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It is my sincere pleasure to introduce the 2015 Graduate Thesis Catalogue, a diverse array of work from MFA candidates in Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Design at the School of Visual Arts at Boston University. This catalogue is produced in conjunction with the 2015 Graduate Thesis Exhibitions, held at both 808 Gallery and the Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery from April 10 through April 26. More than a mere record of their efforts, this catalogue is itself a project conceived by MFA candidates, developed in conversations between members of all three departments. The spectrum of color that permeates this book symbolizes the myriad creative attitudes and approaches that come together to form this exceptionally talented, promising collection of artists and designers. Many distinct voices coming together to form a harmony—the collection of work that follows is a testament to the School of Visual Arts’ ethos and mission. Above all, the graduate programs at the School of Visual Arts at Boston University are defined by an unmatched commitment to their craft. It is the hard work of our students, the dedication and rigor that they bring to their two years of study, that gives our graduate programs their reputation for excellence. In addition, our faculty bring to the School their expertise and unique perspectives, honed by many years of experience in teaching, making, and professional practice. The tremendous undertaking of this exhibition, and the many hours of intense study, debate, and studio work that it represents, would not have been possible without their tireless efforts.
Lynne Allen
Director, School of Visual Arts, Boston University
Looking is an activity that builds on itself. The work you see here is rooted in looking, and asks for looking in return. As looking is linked to various kinds of thinking and feeling, you are also invited to think and feel. Oftentimes looking outward—over snowy rooftops or at a foreign letter-form—is the beginning of a complex communiqué. Many of the artists here are looking for meaning in everyday patterns, and they want to share what they find. Some are looking for something logical, or even sociological, in the chaos of everyday experience. Some are looking for something extraordinary. The language of common objects is often rotated—turned and twisted—against their own commonness. Sometimes the ornament is camouflage, and sometimes
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it is the reverse. Either way, the viewer is required to complete the circuit. What do you recognize? How do you feel when you recognize it? Some of the artists here are looking for personal meaning in something apparently impersonal—in an imaginary product, perhaps, or in an already existing alphabet. What does this typeface make you feel? Can this product change your life?
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Some of these artists are looking inward, and they invite you to inspect or marvel at the evidence. These images register many migrations, both literal and literary, stream-of-consciousness and rigidly systematic. No one knows every culture from the inside, but here we are being presented with many cultures from the outside. Can we travel by looking? Can we communicate when we get there? How will we communicate without language? We communicate with alphabets—can we also cross alphabets? (Strangely, emptiness and silence are used to communicate.) There are a lot of questions here: How does a company communicate? How does a shape communicate? Can we communicate with the divine? Can material surfaces connect us to spiritual depths? Perhaps each surface here can be seen as a membrane—even when solid and opaque, it means to pass something through. Sometimes, the objects themselves are in a state of transition. Sometimes, a state of partial awareness is made permanent
and physical, or a condition of doubt is fixed in very certain material terms. The materials themselves are often interrogated, teased, and coaxed into often surprising and unrecognizable states. Sometimes, art materials are pushed to the outer limits of art. Other times, non-art materials are invited into the realm. Can ceramics tell a story? Can a typeface help with politics? Can the process of creation be meaningful in and of itself? The body is of course the prime material. Some of these works contain remnants and imprints from other bodies; some try to set up a body-to-body communication, or a confrontation, with yours; some of the operations are quite serious. On the other hand, if you sense humor, you probably aren’t wrong. Some of these works are magic tricks that give themselves away—thereby increasing their allure. Some of them are seemingly useful things that have no use—other than to generate wonder and consternation. Some of these works involve actual jokes. I am not going to explain those.
Dushko Petrovich (MFA’06) is an artist, writer, editor, and educator who lives in New York and teaches at Boston University, RISD, and Yale. He is a co-founder of Paper Monument, and his newest periodical, Adjunct Commuter Weekly, will debut at the ICA in Boston this summer.
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Graphic Design
Painting
Salma Ghulman
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Shannon Forrester
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Jackie Feng
Mark Farrell
Alice Donovan
Keenan Derby
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Kewei Du
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Jenny Heekyung Cho
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Amanda Creighton
Grace Colletta
Kelly Catenacci
Taylor Apostol
Weifan Chen
Roba Alkhouli
Qusai Akoud
Sehyr Ahmad 09 21 27 33
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45 63
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Sculpture
Xiaoyang Wang
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Diandian Wang
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Robert Werbicki
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Valentina Londono Villa
Meghan Samson
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Evan Morse
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Rachel Sevanich
Sable Matula 53
JosuĂŠ Rojas
Ying Li
Wenpin Li
Marshall Lambert
Shabnam Hosseini 43
Shoshana Rosenfield
M Katie Leech
Michael Hickey
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Hidden Messages, 2015, digital print on silk, 32 Ă— 44"
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Graphic design today largely promotes an aesthetic that does not distract from the content. “Less is more.â€? That is the mantra designers live by today. That is the way design should be. That is what makes a design successful. There is no room to embellish, for embellishment distracts us from the message. The content should not get lost in a sea of meaningless decoration‌ But is this the right approach? Is less really more? The minimal reductive approach may have worked for some things, a lot of things. But while we may have gained some in the de-cluttering of our designed world, we lost far more in personality and character. The unique individuality that could be seen in each stroke made by a scribe decorating an illuminated manuscript in the Middle Ages, has been lost to the nondescript Adobe vectors that populate design today. Design has become a mass-production. It has no value. People are no longer in awe of visual creativity. It is rational. It serves a specific purpose and does little more. It does not inspire wonder. Ornamentation is considered superfluous and unnecessary, but I believe it can be the opposite; ornamentation can contribute not only to the communication of a message, but it can provide a more valuable and memorable experience for the viewer. It does not distract from the content; it complements it. For my thesis I have used ornamentation as my design methodology to talk about perception. I used ornament as camouflage, to make things obscure and to reveal things. This has helped me to create work that is more visually stimulating, and therefore more engaging for the audience.
Graphic Design
Sehyr Ahmad Pakistan / UK / Dubai sehyr@sehyr.com sehyr.com
The Greek philosopher Plato once stated: “The world we see is a mere shadow of what truly exists.” We exist in a world we create for ourselves. We make our own mark on this world, but it is also shaped by our experiences and interactions with others. We are always seeking connections and interactions with others, because it makes us feel good, because we need validation of self-worth, because we want to love and to be loved, and because we are inherently social creatures. Through interactions we create a psychological space where we feel safe and supported. When we are safe then we are able to explore the world around us and we become vulnerable to new thoughts and new attitudes. We get the chance to appreciate more sophisticated things, and we can learn and reshape our own world. Through my work, I want to connect with others. I believe that I can create this psychological space where I can feel safe, and where I can influence my audience’s feelings and emotions and inspire their ideas and beliefs. By making marks on my own world and allowing others to shape it, I can reach out and influence others. I always try new ideas and explore new experiences that ultimately influence my vision and help me grow. It is only through authentic connections and interactions between individuals that we are able to see the world for what it really is.
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Duality Series, 2015, poster, 24 Ă— 36"
Graphic Design
Qusai Akoud Khartoum, Sudan qusaiakoud@gmail.com qusai.co
Arabic version of the typeface Circo, 2014, typeface design, 24 Ă— 36"
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Social media often falsifies the truth of incidents we face on a daily basis, as a result of its reach across cultures and media. In my work, I hope to engage with a subject that is intensely polarizing and popular in social media, the most sellable headline of the ugliest crime of the human race: Terrorism. After September 11th, the world was filled with anger and judgment. Hatred became the strongest emotion in so many hearts, until humans became negative and prejudiced. Can the questionable actions of a minority determine how an entire race is defined? Is there no end to the evolution of these stereotypes? Is ignorance our new trend? Has humanity evaporated when it should be instinctual? A designer is a communicator. It is about being the voice to those who cannot speak, and to portray dismay at such circumstances.
I am approaching the matter in a different way, so that I can tap into the humanity inside of us and bring the truth to light. Is it tolerance that we lack? Or is it compassion that we strive for? How can I design an initiative to tackle a newly tabooed subject? The road I take to reach my goals is to translate my ideas into projects. Embellishing ugly designs was one, in a project called Design Hunters. I also created Arabic typefaces from the Latin alphabet to use in my designs. This led me to create a series of work under the travesty of humanity. So I created a Humanity Kit with the five necessities of human beings. Graphic design speaks louder than words today, and I happen to speak fluently through my designs. Hence, I intend to use visuals to fix the abused subconscious and awaken humanity. I want to create the change I hope to see.
Graphic Design
Roba Alkhouli Jeddah, Saudi Arabia robaalkhouli@gmail.com
Invitation, 2014, plaster and wax, 16 Ă— 13 Ă— 6"
My sculptures are inspired by the exotic objects from my childhood: the baskets, swords, and monkey skull that were part of day-to-day life, shaping my understanding of 3-D forms. Working in plaster, stone, and wood, I use both additive and reductive methods. I create simplified, bodily forms that emphasize the density of a material. By casting plaster I am able to leave imprints of my body in the work. I am also fascinated by creases in skin and patterns found in body hair, which I translate into layers of intersecting lines. In this process I am thinking of how my imprints and tool marks relate to the body of the viewer. I am interested in using large-scale sculptures as a way to challenge human scale and sense of personal space.
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Colletta Caotico, 2014, wood and steel, 12 Ă— 12 Ă— 12'
Sculpture
Taylor Apostol Malvern, Pennsylvania taylor.apostol@gmail.com taylorapostol.carbonmade.com
Make It Bigger, 2015, mixed media, 60 Ă— 72"
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Abstract Pizza, 2015, oil and wood on wood panel, 80.5 × 64"
Single white female, 28. Seeking the critical, the literal, and the absurd. Likes: Shiny, sparkly objects, rearranging furniture, Netflix binges, pizza, collecting useless knicknacks, sassy country music, and show tunes. Dislikes: Children, PMS, unbearded men, humorless paramedics, men who feel emasculated by the success of women, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and children. Quirks: Chain-smoker and sings when talks. Interpersonal Interactions: Socially Awkward Motto: “Better to be late than to arrive ugly.” — Unknown
Painting
Kelly Catenacci Philadelphia, Pennsylvania kellycatenacci.com
LoJack Brand Identity, 2014
Even a tiny individual on this planet has a brand. Branding is not just a tool that companies or corporations use in marketing and advertising. What is behind a brand is identity and identity is based on stories and experiences. People are far more likely to engage with a brand if they can see the brand’s human side. Perhaps we can say brand is the human side of all objects? As brand designers, is our job simply designing a logo or a business card? The answer is definitely not. What our clients really need goes beyond just a logo. The problem is sometimes both client and designer incorrectly define the job and demand. Brand is less about branding visual artifacts and more about experience. When you ask customers how they feel about a brand, they are
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more likely to talk about the feeling they experience, not the logo, and what our clients really need is that feeling. To me, a brand designer is not the person who just designs logo, he or she should be a good storyteller who can tell stories about a brand and evoke a mood with visual language. Making things look nice is not the whole job. Being a brand designer means creating something meaningful. It means the possibility to work with all kinds of fields. It is more important to explore stories and build an identity. I believe a brand does not come from creating but finding an experience. I hope to be a designer that helps people or products find their own identity.
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Cellplay, 2014, photograph
Graphic Design
Weifan Chen Guiyang, China sailofmay@gmail.com weifanchen.com
Second Aid, 2015, package design, 11 × 8.5 × 3"
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My Life Memories, 2014, digital prints, 8.5 Ă— 11" each
Design starts from daily routine. Everyday, we make our memories. A set of memories creates a new idea. Initiation of a design begins in daily life—the music that I am listening to now, the book that I read yesterday, the street that I will walk tomorrow. All records and memories come from the everyday, and every moment creates a new design. I look for design that becomes more valuable and more beautiful as time passes. I hope to create designs like time capsules, which contain the story of the reminiscence that I buried long ago. Memories can make time pass. Experiences can change our thoughts. Every experience becomes part of our memory. This means that our memories come from our experiences. Every person’s memories are different, even if
they take place in the same time and space. Therefore, memories are imperfect. But I think that because of imperfect memory, we can think about new memories. It does not matter if memories are perfect or not. We must care for the fact of memories. Past memories can make present memories; present memories can make future memories. In my opinion, combining experiences and personal thoughts create memory in every moment. How can we control memories through design? How can we deliver memories to the viewer? Everyone has their own memories. Experience will happen all the time. But how do we share these memories with the viewer through design? Design is the power of the expression of our own memories in our lifetime. Combining many memories can create new experiences and memories. This is what we call design.
Graphic Design
Heekyung Jenny Cho Seoul, South Korea hkjennycho@gmail.com
Night Window, 2014, oil on panel, 15.5 × 9.5"
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Lights through broken window, 2014, oil on panel, 15.5 Ă— 9.5"
Painting
I am interested in the way painting can work as a connection between an exterior reality and an internal, felt experience. I observe the ephemeral and physical world around me, noticing transitions of light, changes in depth of space, and visual rhythms that occur. Through painting, I translate what I see to evoke the pulse and essence of being in a particular place. In my paintings of studio window views, I am drawn to the way a window works to both reveal and limit what is beyond it. This mirrors a connection to and separation from nature as I experience it. I paint additively and subtractively over time, seeking to represent what is visible and what is elusive. The shifting, fragile process of seeing leads to a cumulative, unfixed sense of time within my paintings. Through a sensitivity to the natural world, I hope my paintings create an invitation to an inner place of possibility and wonder.
Grace Colletta Encinitas, California
To me, one of the most important aspects of a good design is that the audience understands it. Visual appeal is the biggest influence on people’s first impressions of websites, products, or events. Psychology is something that I have learned to integrate into my designs. In visual advertising, it is very important that designers are aware of specific techniques that will catch the viewer’s eye. Our behavior is influenced both consciously and unconsciously by visual messages, so a strong concept or design will always engage the audience, and will elicit a response. My design aesthetic always incorporates a clean and simple technique. I want the audience to understand what they are looking at. For me, simplicity is key, but I try to use subtle techniques that will make my work memorable. Great design keeps existing visitors around and draws in new ones, in turn creating a positive effect through my development as a graphic designer.
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Don’t Look Down, 2015, poster, 22 × 14"
Graphic Design
Amanda Creighton Glocester, Rhode Island akcreighton.com
Morning Star, 2014, oil on canvas, 63 Ă— 84"
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In the murky origins of painting, some 40,000 years ago, when the first bit of ochre was applied to a rocky cave wall, a union between inner consciousness and the external natural world was projected. To me, painting provides an outward expression of thought, a means through which to manipulate and understand the natural world and my own existential condition. Intrinsic to my process of painting is a constant compromise between action and reflection. Finished paintings do not result solely from my own will, but rather from an incessant battle between my intention and material. In seeking to consolidate information and create order, I am confronted with the unpredictable physicality of paint. In this way, painting to me is a synthesis of my perception of reality and the surrounding physical world. It is the tension between these two experiences through which my work takes its form.
In the studio, I often rely upon a host of source images that inform this search. Among these images are subjects that I am intuitively drawn towards, ranging from the ephemeral to the monolithic. Cosmic cycles, shadows, tidal patterns, and ancient overgrown tombs and temples have all found their way into my work. These forms are torn between states of existence, in the space between solidity and decay. My perspective of these environments is drastically affected by my severe astigmatism. Wearing glasses creates a central focal point, yet leaves my peripheral vision blurred, causing a break down of forms into strange masses of tonal variations. This condition has given me insight into the precarious nature of sight itself, and the flaws and limitations of my own perception. This perspective figures strongly into the construction of my paintings in which I depict my subjects in states of perpetual transition, oscillating between solidity and dissipation.
Painting
Keenan Derby Atlanta, Georgia keenanderby@gmail.com keenanderby.com
Commuter Therapy, 2015, digital and print
Memories for Sale, 2015, digital and print
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My work stems from an insistent yearning to understand the world we live in, to participate in it on a deeper level, and to find meaning in daily life. I am inspired by the need to connect and the ability we have, as individuals, to disrupt the constant. By intervening, we create ripples of change and action—once dispersed, these ripples take on lives of their own and that is what makes the experience beautiful. The ripples that are created by the intervention itself are as important to me as the piece that caused them. I strive to transform and affect the human experience by using design as a tool of intervention. The act of participation, by both myself and the audience, is an integral part of the process. I hold tightly to the words of this famous Chinese proverb: “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.” The chosen medium is informed by content and context and therefore my work lives in both digital and physical space. It is an extension of myself. It is a method of speaking out. It is my attempt at making a difference, at contributing something that matters.
Graphic Design
Alice Donovan Boston, Massachusetts alice@alicedonovan.com alicedonovan.com
The talisman is the core cog of Taoist culture. Its goals are to order commands to ghosts and gods, expel evils, cure diseases, and pray for happiness. I would like was to bring talismans into everyday life and make them more intimate with the human body. Clothes are the secondary skin of every person; to be underneath a cover is to reveal the true self inside. The goal of Taoism Talisman Apparel is to let people wear “what they want.” Here people’s will of wearing refers to the functions of real Taoism talisman, which is to gain luck, recover from illness, and grant wishes. It is interesting that people 2,000 years ago were thinking the same things as us today. Love and money have always mattered in people’s lives the most. Through research, I found that talismans concerned with those two issues were the most popular throughout time. That is why I am making this connection spanning the past and the present, sharing the same statues of humanity through my design. I believe people are people, and we need to be free to have
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what we want. Being true to ourselves is the only thing we need and can pass down from generation to generation. Through the designing of shapes and prints, I hope to bring audiences spiritual power—it is not about religion, it is about having faith, to have different views of life, and to be confident. Celestial Master Zhang Tianshi founded the Taoist religion during the second century CE. It is an ignored truth that Master Zhang, who invented the Taoist Talisman, should be considered the first graphic designer of China. It was he who designed certain shapes, figures, and strokes that can be used to draw certain kinds of talismans. I want to raise awareness of his foundation and contribution to Chinese graphic design. I think this is very important history that we should all look at as Chinese graphic designers. It is the history that formed us, and the entire society. It has built a bridge for us to communicate with our audience.
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Taoism Talisman Apparel: God of Pigsy, 2015, print on heavy cotton twill, 58 Ă— 108"
Graphic Design
Kewei Du Ningguo, China dukewei456@gmail.com cokedu.com
Hanes, oil on canvas, 60 Ă— 72"
My recent paintings often repeat the same image so that I can be free to play with structure and color in each. The torso fills up the canvas as it would in an icon painting. The repetition of shapes making up each image becomes abstract so that vague shapes are recognized from painting to painting.
These are paintings of my own torso before and after various operations that were performed on me. The smaller dog kennel paintings were done in Maine in an abandoned dog kennel. The color I use in my paintings is usually refractive and shimmering, and I like the kind of effect this can have of punching the viewer in the face.
My work has always had some link to my personal experience, but this is even truer of my current paintings.
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Septum, oil on canvas, 60 Ă— 72"
Painting
Mark Farrell Centennial, Colorado
Starry Car Sky with Glow Sticks, 2014, oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 Ă— 84"
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Teenager and a Dog, 2015, oil on canvas, 44 Ă— 35"
Painting is an emotional and spiritual pursuit. I seek a personal understanding of the deep patterns that make up our lives by painting the things I encounter in my day to day life. Personal life experiences and musings are the starting point for my work and also the end goal; the process of creating my work is a catalyst for better comprehending my personal world and how it relates to the universe beyond it.
Painting
Jackie Feng Champaign, Illinois jackie@jackiefeng.com jackiefeng.com
Experience, 2014, oil on canvas, 90 x 60"
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Painting is the foundation of my artistic practice; it is the lens through which I visualize sociological, theoretical, and psychological truths. I sometimes use theories from the field of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS) to examine hidden dynamics informing relationships between individuals as well as the individual and society. In my work I often explore how cultural pillars of gender, power, and identity are activated. I am interested in how these constructs might be exposed by or influenced through art. I am also interested in what remains or results when these constructs do not present or perform as expected. My work often exists in a mythical, symbiotic, and symbolic realm where both the interior and exterior come together to create a whole. I use figures in a variety of modes; they become icons, signifiers, memories, and champions. I often examine challenging moments of the human experience, exploring what results when important foundations like expectation, love, and hope intersect, yet unravel. My artistic research analyzes visual cultures as well as systems of classification and definition housed within a greater construct of societal expectation, norms, and dictates. I am interested in the essence of these cultures and their interactions, how and in what modes they are made real. I sometimes discover unexpected truths can be revealed when the layers of these schemes and interactions are peeled back. It is often these truths that my paintings seek to pictorialize or examine.
Painting
Shannon Forrester Chicago, Illinois forrester.shannon@gmail.com shannonforrester.com
I believe in spirituality. I am interested in visualizing my thoughts for people to interact with. My hope is that when people experience my work from their different perspectives, they become inspired to make their own unique world and have their own beliefs. My work is focused on attracting people and reminding them that we might be looking at the same thing but often perceive it differently, depending on past experiences that shape how we view and perceive the world. Some people see a cloudy day as a sign of a bad day. For others, it might mean a rainy happy day. Also, rain could mean a bad sign for some people where for others it could be a sign of blessing from God. However, whether the sky is cloudy or rainy, this will not change what it is exactly; it will only alter your perspective. In my work, I would like people to see their own skies within my sky. I want them to hold their umbrellas to cover their heads from the rain or choose to get wet on my rainy day. It is their choice according to what they see, feel, believe, and perceive. Generally, my designs reflect the topics of belief and faith. Part of my process before I began experimenting for my thesis was to look around, think, and read as much as possible in order to have this unique idea to install something that makes anyone who sees it see himself or herself in it, as if the audience and I are speaking the same language. I have been inspired by many different design techniques, such as anamorphism, mark making, and sequencing, among others. These types of design works distort form and perspective, requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point to recognize the image. I want to enable more than one point of view to visualize thoughts through these techniques.
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99 Theory, 2014, acrylic, 2.6 Ă— 2.9"
Graphic Design
Salma Ghulman Jeddah, Saudi Arabia salma.ghulman@gmail.com salmaguhlman.com
Sieger Tod (Death Victorious), 2014, oil on panel, 12 Ă— 9"
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Like Descartes’ distrust of perceptions due to states of wax, I believe that my memories are full of falsehoods and, in some cases, are constructed almost entirely of mistruths. I am a self-aware, unreliable narrator. I have mentally constructed visual imagery associated with events that I have heard about, yet I cannot recollect. My paintings are both illustrations of visions and are deliberately abstracted versions of places and events. In my youth, I was stricken with bouts of lost consciousness through Breath Holding Syndrome, and later, by periods of seizures due to vasovagal responses. The mental and visual confusion that is created the moment before full consciousness is regained (the period of partial awareness amid the disorientation) influences the shapes and colors in my paintings. The Maine environment has a major impact on my work; my fondest childhood memories are exploring the overgrown ruins of the bulldozed soda pulp mill on the banks of the Royal (the same river Stephen King made famous in the setting of Stand By Me). I spent many years as an experiential educator living at an outdoor facility, and despite my reluctance to align myself with an organization that is currently displaying a terrific lack of tolerance, I am proud of the skills that I had to master in order to become an Eagle Scout. Untitled, 2013, monotype and Chine-collÊ of hand-dyed Kitakata paper on Rives BFK, 13 × 10"
Music is always on, or at least in my mind, while I am working. I listen to an eclectic mix of styles and genres of music according to what mood needs to be set for what kind of work I am creating. Although my iPod is dominated by indie rock, early exposure to classical music as a choirboy (I had the opportunity to sing in Dubrovnik with the now defunct Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra) has greatly affected my painting.
Painting
Michael Hickey Portland, Maine
One can be constant, 2014, handmade paper, wood, acrylic sheet, 45 × 50 × 40"
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like zero, 2014, handmade paper and brass, 12 Ă— 6 Ă— 11"
My work implies the glamour of silence in an attempt to capture the beauty and sadness of moments, moments of personal truth, moments of waiting, suspended in a silence of fertile emptiness. To challenge and discover my individual voice I experiment with a wide variety of materials, most recently building forms from handmade paper. In these works, where lightness creates a delicate and refined translucent quality, I am interested in the vague membrane between the visible and the invisible, where the unseen exists behind the empty space. In these works I want to embody the presence of absence, where emptiness expresses the wholeness of being.
Sculpture
Shabnam Hosseini Tehran, Iran
There is Magic in Letting Go, 2014, poster series, unfolds to 24 Ă— 36"
I have passion for color, smells, culture, the real and the surreal, the known and the unknown. I believe design should be a great, unexpected experience.
We will invest in ourselves and our future work through efforts of improvisational experimentation. We will open our eyes and look about, always, so to be perpetually curious and aware of our surroundings. We will be hungry to answer the questions that will serendipitously arise.
Through my thesis research, I invite graphic designers to increase improvisation in their design process. I suggest that we look outside of our comfort zone, step away from our digital devices, and seek inspiration from outside elements such as science and both digital and analogue technologies.
Through our experiments, we will not only gain intuitive knowledge, but we will produce fortuitous happenings that are spontaneous, yet experience-rich and authentic. The designer who creates such work has seen and felt unfamiliar materials and has toyed with eccentric ideas. They have made playful connections and discovered relationships that span across science, art, technology, and design.
I propose the birth of a new kind of designer; a new movement in the field of graphic design. During their mode of creation, this designer will channel the uninhibited spirit of Dada. We will protest fear by welcoming experimentation. I want to proclaim a new mentality among designers and offer a new ethic for design.
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Experience the magic. Let go, and just perform.
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Improvistory, 2014, website, themarshallcreative.com/improvistory
Graphic Design
Marshall Lambert Wheeling, West Virginia hello@marshall-lambert.com marshall-lambert.com
The Gas, 2014, poster, 24 Ă— 36"
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Type Specimen Newspaper, Mood font family, 2015, typeface design
Design incorporating human expression and evidence of the human hand can effectively and deeply communicate an idea. And since viewers are interacting with new content all the time, it is important to continually create variations to surprise and engage the viewer. As a designer, I have harnessed the power of active, dynamic production processes by creating a system based on expressive variation.
important that every poster convey the uniqueness of the show it was advertising. At the same time, all of the posters needed to relate to each other as well because the events were held at a venue that hosted a variety of other non-comedy events. To address both of these needs, I created a system that included templates and a kit of colors, imagery, and fonts to be layered and recombined for each event.
I believe that design that utilizes a system for expressive variation can create multiple outcomes simultaneously. This system can be a toolbox of elements that allows the designer to create multiple variations through layering and combination; and in turn, these variations can be manipulated following the rules of the system.
Most recently, I created a font family to express the myriad variations of a human emotion. Mood is a font family of four fonts: confusion, hiding, error, and strength. I created this font based on my experience and emotions in dealing with Dyslexia. Â
An early example of an expressive variations system was a proposal for a series of event posters. I designed a weekly poster for a comedy show in Boston called “The Gas.� Since each event was unique, it was
I am a form-maker who creates systems of expressive variation for branding, typography, and infographics that evoke the presence of the human experience.
Graphic Design
M Katie Leech Chicago, Illinois mkleech.com
Within design, stream of consciousness is a method and process to communicate with people rather than through the designer’s own interior monologue. This is an ongoing exchange of experience with the audience through a defined set of rules. As a designer and a communicator, I create such principles with simple forms to allow audiences to respond according to their choices. The design elements create a platform for conversation. Audiences transfer and translate this received information, resulting in new stories and engaging them in an individual and personal experience. They gain fun from watching, participating, and promoting. This is the value of design. During this process, the designer and audience affect each other. Sometimes it’s unpredictable. In my design, narrative serves as a stream of consciousness device. With specifically designed principles, people can be inspired by visual elements or questions set by the designer. It is rooted in coding and decoding content and meaning to allow for a new action or experience.
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A dog story—exquisite game of text, 2015, digital, 7 × 11"
Graphic Design
Wenpin Li Dalian, China liwenpinpinky@gmail.com
Emotion Box, 2015, video, 3:15 08
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Everyone is an individual box. Everyone has bad emotions. When the “box� is full of bad emotions, people may feel bad, lonely, negative, and unconfident. How can we deal with this kind of situation? Why not try to open the box, go outside, talk to people? Things will be changed. Be happy.
Graphic Design
Ying Li Shangdong, China ylvisual@gmail.com yl-visual.com
Blue One, yarn and acrylic on vinyl, 54 Ă— 60"
My paintings use ordinary materials that can be acquired cheaply and easily, require few tools, and most importantly can be worked on the spot (e.g. wool, feathers, filling from pillows). I mix these materials into my paint to alter the original texture of the material and create a new surface. A lot of the time the materials I use are associated with something soft to the touch. I want the viewer to be curious about how the surface of my paintings would feel to touch.
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Magenta One, yarn and acrylic on vinyl, 60 Ă— 54"
Painting
Sable Matula Rockford, Illinois
Warp, 2015, aluminum and cord, 82 Ă— 81 Ă— 48"
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Rhyton, 2014, marble, rope, approx. 7 Ă— 19 Ă— 11'
Primarily explorations of geometry, beauty, and simple physics, my sculptures are seemingly functional, architectural designs that, in fact, serve no practical purpose. Using the simple, utilitarian materials of wood, metal, rope, and stone, these compositions are intended to create narrative through their self-supporting or self-defeating characteristics. Central to this narrative is rope; in my sculptures, rope binds, twists, stretches, bends, constrains, and supports. A physical, potential energy is contained and readily visible. My sculptures are scaled in relation to the human body in order to reference the figure and feel as though they are interacting with the viewer. These 3-D investigations stem from a lifelong interest in the limits and possibilities of our physical world and are intended to be both playful and reverent.
Sculpture
Evan Morse Newton, Massachusetts evanlmorse@gmail.com morsesculpture.com
My work is informed by a bicultural and bilingual experience. It is my nature to play with various languages. It is also natural that this would find its way into my creative life. Art, specifically painting, is a powerful vehicle to bear witness to the joys and struggles we all confront on a daily basis. It is to this end that I paint. Artist Diego Rivera once wrote, “an artist must be the conscience of his age.� I share this view and would add that the artist can spur a critical conscience within the public imagination. If there was ever an epoch urgently in need of the rousing effect of conscience, and of a positive imagination, it is our age of globalization.
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Art, like few other facets of communication, can usher us into the space where imagination, ethics, and the desire for justice can converge. Commitment to this idea is the initial motivation for my work. In my current studio practice, I feel compelled to create work about global migrations. This work has two streams of influence: firstly, by my graduate studies on globalization and contemporary art with BU Prof. Gregory Williams and secondly by personal experience. My current body of work, The Joy of Exile is a flowing exploration of the concept of literal and inner migrations. The installation of this work, largely paintings on canvas, features paint extending beyond the boundaries of the canvas and onto the wall.
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Son, 2015, acrylic, watercolor, ink on paper, 52 × 120"
It is important for me to be able to share the experience of the creative process with others in a communal creative experience. I feel this is my art practice’s instructive contribution and service. Art is a transformative experience—my deepest desire is to continue to create work that contributes to the conversation of justice and equity in relation to global migrations, and change public perceptions in the process.
Painting
Josué Rojas San Fransico, California josue.g.rojas@gmail.com josuerojasart.com
Witness, 2015, oil on linen panel, 8 Ă— 8"
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Nighttime Flurries, 2014, oil on linen panel, 9 Ă— 12"
My work investigates ideas of journeying, discovering, illuminating, and burning away through obstruction to a true essence. Painting is a spiritual act for me; Jewish thought and practice deeply inform my paintings. The exploration of light and dark, calm and frenetic, spiritual beckoning and guardedness all at once mimic the experience of pursuing a relationship with the Divine.
Painting
Shoshana Rosenfield Kittery Point, Maine
MamaSpider, 2014, porcelain and glaze, 18 Ă— 10"
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Children, 2014, porcelain, 28 Ă— 17"
Sculpture
Through revisiting my past, I assess ideas of domesticity and normalcy in light of changing family dynamics. Using materials such as paper machĂŠ, wood, wire, clay, and most recently porcelain, I create hybrid beings that confuse human and animal, male and female. Vernacular forms of storytelling such as folklore and childhood journals inform the imagery and content. The inherent expressive qualities of clay and glaze create a visual map of fingerprints and drips on the surface of my sculptures, echoing the desire to make physical the process of remembering. Seen as a whole, my artworks form an intricate web of relationships, performing the nuances of family, love, and attachment.
Meghan Samson Dover, New Hampshire Twitter: @mesclay meghan-samson.com
7 Swans, oil on canvas, 54 Ă— 77"
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Simplified, stenciled, Subconscious, symbolic, Serious, silly Shapes Shifting space Shifting shapes. Psychological, cellular, Celestial, skeletal, Sensory, Systems sourced Settings searched. Surface, structure, Speed, space, Sharpness, softness, Sides, shapes Sharing significance. Specificity stands Certainty slips Seeing, seeking Several stories Showing simultaneously. Shifting space Shapes shifting Seasonal Celebration, collage, paper, ink, acrylic, tape, 90 Ă— 95"
Sincerely stated
Painting
Rachel Sevanich Boston, Massachusetts rlsevanich@yahoo.com rachelsevanich.com
“A thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance,” everything around us undergoes a certain transformation. It is a principle of the universe. Nothing is constant, “energy cannot be destroyed or created—only transformed.” We feel deeply intimate with transformation as it is such an important and basic principle that we encounter on a daily basis. Change of tangible objects surrounds us and we do not notice it anymore. I believe that Graphic Design should familiarize with people in order to be reachable and digestible. People easily connect to a daily principle such as change. Using transformation and tangible objects as my formal strategy helps me reach the audiences by delivering the message more efficiently, as the experience is more personal and intimate. I became familiar with the use of tangible objects in my designs during my product design undergraduate major. I think that getting out of the paper aggregates a level of reality and complexity to graphic design that cannot be admired with bi-dimensionality alone. Using real objects as the main component of my design adds deepness to the final digital product. A striking experience for the human eye is accomplished since this is how we perceive the world daily. I believe in the importance of addressing the audience concerning a topic of general interest. Health is a subject of interest that impacts every human on earth and should never be ignored by anyone. In my thesis I want to make people aware of the fact that a healthy and durable life relies mainly on the food we eat and how we live. As food is a real object with which we interact daily, it follows the principles of tangibility and transformation, allowing the designs to reach an intimate communication while conveying the importance of health.
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Be Colorful, 2014, web, video, poster, photography, origami, 17 Ă— 11"
Valentina Londono Villa Graphic Design
MedellĂn, Colombia valonvilla@hotmail.com
Inspiret Book, 2014, pattern work, digital print, 6 Ă— 9"
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German philosopher Friedrich Theodor Vischer said in his philosophy of art that the senses are not isolated from each other. They are built together within different divisions, and are interchangeable. For example, one sense receives a message, and another will record the message, responding invisibly to create a resonance. Experience tells us that music gives us the sense of sound, an artwork gives us the sense of visual perception. Creative work cannot be separated from real human senses via experience. Art synesthesia is to merge and mingle the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch by means of artistic association and imagination. I want to apply art synesthesia to my design to stimulate my audience’s visual sense and relate it back to the memories implicit to their lives, transferring the imagination of an artwork into specific individual experience and feelings in order to strengthen the audience’s sensory experience of the design and satisfy their emotional desires. Thus, I am creating a sympathetic response between the audience and artwork to lead to more entertaining and memorable design.
I am interested in expressing a way to integrate design and the audience’s emotion to accurately present them, and at the same time apply some interactive methods to let the audience participate and receive a better experience. One of my projects, What does your happiness look like?, is related to visual sensory and emotional experience. Everyone has different emotional feelings everyday: happy, sad, depressed, or angry. I try to locate everyone’s happiness by using my favorite geometric shapes and bright colors as a visual language to record the image of an abstract emotional expression. In exploring these ideas, I have come to the conclusion that art synesthesia mainly focuses on the use of sensory experience for the audience to organize memories, creating user awareness in familiar scenes from the colors, to fully embody the design of emotional function. The combination of art synesthesia and design provide richer diversification compared to the separation of both. In addition to the emotional functionality, it increases the delightfulness of the design.
Graphic Design
Diandian Wang Hangzhou, China sophiewangdd@163.com
Freedom Puppet, 2015, poster, sculpture, 11 Ă— 17"
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Unhappy-Ending.com, 2015, web, video, interactive design
The core function of design is letting people experience. Undoubtedly, designers have developed thousands of ways to play with experience visually, emotionally, environmentally, and contextually. Most of the experiences we are attempting to bring to our audience are relatively positive, newfangled, and playful. In my thesis, on the other hand, I would like to do research on the opposite side. I believe a negative, uncomfortable, even disturbing experience can also have the power to draw an audience in my works and let them start thinking. During the research for my thesis, one work which left me with a deep impression was a poster designed by Yossi Lemel titled Seamline. At first glance, I cannot move my eye away from it. The uncomfortableness is so strong that audiences want to dig more from Frankenstein’s appearance. When they find the context
of the seamline—the border between the Israeli and Palestinian territories—the meaning darkens. At this point, shocks and thinking happen. Another poster designed by Jarek Bujny titled Made in Poorland also used this strategy to show his viewpoint. In this poster, a gory kidney with a UPC tag pointed out the ruthless fact of the organ market. In exploring these ideas, I have come to the conclusion that what I am most interested in is creating works that bring uncomfortable and unavoidable experience not only based on printing but also on multimedia, leaving a moment for the viewer to explore and think. Uncomfortableness means giving up flattering people to instead expose truth. Nice design doesn’t equal good design, and good design doesn’t need to be nice.
Graphic Design
Xiaoyang Wang Shanghai, China william_wang@jw-creatives.com designby.wang
Brookline Rooftops, oil on canvas
My work is a result of a dialogue between drawing and looking. The way that I draw informs what I see and what I am looking at informs the way that I draw. They are two sides of a coin, with neither being more or less important than the other. In many ways I start a conversation between these two things and only discover what is being talked about through that dialogue. I believe that an active investigation of my
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surroundings and processing of information leads to truths to be celebrated and a deeper understanding of a particular time and place. The conversation that this particular body of work deals with is uniting space, light, and object in a variety or jumble of pictorial spaces that document a struggle for change, growth, and human experience.
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Brookline Rooftops, oil on canvas
Painting
Robert Werbicki Raleigh, North Carolina
About the School of Visual Arts at Boston University The School of Visual Arts at Boston University College of Fine Arts offers a rigorous fine art program that is rooted in studio practice and gives students the tools to continue learning and growing long after they leave our doors. Our graduate programs in the bedrock disciplines of the fine arts are coupled with a vast array of electives and opportunities that come from our position within a major University.
the Engineering Product Innovation Center, which is readily available to our students. Boston’s internationally renowned museums, galleries, and arts organizations are close at hand for inspiration and professional opportunities. Our award-winning faculty have work in the collections of major art museums across the globe, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Our alumni have careers in exciting creative fields (Pixar, InStyle Magazine, Converse, Museum of Modern Art), develop innovative businesses, and exhibit their work widely in galleries across the US and beyond.
At the School of Visual Arts at Boston University, you will have experiences that foster your career and broaden your horizons. Our Contemporary Perspectives Lecture Series brings the best talents and brightest minds in the art world to campus for lectures and studio visits. Our facilities, including a media lab, welding and wood shops, a state of the art printmaking studio, and individual studios for painters and sculptors, provide you with all the necessary tools to create the work you envision, as does access to 08
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We invite you to discover more about Boston University School of Visual Arts and the many accomplishments of our faculty, students, and alumni by visiting bu.edu/cfa/visual-arts.
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Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With more than 33,000 students, it is the fourth–largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 16 schools and colleges, along with a number of multidisciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University’s research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada. Established in 1954, Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is a top-tier fine arts institution. Comprising of the School of Music, School of Theatre, and School of Visual Arts, CFA offers professional training in the arts in conservatory-style environments for undergraduate and graduate students, complemented by a liberal arts curriculum for undergraduate students.
©2015 Designed by Marshall Lambert Printed by Kirkwood Printing in Wilmington, MA Published on the occasion of the 2015 Graduate MFA Thesis Exhibition April 10–26, 2015 808 Gallery, 808 Commonwealth Avenue Boston University Art Gallery, 855 Commonwealth Avenue Boston University School of Visual Arts 855 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02215 617-353-3371 bu.edu/cfa/visual-arts