Liberty in Quote 2011 digital art

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AC K N OWL EDG MENTS California State University, Stanislaus

Dr. Hamid Shirvani, President Dr. James T. Strong, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs Mr. Daryl Joseph Moore frsa, Founding Dean, College of the Arts

Department of Art

Richard Savini, Chair, Professor Dean De Cocker, Associate Professor Jessica Gomula, Associate Professor David Olivant, Professor Gordon Senior, Professor Dr. Roxanne Robbin, Professor Dr. Staci Scheiwiller, Assistant Professor Jon Kithcart, Equipment Technician II Meg Broderick, Administrative Support Assistant II

University Art Gallery

Dean De Cocker, Director

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