Maine College of Art Class of 2020 Catalog by Maine College of Art & Design

Maine College of Art

CLASS OF

2020 CATALOG

Table of Contents 6-37 MASTER OF FINE ARTS (MFA) 38-43 MASTER OF ARTS IN TEACHING (MAT) 44-47 SALT INSTITUTE FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES (SALT) 48-193 BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS (BFA)

Congratulations MECA Class of 2020. Your work this year has been inspirational to all of us. I hope you continue to ask questions and show us a different way to see the world. We cannot stand still, we cannot go backwards and you have shown us that you are prepared, you have what it takes to lead the way and I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see what you create in the future! Excelsior, Laura Freid, President

Dear Class of 2020: I am not sure any of us have adequate words to express the complexity of feelings that have arisen from the last several months. What I am sure of, however, is that your perseverance, your commitment, and your willingness to work through this unprecedented moment in time will serve you well for the rest of your lives. You now know you have a reserve of strength available to you when you need it. Your production and your complete commitment to your craft--documented here for all to see --has been an inspiration to me, your faculty, your peers, and to the entire Maine College of Art community. Be well and know that the MECA community is proud of you and supports you always. Very sincerely, Ian Anderson, Vice President of Academic Affairs + Dean of the College

The MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN STUDIO ART Graduates

MECAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Master of Fine Arts Program encourages each student to think across traditional academic boundaries and challenge their art practice and intellectual curiosity. Studio-based, with renowned faculty, visiting artists and carefully selected graduate advisors, the curriculum emphasizes the intersection of studio production, individual research, critical analysis, and travel to important and inspiring locations. This structure promotes the development of a professional lifelong practice.

JESSERYANBROWN.COM

@JESSE.RYAN.BROWN

JESSE RYAN BROWN

THESIS STATEMENT

Accepting Presence is a body of work that explores distance as it relates to separation and the emotional push and pull of what lies just beyond our view. Having an understanding of what separation is and the emotional distance that comes with that, I’m diving deeper into the concept of attention — the attention we place on others, on ourselves, on our environment, and our everyday experience. After separating from my wife then moving 1000 miles away from my home in the Fall of 2019, I began analyzing this separation as it altered my perspective, both personally and as an artist. These events forced me to refocus my attention, leading me to alter my artistic process as a way to understand this change while finding new expression within it. In the midst of this personal upheaval, I felt an urge to move through the landscape in a different way and found that a change to a smaller camera format would better enable this new way of seeing; this grants these explorations, making them visible. Expanding the image beyond the frame, this work invites the viewer to fill in the gaps of the unseen using cultural signifiers as markers of Trace. Allowing for these moments to present various meanings, the often banal becomes significant. This way of reading and discovering an image is strengthened by presenting the work as a sequence of multiple photographs; one image informs the next, much like poetry, allowing multiple narratives to emerge and revealing nuanced interpretations of the world. The work bargains for introspection, for an understanding of the past and an acknowledgement of the traces that remain in the present.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Jesse Ryan Brown is an analog photographer currently living in the Mississippi Delta and an Assistant Professor at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. Since beginning to learn his craft in high school, he became interested in the nuances of the process — completing one step before moving to the next. After a decade in New York working and learning from other photographers, his own photographic efforts began to emerge ranging from advertising to editorial. After returning to the American South his life began to expand beyond photography as he started to wear many different professional hats. From working as an app designer for The Weather Channel in 1.

Atlanta, Georgia, to working in a machine shop fabricating turntable parts in Richmond, Virginia, Brown’s life began to move away from photography in a way that became distressing. After several conversations and artist talks at local galleries in Richmond, Virginia, he began to explore photography as a fine art. Brown received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Art Institute of Atlanta, in Atlanta, Georgia in 2004 and is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at The Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine, where he is expected to receive his Master in Studio Arts in May 2020. 3.

@OSCCHACON03

OSCAR CHACON

THESIS STATEMENT

I am making video work that is conceptually and materially based. I create symbols of an identity in constant becoming using water, hair, time and performance. I use the moving image as a medium for examining the practice of mirroring, a device that seeks to develop an understanding of gay intimacy in society. I also explore the notions of voyeurism to study the male body through the male gaze and addressing the absence of the lived experience. Inspired by queer contemporary films, my videos take inspiration from gay male characters who find shelter, and space to explore their sexual desire and emerging sexual identity in spaces formed by the presence of water. These films use the trope of water, including swimming pools, lakes, showers, the sea and even aquariums, as expressive features of their narrative. The films depict in compelling ways the connection between desire, identity, and intimacy in relationship to spaces formed by the presence of water. Working with the image of water and as a material has been an essential element in my art practice. Water becomes a tool for reflection and introspection, a mirror for one to look and recognize themselves. As a gay man, I am reflecting on the past 15 years of my life where I had to hold myself carefully, making sure to leave no evidence of my sexuality. I think about poet Derrick Austin who said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because my queerness was private and hypothetical my sexuality was profoundly interior...â&#x20AC;?. In my practice I reflect what it means to have ownership of my identity, my body, and my sexuality. In owning these parts of me I construct representations of my truth that simultaneously expose what I am not, yet what I can be. There are moments in my life now where I yearn deeply to connect with another man, to experience the same physical and emotional intimacy I see in queer films today. My body, water, hair, time and performance are tools I use to search for intimacy, closeness that can only be developed, identified, and obtained from within the studio. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Oscar Chacon was born in 1984 in El Paso, TX. He is a visual artist who primarily creates mixed media works on paper, video, and sculptures. His current practice speaks to the issues of the transformation of the body with the passing of time, the gay male gaze, and gay intimacy in society. He received his MFA in Studio Art from Maine College of 1.

Art (2020), and his BFA in Studio Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017). Today, Oscar is working on a new series of videos that depict the connection between queer desire, identity, and intimacy in relationship to spaces formed by the presence of water. 3.

1. What Should I Call You...A Fountain (video still), 2019, iPhone video, color, sound, 9:52 min 2. When I Come Back, What Should I Bring? (video still), 2020, iPhone video, color, sound, 31:20 min 3. When I Come Back, What Should I Bring? (video still), 2020, iPhone video, color, sound, 31:20 min 4. Drink Me (video still), 2019, iPhone video, color, sound, 6:03 min

KCOLEMANART.COM

kt coleman

@K.T_COLEMAN

THESIS STATEMENT

kt coleman is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. Her work asks questions about empathy, communication, self-reflection, and universality. What does it look like to evoke empathy, and what are the ways that communication and self-reflection can connect disparate people? If we see ourselves more clearly, can we more intimately understand others? These are some of the questions she tackles in the studio. Her visual artworks incorporate text as a central element and have included paper-based installation, adhesive vinyl installation, works on paper (hand drawn and graphically designed), video, text paintings, stickers, and public installation. Her process is both research-based and intuitive; often, her research takes the form of observational or experiential learning, to which she responds through intuitive language. In recent works, coleman frames reading and direct address as methods of inviting audience participation and encouraging critical consideration. In all components of her practice, coleman looks for methods of understanding herself and others in specific moments and in a broad sense. Her goal is to alleviate her own and othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; feelings of detachment or isolation and to explore the potential of art as a tool for feeling less alone.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

kt coleman (b. 1994) is a Portland, Mainebased multidisciplinary artist and writer. Her text-based works nod to self-discovery, interpersonal connection, and the role art plays in offering room for self-reflection. Her visual art has been shown around Maine, 1.

New Hampshire, and San Jose, CA, and her writing has been published by Siren, Write Launch, and Underground Writers. In November 2019, she completed her first artist residency at the Arteles Creative Center in HaukijĂ¤rvi, Finland. 3.

1. Flyer installed in situ (2020), text on printer paper, 8.5" x 11" 2. Flyer installed in situ (2020), text on printer paper, 8.5" x 11" 3. Flyer installed in situ (2020), text on printer paper, 8.5" x 11" 4. Installation detail of Resonance Project (2020), recollected flyers, dimensions variable 5. Flyer installed in situ (2020), text on printer paper, 8.5" x 11"

CHIPBARCHILON.COM

@CHIPBARCHILON

CHIP BARCHILON DALEY

THESIS STATEMENT

Chip Barchilon was born in 1988 in New York, NY. In 2010, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History at Barnard College. In 2017, Barchilon was the recipient of the Clay Nesbitt and Dean Gross Scholarship in Healdsburg, California. Barchilon has already been included in various important exhibitions including Taking Stock at Erin Hutton Projects OpBox and The Constructed Self at New System Exhibitions in Portland, Maine, curated by Elyse Grams. This year, she will receive her MFA from the Maine College of Art in Portland, ME. Upcoming shows include her thesis exhibition and a curatorial project with Neighbors Gallery in Portland, Maine. Barchilon currently lives and works in Portland, Maine. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Chip Barchilon Daley is a multimedia artist working in drawing, sculpture and video. Barchilon uses the genre of fairy tale to interrogate props of complacency regarding the agency of bodies. These interrogations illuminate the paved road of complacency

and indifference for resolution and reclamation. Materiality and storytelling in sculpture and drawing are the material language for telling new stories in a lineage of fantastical storytelling.

1. Weight of Gold (installation), myceliated sawdust, Pleurotus ostreatus, straw, wax, gold pigment, straw, spray foam, 12' x 18', 2019 2. The Great Oozing Blob (installation drawing), Vellum, marker, colored pencil, oil pastel, 2020 3. Stories we tell (detail), Vellum, graphite, 2018

4. Mycelia and The Great Oozing Blob (installation drawing), Vellum, marker, colored pencil, oil pastel, 2020 5. Weight of Gold (detail), myceliated sawdust, Pleurotus ostreatus, 2019

JESSICAPARKERFOLEY.COM

@JESSICAPARKERFOLEY

JESSICA PARKER FOLEY

THESIS STATEMENT

Jessica Parker Foley’s abstract landscape paintings are reperformances of intertidal ecosystem behaviors. Her largest works are in oil on panels, but she also uses gouache, watercolor, wax, and resin. By using the techniques of action painting alongside direct observation of the natural world, she creates work that mimics the world around her. Foley’s paintings function with the same behaviors and inclinations of living systems: they do not mirror phenomenal nature, they are phenomenal nature.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Jessica Parker Foley is an artist, naturalist, and educator living and working in Portland, Maine. Jessica grew up in New Hampshire playing in the woods, scrambling on rocks, and falling into frog ponds. She earned her BA in Environmental Humanities at Sterling College in the heart of Vermont’s Northeast

ARTWORK

Kingdom. She has been teaching art and ecology for five years on the coast of Maine to people of all ages and abilities. Her painting practice is grounded in close observation, alchemy, natural history, and material. In May 2020 she will graduate from Maine College of Art with an MFA in Studio Art.

1. Advance/Retreat No. 3, 2020, oil on panel, 30" x 40" 2. Postlandscape No. 2 (Overcome), 2020, oil on linen, 19" x 19" 3. Postlandscape No. 1 (Giving Way), 2020, oil on linen, 16” x 16” 4. For the Time Being No. 5 (detail) (2020) oil on panel, 8" x 8"

JUSTIN LOVE

THESIS STATEMENT

What is the opposite of the closet? I am a laudatory practice unto myself. I am a self-hagiography in drag. I am working out who I am publicly and finding ways to reperform and relitigate cultural and personal traumas of the past. These recastings of things-that-have-been are patchwork remembrances with a point of view. Whether built as an immersive space, a block print, or a massive painting, my work centers around my experience of the world and making that experience material for others to encounter.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

J Love is a Maine-based artist from the Deep South who makes patchworks of gendered meaning. Love has shown works in cloth, sculpture, sound, video, and photography, though the medium is never as important as the urgency of the expression. Stylistically, Love borrows from the spirit of the Abstract Expressionists and the regional aesthetic of their Southern home. Loveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current discourse with their formative

experiences as an Evangelical Christian are a combination of exploratory feminism and revelatory personhood. Pushing back against the mores of their upbringing allows Love to perform identities that fit. Prior to Masters candidacy at Maine College of Art, Love earned a B.S. in business and a B.A. in Spanish from Mississippi State University. Love has shown work in Congress Square Park, New Systems Gallery, and on stages around the country.

1. 1953 2. My Friend Jonny 3. Pater Noster 4. Our Lady

@LYSEYGIRL

ELYSE GRAMS

THESIS STATEMENT

I am trying to understand a pot I only remember. I have revisited that memory over and over again, the way an archeologist sifts the land for pottery shards. Its history stretches out behind me like the line of a ceramic coil, plastic and uneven. I know I am not the first person who has coveted a pot. I know I am not the only person who has broken a vessel. Gravity, after all, is an inevitable force of nature. Everything falls at the same rate. The pot can be remade. The clay rolls beneath my fingertips and the coils begin to build. My pots are always women, just like me. I am a vessel building a vessel. I am plastic and uneven. It is okay to feel want, it is okay to break. I will patch myself with gold, I will remember myself again. I confront the canon of ceramics art history and the foundation of the moral systems of America. I mine the complicated and intertwined histories of ceramics and womanhood that exist in every domestic object by using a popular blue and white porcelain pattern to mimic the invasive creep of white-centric cultural hierarchies. I do this through an exploration of my own history with familial passed down ceramic vessels. My work compares the ideological agenda and lived experience of white women to the domestic ceramic objects we surround ourselves with in an effort to present a myriad of ways to confront the canon, canonical objects, and canonical thought.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Elyse Grams is an interdisciplinary craftsperson, educator, and fledgling curator living and working in Portland, Maine. Hand-building earthenware coil vessels in the styles of elaborate and ornate European Neoclassical pottery, she questions contemporary expectations of clay by remixing histories, old and new. Elyse was recently a fellow at the Artist Campaign School, a conference dedicated to involving more artists directly in the political process, a goal she is passionate about. She has curated shows in Texas and Maine and shown work in group and solo shows in Texas, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and Maine. Elyse is a current MFA candidate at the Maine College of Art. You can find more of her work on instagram @lyseygirl. ARTWORK 1-2. A Place for Us Here, Earthenware, porcelain, found and left behind objects, 2019. Over the duration of the installation participants were allowed (via instructions) to take anything from the site as long as they left something of their own. The site changed daily in response to the viewers. / Photo Credit: Joel Tsui

3. A Very Dramatic Reenactment of the Short Life of a Green Pot I Loved, Performance captured by polaroid, 3" x 11", 2019. Grieving the untimely death of a pot that was accidentally knocked onto the floor of my studio while I was away, I reenacted the scene of the crime for closure. / Photo Credit: Polaroids taken by Will Jacks

4. 133 lbs, Earthenware, plexiglass, latex paint, 18" x 18" x 65", 2019. The plexiglass pedestal allows for the viewer to be able to peer up into the interior of the bottomless vessel. This is an example of a viewer activating the work, allowing for the body to become implicated in the act of looking. Participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; feelings on this action have ranged from delighted curiosity to sinister action, allowing for a wide range of emotive responses to the ambiguous interactive work. 3.

@FRANCES_D.H

FRANCES DERBY HILDRETH

THESIS STATEMENT

My work is situated within the realms of absurdist theater and performance art finding ways to connect deeper to visceral understandings and compassion for the earth we live on. I am thinking of the earth as a body like ours, and like all living things; with organs, explosions, acceptances, and means to find some balance. We are contiguous with this planet and the possibilities of us being more similar and connected than we generally believe is something that interests me. The videos I make are surrealist memories which use movement, absurdist theatre, recycled objects, and narratives of interconnected cyclical challenges that come up for us in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anxious society. The work is an observation of the reasons behind restraint - to either understand when restraint is being forced upon us, or when we use self restraint for nourishment. We live in a world now where everything is moving at a speed that has brought us into unfathomable environmental injustice. In moments of embodied experiences - visceral self awareness awareness of our interconnected surroundings grows too. We often feel the emotional pain of the earth in our organs through our emotions because they are bound to the emotions of all living things. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Frances is a multimedia narrator epresenting both the state of Maine and New Jersey. Her work includes film, narration, light humor, and sculptures of recycled materials to capture an emotional understanding of living in a body on a planet of abundance controlled by capitalistic mentality. Frances earned her

undergraduate degree at William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY and her graduate degree at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. She has shown work at New Systems Gallery in Portland, Maine and has begun to take on the challenges of stand up comedy.

1. Set Henhouse 2. My Dad Wanted a Son 3. Boob 4. Menses 5. A Train of Miserable Consequences

WHJACKS.COM

WILL JACKS

@WILJAX THESIS STATEMENT

Photography at its core is just the recording of time through the documentation of light. It’s taken me over twenty years to finally realize this, and to find ways of making that illustrate the power of photography’s foundations. I enjoy challenging expectations, but my desire to find beauty in pattern often contradicts this. Pattern, after all, requires repetition, and repetition is the projection of the past into the future. This, too, is what defines expectations. Having lived in the Mississippi Delta for nearly fifty years I am conditioned by the echoes of atrocities absorbed in land shaped by enslaved workers. Disparity and racial strife linger in this region, and not a single person that spends time here is able to escape its weight. These are not patterns worth repeating. I’ve struggled to reconcile how I can love something and loathe it simultaneously. How do we break a pattern while finding beauty in its structure? My work utilizes photographic principles to examine the role of individual gesture in shaping pattern. We never break fully from old ways, meanings, or even truths. We carry them with us and they can either become bouys of knowledge that propel us to better gestures or they can become nostalgic weights that hinder us from growth. In order to find light, we need time. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

After a short-lived tenure as a middle school English teacher and athletic coach, Will Jacks finally settled into a career as a photographer and documentarian. After finishing Journalism graduate studies at the University of Mississippi in 1996, he returned to his hometown of Cleveland, MS and opened a photography studio. Eventually, that grew also to serve as a regional photo gallery, and in September 2013, Time Magazine recognized its Eudora Welty exhibit as one of the top thirty ways in the world to experience photography offline.

now works with the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area in developing meaningful ways to engage with cultural interpretation of the region. He is currently an MFA candidate at the Maine College of Art with graduation scheduled for May 2020, and is the director of Jacks Farms Artist Residencies, a non-profit designed to engage contemporary artists with social, political, economic and educational issues in northwest Mississippi. Will’s first monograph Po’ Monkey’s: Portrait of a Juke Joint documents cultural tourism in the Mississippi Delta. It was published by University Press of Mississippi in October, 2019 He has taught in the journalism school at the and was awarded the Mississippi Institute of Arts University of Mississippi as well as the Art and Letters prize for photographic excellence Department at Delta State University and in 2020. 1.

1 - 6. Willow, 2020

DASHAKALISZ.COM

@DASHA_KALISZ

DASHA KALISZ

THESIS STATEMENT

The physicality of making with clay invites me to mold my thoughts and emotions into its amorphous material. The clay body meets my body, letting me physically release emotions into the cool, dense, pliable earth through pushing, pulling, burnishing, and kneading. My creative process stems from the need to think through my hands and transfer my energy into an object. The transferring of my energy into the clay led to an investigation about how emotional states affect the body. This investigation of functional and dysfunctional body that led me to biomorphic forms, and more specifically to biomorphic lung forms. Biomorphic shapes are recognizable and unrecognizable, just like the body. Our bodies are familiar and reliable until illness, trauma, or a disease impedes the system, making it strange and unpredictable. Biomorphic ceramic and found object sculptures of lung vessels reveal vulnerability and transmutation of the body through the organic forms and surfaces that imply sickness and decay, as well as the assemblage of found objects that suggest improvised assistance. Skin diseases like smallpox, shingles, and psoriasis were the inspirations for the surfaces of the ceramic sculptures. The found objects like toilet bowl floats, tubing, and masks imitate antique and modern medical equipment. The appropriation of found objects into makeshift medical equipment reveals the secrets of the liminal spaces between human biology and mechanical mechanisms. The viewer recognizes the altered organ and sympathizes with their own body as people look for patterns and connections between themselves and the world. Through the assemblage of found objects, I lead my audience to contemplate the functionality of their body and compare it to objects in the world. As MerleauPonty once wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Visible and mobile, my body is a thing among things; it is one of them...the world is made of the very stuff of the body.â&#x20AC;? ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Dasha Kalisz was born in 1979 in Vermont where she currently lives and works. Kalisz creates her clay sculptures by altering wheel thrown forms and applying traditional and nontraditional ceramic surface methods. She pairs biomorphic abstract ceramic forms with found objects to explore emotionality. Kalisz graduated from Burlington College with a Bachelors in Art focused in ceramics and art

1. Cheerio, 11" x 12" x 4", Porcelain

history. Kalisz traveled extensively throughout the United States, Oaxaca, Mexico and Europe where she investigated ceramic cultures and participated in a residency at La Miaderianna International School for Ceramics. Kalisz belongs to the Brandon Artist Guild and is an arts educator. Currently, Kalisz is earning her MFA at Maine College of Art.

2. Ooze, 10" x 5", Porcelain 3. Smoke Filter Lung, 12" x 9" x 12", Found objects and pit fired porcelain 4. Transmutation 5. Mask with Pit-fired Lung, 18" x 9.5" x 9", Medical equipment and pit fired porcelain

KELLYPOTTERY.COM

STEVEN M. KELLY

@KELLYPOTTERY

THESIS STATEMENT

Ontology is the branch of philosophy that tackles the challenging subject of the nature of being. It works to define what reality is and how we fit into it. The work in this thesis exhibition explores ontological questions. Rather than writing about ontology, this installation creates ontological landscapes built to foster intuitive understanding and metaphysical realizations. The work invites viewers to experience their bodies as objects in a cosmos of other bodies and objects. This installation encourages reflection. This can be literal, as in the case of mirrors, or in a more-broad sense, it asks the audience to reflect through metaphor. Viewers can literally see themselves in the mirror, but they also may see themselves in the objects that surround them. The mirror positions them in space, but they are also encouraged to investigate their position within, and their relationship to, that space. The sculptural forms are meant to be at once familiar and alien. They may evoke recognizable objects such as mountains, human figures, and vessels, but they are not direct illustrations of these objects. They are tipped over, exaggerated, or under-rendered versions. In this way the objects become a means for investigating the certainty the viewer has about the world around them and the categories of sorting employed in that system. These abstract landscapes present an opportunity to become immersed. Through that immersion,the forms facilitate deep stirring, and initiate an investigation of objects and self. An opportunity to disrupt ordinary patterns of thinking is available, to feel one’s place in the cosmos, to intuit being and from that intuition to begin repositioning and reorienting oneself to the Anthropocene. One might question whether humans really are the center and dominate force. What is important in this work is not seen, it is the withdrawn understanding all of us experience and feel but have difficulty articulating.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Steve Kelly lives and works in Wilmington, North Carolina. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where in his anarchic and turbulent teenage years he found a sense of peace in clay. He received a BFA in ceramics and painting at the University of Montana, and went on to apprentice with a master potter in the hills of Virginia. After many years of teaching ceramics and operating a successful pottery where he produced functional ceramics, Kelly felt drawn to make abstract forms—objects with no direct utility. In 2018, he enrolled in the MFA program at Maine College of Art, and in the years that have followed has developed a new portfolio of sculptural objects

and installations. His sculptural work is both playful and earnest. Primarily made of ceramics, often embellished with other materials, his installations explore objects, space, ontological philosophy, and how our universe fits together. More importantly, his work challenges the viewer to comprehend how they fit into that universe. At the core of his sculpture is an investigation of the withdrawn, of wisdom that can only be intuited or felt. Through complicated, interactive object-landscapes, Kelly’s sculptures set up opportunities for metaphysical insight.

1. Reflecting the Anthropocene Detail (Amber Orb), SPRING 2020 2. Reflecting the Anthropocene Detail (reflected rings), SPRING 2020 3. Reflecting the Anthropocene Detail (Hair form), SPRING 2020 4. Reflecting the Anthropocene in Progress (left side with reflection), SPRING 2020 5. Reflecting the Anthropocene Detail (Disco Objects), SPRING 2020

EJLEEARTIST.COM

EJ LEE

@EJLESSARTWORK THESIS STATEMENT

Language is an everyday interaction. People use it to convey thoughts, emotions, and narratives, through the simple line that is associated with sound. Language is a community, and every day someone uses it to navigate day-to-day life. Written language, in comparison to spoken language, has evolved from only a few elitist to understand to now many across class and education. With the spread of literacy, written text has become a steady facet in our contemporary society. With so much text around us. the written text becomes an iconic image through color and typography. Similar to the Duchampian style of taking off slightly manipulating a found object and thus calling it an art object; I am taking the different fonts that already exist and morphing them into my own alphabet. Letterforms are contemporary readymades because of the influx of typography with logos, brands, signs, and of course the internet. But this notion can also be explained how our brain views words as a whole. As words, is no more and a picture in our brain because of the font and color to the point where we only see the picture, of the word, not individual letters. With my work, color is meant to create tension for the viewer to feel not only uncomfortable but also become aware of there surroundings as the text is everywhere. The letterform sculptures are life-size in scale to call attention to the similar shapes of the letterforms as they dwarf the viewer. The bright color creates a contrast with the black and white wall installation. The word read is a homonym as there are two pronunciations of the same spelling. Also the act of reading the word ‘read’ that requires the viewers’ participation to become aware of the impact of written text. Also with this work, I am challenging the pictorial nature or viewing a word as a picture by purposing misspelling it. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

EJ Lee is a multidisciplinary text-based artist who evaluates the shapes of letters and numbers to bring awareness to how text is all around us through sculpture and wall installation. EJ is a Maryland based artist but has lived all over the east coast growing up. EJ attended McDaniel College, in Westminster, Maryland, and received her BA in Studio Art and 1.

Minored in Art History in 2015. She is currently attending Maine College of Art to receive her MFA in May, 2020. EJ was featured in a couple of juried shows in Michigan and in Washington, DC. While EJ is an emerging artist her work gives the viewer an alternative perspective on language itself.

ARTWORK 1. RAED, 2020 2. Letterforms, 2020 3. Letterform 2, 2020 4. Letterform 1, 2020

JEREMYOWENCARTOONS.COM

@JEREMYOWENCARTOONS

JEREMY OWEN

THESIS STATEMENT

Jeremy Owen is a cartoonist whose work uses dark humor and the themes and symbols of the shadow self to enlighten and entertain. He uses humor, derision and existential philosophy to self-deprecate and critique culture through his three cartoons Hungry Hungry Hippocrates, Sidewalk Pirates and The Brothers Cerebellov. These each live respectively in their own cartoon universe and are made using single panel gag cartoons, animation and surreal painting. Jeremy has received the Martin Wong Scholarship in Painting from Humboldt State University and the Presidential Scholarship from Maine College of Art.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

In 1989 Jeremy Owen was born in Los Angeles, California. Before Kindergarten began his parents moved their family to Karachi, Pakistan to continue their teaching careers overseas. After life became too tumultuous in Pakistan, the family again moved, this time to The Philippines in 1999. Jeremy was raised in the

chaotic and beautiful capital city of Manila, and there developed both his athletic and artistic interests. After graduating High School, he returned to California and soon made his way to the beautiful lost coast of Humboldt County. It is here he decided to fully commit to art as a lifestyle and vocation.

1. Title Screen from Hungry Hungry Hippocrates Sizzle Reel, 2020, size variable (16:9 aspect ratio), digital media 2. Title Screen from Sidewalk Pirates Sizzle Reel, 2020, size variable (16:9 aspect ratio), Digital media 3. Synopsis of Sidewalk Pirates from Pitch Bible, 2020, 8.5" x 11", digital/ print media 4. Rhapsody Yoga Poster, 2020, 18" x 24", digital/ print media 5. Hungry Hungry Hippocrates Funny page, 2020, 15" x 22.75", digital/ print media

Sidewalk Pirates is about Lizard and Rhapsody, two new-age dropouts and their whimsical cat Leonard navigating the absurd perils of Northern California and the excitement of the open road! Dissatisfied with the status-quo, these well-intentioned wastrels live in their converted truck-house in the strange town of Mildew, CA. They ride out their dreams of limited responsibility and grand adventure amidst the coastal forest of the Pacific Northwest. Deep in these hills live other weird folk who constitute their community. Between the Buddhist monks, the Vietnam vets, the drug addicts and other vagabonds, Mildew is a town replete with unique goofballs. When Lizard and Rhapsody get the itch, they take to the highway and seek out the spontaneous chaos that comes with the life of the rubber tramp. As the gang stumbles through paradise, their sense of adventure and half-baked enlightenment takes them into hilarity and wayward bliss.

JOHNQUIGLEYART.COM

@JOHN.QUIGLEY_

JOHN QUIGLEY

THESIS STATEMENT

Painting is the most important universal form of communication because of its ability to express ideas, feelings, beliefs, and thoughts without the parameters of spoken language or text. Painting is a ubiquitous action of self expression that does not confine itself to class, gender, or status. Painting is the origin of all advertising and image based media present today, therefore it must be used as a tool to change systems from within by presenting new images of reality through painting. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

John Quigley (b.1991) is a New England based artist working in Portland, Maine. His work primarily shows up in the form of large scale paintings which incorporate contrasting styles of abstraction and highly rendered components. John’s work deals with themes of New England regional conditioning in

addition to critiques on the human psyche. Quigley often engages with themes of religion, professional sports, and dynamics of authority. His work has been shown throughout New England and has also made appearances in Cleveland, Mississippi, Nashville, Tennessee and Athens, Greece.

1. ANOTHER STARRY NIGHT, Acrylic on Canvas, 96"x 55", 2020 (WIP) 2. DARE, Acrylic on Canvas, 96" x 55", 2020 3. HAIL MARY, Acrylic on Canvas, 96" x 55", 2020 4. POPE, Acrylic on Canvas, 96" x 55", 2020

DARE, Acrylic on Canvas, 96”x55”, 2020

HAIL MARY, Acrylic on Canvas, 96”x55”, 2020

LIZART912.WIXSITE.COM/LIZART

LIZ RHANEY

@LI_Z_A_R_T

THESIS STATEMENT

I make videos to help me understand how the parts of my identity combine to shape who I am and my values. I share these videos to connect with people who are trying to answer those same questions about themselves. As a queer woman of color, I look for films and shows that reflected how race, gender and sexuality shape the lives of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) women. I often use my body in my videos to express my own intersectional experiences. I combine my knowledge of music, design and writing to create multisensory installations with my videos. By sharing these narratives, I create spaces for my viewers to find ways to support BIPOC women and their resistance to power structures that do not represent them. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Liz Rhaney’s experience in many fields has helped her develop a multilayered creative practice. Her work is inspired by her passion and experience with community activism. Her first experience with art was as a drummer, which she has been doing for 3 decades. Her musical knowledge is rooted in the Gullah/ Geechee traditions of her hometown Savannah, Georgia. She studied Graphic Design while obtaining her Bachelors of Fine Art degree from Armstrong State University (now Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern

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University) in 2016. While there, she also minored in writing, taking classes in feminist and cultural studies as well as working for the campus newspaper The Inkwell. She began blending her art and activism, often volunteering for community organizations such as Feminists United, DEEP Kids, and Planned Parenthood’s Southeast Chapter. She moved to Portland, Maine to pursue a Masters of Fine Art from Maine College of Art in 2020.

1. Still from When I Drum, Video, 2:00, 2020 2. Still from When I Return, Video, 3:06, 2020 3. Still from When I’m the Only, Video, 2:52, 2020

BRI-N.CO

BRIAN SMITH

@BRI_N

THESIS STATEMENT

Through the language of large scale, nature-inspired sculpture, Smith creates metaphorical mirrors for humans to visualize aspects of themselves within the natural world. In the context of the climate catastrophe, these works situate themselves conceptually within queer ecological theory, seeking to expand the community to be inclusive of queer creatures and plants, as well as recognize nature as a safe space for unhindered queer expression. Through the abstracted figurative form, and natural or natural inspired elements, the sculptures exude a sense of queer joy. Images emerge from the abstraction of an embrace between two bodies, or a rainbow inspired sculpture welcoming the viewers to the gallery. This joy is delicate as elements of the artwork remind us of our mortality, such as the imaging of rotting fruit in Sourcing From What We Know: Fruity Boys, and the trapping of breath in Performing in the Ecoanxiety. The climate catastrophe is a theme visually present in these works, but subtly not at the forefront. Smith views the climate catastrophe as a catalyst for considering his own connection to nature, thus inspiring the queer ecological approach taken in his art-making and writing. He stands that there’s no way to make art about nature in the Anthropocene without considering climate change. Through careful aestheticization, Smith aims to create a future of hybridization, acclimatization, and a way of decentralizing humans from the stance of world power; all with a sprinkle of optimistic futility characteristic of generations inheriting the climate catastrophe. Smith’s use of materials ranges from natural objects to handmade or human-made mediums. Most all of his materials are created by himself if possible and are compostable if not at least recyclable. Materials not made by Smith are researched thoroughly to ensure they are the best option ecologically and originate from an environmentally reputable company. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Brian Smith is a Portland, Maine based artist, creating sculptures surrounding the topic of queer ecology in the context of the climate catastrophe. His works are monumental in scale and range in material —frequently involving paper, wood, images, and natural elements.

College of Art and Design in 2016.

Smith has exhibited in Portland and Hallowell, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Brooklyn, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and Missoula, Montana. He has been nominated for the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Smith received his Masters of Fine Arts Award by the International Sculpture degree in Studio Arts at the Maine Center, producer of Sculpture Magazine. College of Art in 2020. Prior, Smith studied He has also received the Albert K. Murray Sculpture and received his Bachelor of Grant, Stephen D. Paine, and Windgate Fine Arts degree from the Massachusetts Foundation scholarships.

1. Precedent at the Water: A Symphony of Queers, Invasive Knotweed leaves, invasive Bittersweet vines, recycled chicken wire, wood, water, audioscape of creatures mating and conversational sounds who’ve been scientifically documented as having exhibited queer behavior, 12' x 12' x 9', 2019 2. Buoyant in the Ecoanxiety, Handmade cold porcelain, plaster, wood, paper pulp, pigment, Ecopoxy resin, cardboard, 8' x 4' x 6', 2020 3. Unhindered Blooming Together (in progress), Eucalyptus leaves and rose petals on wood, 8' x 4' x 2", 2020 4. Figgot Tree!, Sourced branch, laserjet prints, wire mesh, foam, resin, pigment, overturned Home Depot bucket, 2.5' x 2.5' x 6', 2019

ANNAMARIEVALENTI.COM

@ANNAMARIEVALENTI

ANNA VALENTI

THESIS STATEMENT

Moving to new states, homes, and communities every few years throughout childhood, I grew an increasingly sentimental attachment to the living spaces and things that surrounded me. I noticed that a relationship with an object goes beyond its utility to become a way of archiving our place in time. Collected objects hold a sense of familial continuity and belonging. Using the iconography of the domestic, I explore the emotional valence and affect of interiors, exteriors, as well as the spaces in between like courtyards. Sensitively documenting objects in clay, ceramic baskets, chairs, and screens all stand-in for a felt experience. Weaving and pinching hemp clay to achieve poetic ends, I make thinly coiled objects that synthesize mid-century modern architectural design with post-minimalist ideals and a post-industrial ceramics sensibility. My work stems from family traditions of weaving, gardening, and jerry-rigging. Through the addition of hemp fibers and the strain of kiln firing, I seek to create ceramic forms that viscerally move. It is in the balances and tensions between pattern and plainness, soft and heavy, stable and precarious, that my work lingers. Both intimate and monumental, the objects and interior spaces I create speak to the perennial need to be and belong. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Anna Valenti is a ceramic artist born in New York and raised throughout the United States. Anna weaves and pinches clay vessels ranging from pots to chairs to screens. Her heavily touched installations highlight the emotional valence of crafted spaces and the objects that inhabit them. She received her BA from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2014, practiced there again as a ceramics post-baccalaureate student in 2017, and received her MFA from the Maine College 1.

of Art in 2020. Anna has taught wheel throwing, hand building, ceramic weaving, and paper clay making in classroom settings. She has exhibited nationally in Colorado, Montana, Utah, Minnesota, Maine, and New York. Anna is the recipient of the 2019 Professional Creative Entrepreneurship Grant and 2020 NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship. Her research is in hemp clay bodies.

1. Lobster Trap, 2019, terra cotta, glaze, 13” x 8” x 5” 2. Take Care of Yourself. Get Plenty of Rest. 2019, terra cotta, manganese dioxide, terra sigillata, glaze, wood, putty, paint, linen made by my Granny, 33" x 20" x 55" 3. Sweetness of Doing Nothing, 2019, terra cotta, hemp porcelain, glaze, terra sigillata, fabric from my mom’s childhood friend 364" x 25" x 44" 4. Careful (detail), 2020, hemp porcelain, hemp terra cotta, burnt umber, putty, paper, 35" x 20.5" x 17" 5. There, There, 2019, hemp terracotta, rutile, putty, 35 3⁄4" x 13" x 10"

6. Permeable Space, 2018, porcelain, cobalt, 4" x 3" x 13"

RACHELANNEYORK.COM

RACHEL ANNE YORK

THESIS STATEMENT

Seeking to activate multiple levels of awareness, I use story, sound, music, place, archives, performance, and drawing to facilitate immersive, ephemeral, shared experiences. My thesis (“An Urgency to Hesitate”) investigates our emotional relationship with the climate crisis, and how durational and performance art can heighten awareness of embodiment, emplacement, and interconnectedness. Time - disentangled from rapidity - can bring us back into our full powers for interconnectedness and grace, necessary for navigating any potential extended future in the climate crisis. I mine archives, specific place histories, and sound for content that expresses the nostalgia (sickness for a home lost) and solastalgia (sickness for a home currently being lost, especially to ecological disaster) endemic to this age of rapid and extreme change. My thesis work was to be a performance piece in the historic site of the U.S. Custom House hall in Portland, ME, involving four dancers and a 4-channel audio piece featuring the songs “Simple Gifts,” and “Song to the Seals.” The dance excavates the history of the place, an altered shoreline, filled-out to extend the railroad, a busy port, and a Custom House regulating the exchange of raw materials extracted from the earth. The songs fragment and intermingle calling for simplicity and pause. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Rachel Anne York is a transdisciplinary artist and musician from North Carolina. Her work incorporates drawing, print, sound, music, place, and installation, creating communal experiences of ecological emotions. She received her undergraduate degrees in Music Performance (Double Bass) and Art & Design from East Carolina University, and is currently

1. the sea in darkness calls, Portland

pursuing a Master in Fine Arts in Studio Art at the Maine College of Art, expected to be completed in 2020. Influenced by her Southern Appalachian heritage, she also benefited from study and work in Brazil and Italy. York is the recipient of the McClelland Roberts Memorial Scholarship, Lane Family Music Scholarship, and the MFA Dean’s Scholarship. 3.

2. the sea in darkness calls, Portland 1836 3. the sea in darkness calls, Portland 1866 4-6. the grace that beckons, the joy that kills, Observatory Performance, 2019

The MASTER OF ARTS IN TEACHING Graduates MECAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program prepares artists to become eďŹ&#x20AC;ective art educators who learn to translate their unique qualities into creative teaching practices. The MAT program is divided into three phases: a one-month summer intensive; a fall semester of courses that include studio art, teaching methods & curriculum building; and a spring semester that culminates with a 15-week student teaching experience, enhanced by an action research seminar. The program starts early and ends early so candidates graduate in time to apply for teaching positions immediately as they open.

WWW.MECA.EDU/ACADEMICS/GRADUATE/MAT/MAT-CANDIDATES

JON RUDNICKI JONRUDNICKI.COM

Jonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exposure to teaching in a variety of styles, places, and languages has inspired his approach to teaching. He has taught in the UK, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and throughout the United States. He uses this background to bring a diverse assortment of ideas and strategies to his classes and prides himself on being accommodating

ARIANNA DILIOS ARIANNADILIOS.COM

Arianna Dilios was born and raised in Portland, Maine where she fostered a passion for photography, design, the Atlantic coast, and how they all intersect. After earning her BA in Studio Art from Wheaton College, and a brief stint working as a graphic designer in Brunswick, she pursued her MAT from Maine College of Art in order to channel her passion for the visual world into a career as an art educator. Arianna firmly believes that every student has the ability to hone their own inherent creativity, self-expression, and making process. With the mentorship of an engaged and passionate guide, students can recognize how the appreciation of art and the process of art-making ignites a spark that can last a lifetime.

to different learning styles. He did his undergraduate degree in art history with minors in gender studies and studio art. He maintains a photography as well as a digital art practice and when not designing lesson plans can be found outside climbing on rocks.

WWW.MECA.EDU/ACADEMICS/GRADUATE/MAT/MAT-CANDIDATES

DYLAN FRUH DYLANFRUH.COM

Dylan Fruh is a multimedia artist educator with experience teaching art to Pre-K through high school students in a variety of learning environments. Before attending MECA Dylan received a BA in Studio Art from Vassar College in 2017. Dylan has designed and facilitated workshops through a number of schools and arts organizations in and around Portland, ME including SPACE Gallery, LearningWorks, and the Portland Museum of Art. In his personal artistic practice Dylan specializes in printmaking and video art, and combines digital and analog processes to create videos and animations using printed materials. When he is not teaching or making art you can find Dylan teaching climbing at Salt Pump Climbing Co. in Scarborough, ME.

KRISTEN KAISER KAISERCREATIVE.US

Since 2002, Kristen has been working as a graphic designer for various weekly newspapers and as a freelance artist in Maine and Idaho. Ad design, page layout, diagrams, and illustrations were her bread and butter. She learned not only about the power of smart design, but the wins in collaborating with a team, departments, and clients. She became dexterous and gained a solid appreciation for how a well-built image can successfully convey ideas. Kristen has also worked in an educational capacity as a Registered Maine Whitewater Guide where she trained and led paddling crews through Class V rapids. When not on the river, she taught horsemanship at Camp Ketcha in Scarborough, Maine, instructed rock climbing and coached for the nonprofit, after school program, Girls on the Run in Idaho. Kristen loved the connection she made with her students. Seeing them understand for themselves that what they were learning was not only enjoyable but empowering.

While Kristen was earning her Masters in Art Teaching from MECA, she was captivated by the teaching framework Studio Thinking and the Eight Habits of Mind. She holds a BFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This framework works perfectly with her understanding of the artistic process and she looks forward to sharing it with students. Besides Studio Thinking, Kristen is intrigued by the theory of Multiple Intelligences. She appreciates how this approach caters to a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s uniqueness and how it will enable her lessons to be adjusted to play to their strengths, ensuring a better learning experience. She interned with skilled mentors at Poland Community School and Hall-Dale High School, both in Maine. She absorbed the experiences and her mentorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; wisdom of practice. To Kristen, the art classroom has always been a safe haven for creativity and growth. She aims to continue that atmosphere in her teaching.

WWW.MECA.EDU/ACADEMICS/GRADUATE/MAT/MAT-CANDIDATES

ANNE HAYES ANNEPHAYES.COM

Anne’s pursuit of a career in art education stems from her identification as a mixed-media artist, a teacher and a life-long learner. Her years of experience working with children and adolescents, both at home and abroad, in academic, sports-related, and creative hands-on settings has helped solidify her desire to educate the next generation of young creative thinkers and artists. In 2016, Anne received a B.A in Visual Arts and a B.A in French Language and Literature from Fordham

University. She has since worked as a High School French Teacher, a K-12 Reading Tutor, a rock climbing instructor, and an English Language Assistant in Nancy, France. Anne’s interdisciplinary background, as well as her passion for the art-making process itself makes her a well-balanced art educator. Anne truly cares about her students, and makes art accessible for all through her open-ended, multisensory, and experimental lessons.

MIGUEL BENITEZ MIGUELGBENITEZ.WIXSITE.COM/WEBSITE

Originally from Connecticut, Miguel grew up in and around the New Haven art scene. He earned his Bachelor’s at Southern Connecticut State University in Studio Art with a concentration in ceramics. In his professional life, he has run a small home studio, participated in New Haven’s annual City-Wide Open Studios, was the Upper Art Director at the Audubon Arts Summer Theater Program, taught as a private tutor, and was a middle school art instructor at the Engineering and Science University Magnet School. Miguel’s interests range from dinosaurs to architecture, from martial arts to opera, but above all he enjoys a warm cup of tea and a good story.

WWW.MECA.EDU/ACADEMICS/GRADUATE/MAT/MAT-CANDIDATES

MELISSA WEGLEIN MWEGLEIN.WIXSITE.COM/WEBSITE

Melissa Weglein, is a mixed-media artist and educator living and working in Portland, Maine. Melissa is set to graduate from the Maine College of Art with a Master of Arts in Teaching in May 2020, and graduated from MECA in 2019 with a BFA in Painting, with minors in

Art History and Drawing. Melissa values exploration and experimentation both in her teaching and studio practice, and is amazed and moved every day by the effect art and art education can have on students and communities.

IAN MYERS IANMYERS.CARGO.SITE

Ian is a painter and teacher living in Brooklyn. He taught high school art at the Churchill School and Center in Manhattan, working with students with learning disabilities. After two years, Ian relocated to North Adams, MA to focus on painting and to work with IS183, developing programming for 1st through 5th graders in underfunded elementary schools throughout Berkshire County. Ian enrolled in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at

the Maine College of Art in order to hone his skills as an educator. He has been completing his degree remotely while teaching visual art full-time at Albany Academy, teaching preschool through high school art and ceramics. In May, Ian returned to Brooklyn in search of the next opportunity. Ianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artwork is represented through Gallery Gris in Hudson, NY.

WWW.MECA.EDU/ACADEMICS/GRADUATE/MAT/MAT-CANDIDATES

ADRIENNE MUNGER ADRIENNEMUNGER.COM

Adrienne Munger holds a Bachelor of Arts in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine) and has recently completed MECA’s Master of Arts in Teaching program. Adrienne believes that through artmaking we deepen our lives, feel connection to others, and develop our own style and authentic voice. Her art practice includes: painting, printmaking, sewing, weaving, and puppet-making. Adrienne strives to make every art classroom into a collaborative artists’ studio: a place of dynamic learning where creative thinking and self-direction are encouraged, and a community where all members can learn from and be inspired by each other.

KAROL CARLSEN KAROLCARLSEN.WIXSITE.COM/MYSITE

Karol Carlsen holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Maine College of Art and a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Her own art practice includes painting, drawing, book arts, mixed media, and ceramics. Karol believes that art plays an

important role in connecting with others and the surrounding world. In her art room, she focuses on building creative thinking skills and incorporating student choice.

SALT GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN DOCUMENTARY STUDIES Since 1973, the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies has taught students from all over the world to become truthful, thorough, creative, and responsible documentarians and storytellers. In 2016, Salt became part of MECA and was developed into the Salt Graduate Certificate in Documentary Studies, an intensive one-semester program. MECA is proud to be part of Saltâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legacy. AUDIO STORYTELLING FALL 2019 Elizabeth Ann Caldwell

SPRING 2020 Livia Kinzie Brock

Fort Myers, FL

Brooklyn, NY

Julie Marie Conquest

Alexa Katherine Burke

Austin, TX

Brittany Michelle Cronin

New York, NY

Katherine McKenna Hadley-Burke

White Rock, BC

Gary Lockwood Hardcastle Lewisburg, PA

Emma Genevieve Klein

Arlington, VA

Samantha J Leeds

Seattle, WA

Juliette Duffy Luini Los Angeles, CA

Trent Kay Maverick Beachwood, OH

Paige Meredith Mazurek

Cambridge, MA

Jennifer Humphrey McCord Baltimore, MD

Carly Elizabeth Peruccio Portland, ME

Jack Dennis Pombriant Brighton, MA

Robert James Scaramuccia

Taunton, MA

Nicole Victoria Stein

Richmond, VA

Sylvia Nopar Thomas Wyonia, MN

New York, NY

Rosanna Dyanne Julin

Washington, DC

Kathryn Turpin Manahan

Kennebunk, ME

Elissa Eugenia Mardiney

Rosendale, NY

Neroli Nomvuyo Mawrgan Price

Seattle, WA

Pritha RaySircar

Brooklyn, NY

The BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS Graduates MECAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bachelor of Fine Arts program offers an immersive, rigorous, interdisciplinary approach informed by a strong foundation in the liberal arts and a deep commitment to studio practice that helps students crystallize their passion into a transformative learning experience. Students explore a variety of media in their first two years, then choose a major and spend the next two years working within their discipline. MECA offers 11 majors in the BFA program, Animation & Game Art, Ceramics, Graphic Design, Illustration, Metalsmithing & Jewelry, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Textile & Fashion Design, and Woodworking & Furniture Design; and seven minors, Art & Music, Art History, Art & Entrepreneurship, Drawing, Public Engagement, Sustainable Ecosystems: Art & Design, and Writing.

The BFA Curatorial Team recognizes that under these unprecedented circumstances related to COVID-19, many of our lives have changed dramatically as we know it. In light of this understanding, we wish to give the graduating seniors an opportunity to reimagine the thesis exhibition experience. We acknowledge the loss of our remaining time spent together and urge students to preserve hope for themselves and their practice. In creating a transparent response to this global crisis, we have created an online publication for the 2020 BFA graduating senior class to celebrate their practice in a way that is honest, resilient, and resourceful. This printed exhibition is a memoir of the discovery, process, and creative exchange that you have experienced throughout your time at MECA. This is For You.

ASHLEY PAGE, CHLOE ADAMS, IAN COLWELL, + LIN SNOW BFA CURATORIAL TEAM

CHLOE-ADAMS.COM

@BLEACHVOMIT

CHLOE ADAMS

Textile & Fashion Design / Writing

THESIS STATEMENT

My final pieces consist of four wool “baskets” which are paired with four works on paper. These pieces, which I have named Net Works, are a combination of paper pieces made with spray paint and hand cut stencils, pen, white charcoal and ink marker and baskets which are made from needle and water felted roving and crocheted low twist yarn. These baskets have little use-value and only vague references to the vessel form; even at points being “full” of themselves or intertwined with their own enclosure. Similarly, the paper works have blind spots in which certain marks can only be seen from certain angles. The forms are also intertwined with each other, overlapping and bleeding through to create secondary shapes. Net Work is a combination of my current situation in quarantine and my four year long journey at MECA. Using my own skills and the digital guidance of my peers and professors, I created these works initially as a tool for sustaining my practice. However, they grew from work I had to make, to work I enjoyed making and am proud of. These paper works and baskets together speak to the connections that are strengthened and weakened by distance, our illusions of connectedness and the reality of digital communication. The net motifs appear to move, the baskets signal functionality but upon closer inspection, these pieces do not keep their promises. Their beauty and complexity signifies possibility and creation in times of change. As traditions, norms and expectations are challenged and even destroyed, what is left is our desire for support.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Chloe Adams is a graduate of the fashion and textiles program at Maine College of Art. She graduated with the program in 2020, achieving a bachelor’s degree as well as a writing minor. Chloe’s practice is varied and she has worked hard to create connections in Portland, Maine. Currently, she works at Plant Office as a floral design and installation assistant as well as front of house plant sales person. She also works for the development department at Maine College of Art as an assistant for event planning, marketing and general development. She combines digital and physical mediums, textile work, found 1.

objects, and installation into a variety of final presentations. Most recently, Chloe has been fascinated by the marks of textiles such as tires and their tread, networks, lace and felted material. She explores her process intimately and enjoys challenging ideas of negative space as well as subtractive and additive ways of working. Topics of compassion, tradition, technology and comfort can be seen within Chloe’s work. Born in Portland, raised in Boston, Chloe has now returned to Maine to pursue her professional career and art practice.

1. Net Work 1 (May 2020), Paper: 24" x 18", Basket: 8" x 7" x 16"; Paper: spray paint, white pen, grey ink, Basket: wool roving, wet and needle felted / Photo: Adam Fowler 2. Net Work 2 (May 2020), Paper: 26" x 20", Basket: 8" x 4" x 6"; Paper: spray paint, grey ink, Basket: wool roving, wet and needle felted / Photo: Adam Fowler 3. Net Work 3 (May 2020), Paper: 30" x 22.5", Basket: 9" x 5" x 15"; Paper: spray paint, black pen, white pen, Basket: low twist wool yarn (hand crocheted) / Photo: Adam Fowler 4. Detail of Net Work 3 (May 2020), 30" x 22.5", spray paint, black pen, white pen / Photo: Adam Fowler

LAURENANDERSON84.WIXSITE.COM/WEBSITE

@POOKSTUDIO_

LAUREN ASHLEE ANDERSON

Ceramics

THESIS STATEMENT

My body of work consists of accumulative sculptures. Through experimentations of red and white earthenware clay as well as mixed materials, I depict organic forms created by the accumulation of small shapes, stitches, and individual pieces. Focusing on installation art, I utilize the floor and walls to represent these organic forms. Every small piece is crafted by my hands, making for a very intimate installation between myself, my pieces, and the space I install my work. Accumulation is imperative in my work because I want my viewer to be completely immersed and captivated in my finished installation by the amount of objects they are viewing. I often create visual overload in a small space.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Lauren Anderson creates installation art through small hand built ceramic and crochet pieces that involve hundreds of stitches and pinches. She constantly challenges the relationship between clay, crocheted yarn, and assorted fabrics to combine with one another harmoniously. She is curious

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about the ideas of contagions and cell mutations. The way cells are seen under a microscope are simply a compilation of tiny patterns. Her work explores the curiosities of what they would look like if the human eye could physically view them.

1. Components detail, 2020, acrylic yarn, felt, earthenware clay, acrylic paint 2. Components detail, 2020, acrylic yarn, felt, earthenware clay, acrylic paint 3. Components, 2020, acrylic yarn, felt, earthenware clay, acrylic paint

HTTPSAJ.WIXSITE.COM/PORTFOLIO

@HTTPS_AJ

APRIL JOY (AJ) AZUTILLO Animation & Game Art THESIS STATEMENT

Animation takes an incredible amount of work and organization, and even more so if it’s just from one person. It is also somehow also sidelined when it comes to being recognized exactly for how much thinking there has to be done before a final product is presented to the public. I hope to have people who aren’t in animation understand how much goes into making an animation happen.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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April Joy (AJ) Azutillo is a Filipino-American animator, illustrator, and sequential artist. She is a self-described one-clown circus act as she loves to explore different storytelling avenues and rendering styles and has a penchant for mixing angst in her otherwise humorous slice-of-life stories. AJ likes to have fun while working and believes that her best pieces were born out of pure, 100% organic, ethically

sourced self-indulgence and brands it as selfdecadence. Her illustrative and sequential work showcased in her portfolio can be described as “pretty cool… laid back… like you can grab a beer with it.” She loves using the word ‘effervescent’ in a specific context and you should totally ask her about it when you first approach her.

1. Storyboard 4-1 (1 of 21), 2019, Digital Illustration 2. Character Sheets “Ideal” Outfits, 2019, Digital Illustration 3. Screencap Scene 2, Shot 16, 2019, Animation Frame 4. Concept Art Color Test, 2019, Digital Illustration 5. Concept Art 1 Romeo, 2019, Digital Illustration 6. Concept Art Mirror Image, 2019, Digital Illustration

BADAMOART2.WIXSITE.COM/MYSITE

@LIZBADAMO.ART

LIZ BADAMO Illustration

THESIS STATEMENT

Home Before Dark is a classic board game, reimagined. It takes ordinary games like Trouble! and adds an illustrated world into it. The game included twelve lovable characters, four animals to choose from, and four fairytale inspired homes. The houses are created from everyday objects like books, teapots and shoes. The objective of the game is to get all your characters home for everyone else, and before the lightning bugs come out to play and it gets too dark out to see. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Liz Badamo is an illustrator from Long Island, with pen and ink. She creates lovable animal New York. She works typically digitally, and characters, as well as silly fun stories.

1. Moose, 2020, Digital 2. Cards, 2020, Digital 3. Ducks, 2020, Digital 4. House #1, 2020, Digital 5. Board, 2020, Digital 6. House #4, 2020, Digital 7. House #3, 2020, Digital

ABALDWIN.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

@AMANDABALDWINART

AMANDA BALDWIN Illustration / Writing THESIS STATEMENT

This is a series of Illustrations featuring female characters from books that are either considered classics or have had a notable cultural impact, in a key or defining moment of their own arc or story. The illustrations derive only from the books themselves and historical context, not from any other adaptations such as film. This series showcases these female characters, who are often secondary even in their own story. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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My name is Amanda Baldwin. I love working both traditionally, specifically with watercolors, as well as digitally. Storytelling is my primary focus, and the work I create examines narratives and the characters that drive them.

My desire is to work in publishing, as well as generate concept art and character design for film, specifically animated projects, therefore creating content that audiences can connect to and learn from.

1. Lady Macbeth, 2020, Watercolor and Digital, 11" x 14" 2. Jo March, 2020, Watercolor and Digital, 11" x 14" 3. Mary Lennox, 2020, Watercolor and Digital, 11" x 14"

4. Lucy Pevensie, 2020, Watercolor and Digital, 11" x 14" 5. Hermione Granger, 2020, Watercolor and Digital, 11" x 14"

SETHBARONART.COM

@ SETHBARONART

SETH BARON Illustration

THESIS STATEMENT

If the board game Monopoly was turned into a movie, these concept paintings are the base of what the settings should look and feel like. The works have also been inspired by the epidemic of COVID-19 and its effects on the one percent. Directly reflecting the unpopulated areas of the world that we generally see immense traffic. The combination of these elements brings a melancholy look into what the origins of Monopoly is actually about.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Creating visual communications with a plethora of software. Living in Portland Maine, Seth is looking forward to starting his Masters

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of Art in Teaching at Maine College of Art. For more information please see sethbaronart.com.

1. Water Works, 2020 2. Luxury Tax, 2020 3. Go To Jail, 2020 4. Free Parking, 2020 5. Reading Railroad, 2020

MATANAHBREZABETKO.COM

@MATANAH.SINGS

MATANAH BREZA BETKO Sculpture / Public Engagement THESIS STATEMENT

It is the way that I play with my objects in private that refines our role for the camera. It is building relationships with my collaborators that fuel our performances. It is the years of emotional and psychological labor I have performed for myself that facilitates the articulation of this essay. While I do not condone pressuring victims into speaking about what pains them, I do in full earnest encourage a relationship with language for its ability to advocate and empower. While I do not make light of tragedy, I do encourage play in the face of pain. My work is first and foremost, for me. I am contributing beauty and wisdom to the world by taking care of myself. Matanah Betko’s performance based practice is an exploration of how intimacy is communicated through the body and affected by socio-political hierarchies, personal histories, biases and assumptions. Often their performances, objects, and installations communicate a rejection of ideas that hold social authority like gender and class. Fascinated by the will to live and a willingness to die, Betko uses nonverbal communication through contact improv and dance, textile printing and construction, bronze and aluminum casting, steel fabrication and forging, soil building and flora to celebrate this life and all the misery and ecstasy included. By distorting the familiar, this work provokes uncertainty and wonder in order to disrupt our understanding of what we think we know about what we see. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Just like everyone else, Matanah Betko is special. They make art about themself to remind everyone of who they are because otherwise we might forget. The most impressive thing about them is their story. Their artwork is “really lovely but just not

what we’re looking for”, and their memoir is worth $4,300. Betko is the oldest of five children and considering a career in law. They had a cult following until the age of eighteen and went to college. Now they’re just like everyone else.

1. We Have Made Many Dreams, 2020, Photograph, 80" x 65" 2. If You Take My Name in Vain, 2020, Photograph, 50" x 65" 3. If You Take This Gift For Granted, 2020, Photograph, 50" x 65" 4. I Will Always Love You, 2020, Photograph, 80" x 55"

JOSEPHINE CHASE

Painting / Art History THESIS STATEMENT

Through painting and curating objects that are unearthed from my own Liberian - American experience, I make spaces of contact in which abandoned or inherited objects are the artifacts of intersectional human identities, exposing complex and interwoven histories of family and self ideation.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Chaseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s studio practice is rooted in concepts as home. Her multimedia work engages in of domesticity and interrogating the discussions about ownership, power, and characteristics of spaces that we designate the reimagination of culture.

1. The Corolla Series, Edition 2 of 3, 2019, Acrylic on Metal 2. The Corolla Series, Edition 1 of 3, 2019, Acrylic on Metal 3. Memory Lane, Edition 1 of 5, 2020, Acrylic on Ceramic 4. Memory Lane, Edition 2 of 5, 2020, Acrylic on Ceramic

KHAYMANCLANCY.COM

@KHAYMANCLANCY

KHAYMAN CLANCY Animation & Game Art / Art & Music THESIS STATEMENT

From the Ashes is a game about love, loss, and moving forward. By taking inspiration from creators such as Tim Burton and LAIKA the purpose of this project was to portray a character based narrative with a serious yet whimsical tone using all of the skills I have acquired during my college career. My goal was to create an experimental game demo featuring stop motion elements to create an aesthetically unique game. In the style of a point and click adventure game you control Dracula just after his wife has died of old age as he moves through his home. Environmental storytelling is used to gather bits and pieces of information about his life and to imply a much larger story to unfold in the future. This demo is meant to be the foundation and pitch for a much larger ambition. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Khayman Clancy is an animator and game artist from New York. He’s currently attending Maine College of Art and will receive his Bachelor’s degree and Music minor in May of 2020. Khayman is a multifaceted artist who experiments with many different mediums and techniques in his work. During his school career he has found a passion for costume design and stop motion fabrication. Khayman has received awards and recognition in MECA’s 1.

2019 Film Festival, Art All Night - Trenton: 7th Annual Film Festival, and 60 Seconds or Less Video Festival for his collaborative stop motion short film Mable and the Wolf. As well as being an artist he is also a talented musician. He composes his own music for his animations and games, as well as for others. His goal for the future is work in the stop motion field as a costume designer or puppet fabricator.

1-2. Dracula Full Size, 2020, Photoshop 3. Dracula Outfit Designs, 2020, Photoshop 4. Dracula Head, 2020, Photoshop 5. Dracula Concept, 2020, Photoshop 6. Dracula Puppet, 2020, Wire/Sculpy/ Silicone/Fabric

@PRINT_JOCK

IAN COLWELL Printmaking

THESIS STATEMENT

While I questioned what artwork would look like without any implements of gender at all - I have come to the conclusion that gender is a performance in which you construct your own values and culture outside of a heteronormative binary. I present as a character of masculine nature, however, my physical appearance does not match my internal experiences. Through printmaking, I explore these values that live within the human condition, and the forms I construct to serve as a visual placeholder for these performances that operate outside of gender. Instead of conforming to a binary of male or female, I value and celebrate emotions in my practice, as well as desires, anxieties, relationships, fears, and strengths that human beings are capable of.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Ian Colwell is currently based in Portland Maine, attending Maine College of Art to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking in May of 2020. Presenting a hybrid practice utilizing elements of sculpture and painting, all rooted together into a foundation of

printmaking. Ian Colwell constructs printbased sculptures that intuitively explore themes of queerness, failure, masculinity, performance, gender, and the selfconstructed identity.

1. “Act I (1.1)” 2019, Silkscreen and Graphite on Paper, 14" x 18" 2. “Act I (1.9)” 2019, Silkscreen and Graphite on Paper, 14" x 18" 3. “Act I (1.11)” 2019, Silkscreen and Graphite on Paper, 14" x 18" 4. “Untitled” 2020, Monotype on Paper, 22" x 30"

5. “Self Portrait in the Light” 2020, Monotype on Paper mounted on Wooden Frame, 32" x 68"

CFLORENTIUM.COM

FLORENCE CROWE Sculpture

THESIS STATEMENT

The unicorn is a symbol which encompasses many different concepts across equally as many contexts; it is a symbol of uniqueness, freedom, harmony, and power. It is a mythical creature, thus linking it to the realms of myth and paganism. Simultaneously, the unicorn is a symbol of the queer community, due to both its aforementioned symbolic meaning, and due to its mythical status, as there are those who would argue the existence of either. My thesis work focuses on the symbolism of the unicorn as it appears in the Unicorn in Captivity tapestry, as viewed through a queer-pagan lens. The unicorn in the tapestry is depicted lying in a garden, tethered by a golden chain to a pomegranate tree, in an enclosure which would send animal rights activists into a rage. However, the chain is thin and could easily be broken, and the unicorn could clear the fence without hardly lifting a hoof. Yet it chooses to remain in the garden, in spite of its less-than-ideal situation; not only is the unicorn being held against its will, but the garden is full of plants and animals which symbolize cis-hetero-normative notions of fertility, and those which are known to have anti-venomous properties or which drive away serpents (snakes having long represented paganism, in which they represent ancient knowledge). Why, if escape would be so simple, does the unicorn remain in this garden? In the previous tapestries in the Hunt of the Unicorn set, the unicorn is depicted being hunted by men with spears and dogs, finally being captured (and, possibly, killed). Though the garden is not an ideal habitat for the unicorn, it represents, to some degree, safety; at least here, the unicorn is no longer being hunted for its very nature. If the unicorn were to break free, the hunt would resume. Though it is imprisoned in the garden, it is safe. Though it is free in the wilderness, it is hunted. The unicorn chooses to suppress its own nature to preserve the illusion of safety granted to it by its compliance to the environment created by its captors. Costuming and masks hold origin in pagan rites and rituals. A mask or a costume signifies transformation, be it transformation into something else or into oneself. My thesis work is a rite towards my ongoing metamorphosis into the truest version of myself. Through creating and wearing this mask, I choose my own freedom over a falsely perceived notion of safety.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Florence R. Crowe is an artist, writer, musician, handcrafting process allows them time for and gardener who grew up in the middle of the reflection upon whatever it is they are making. They are coming to view their creative practice Maine woods. Their work, which spans many as something which is not able to be separated different media, centers upon the intersection from the other aspects of their life; every facet between the worlds of humanity, myth, and nature. As a principle, Florence employs methods informs the others, and none holds primacy. of handcraft in their work; making is a meditative That said, they are looking forward to spending much more time gardening. act for them, and the slowness of the

1-4. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Unicornâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, 2020, wool, wire, ribbon, bells, 23" x 15" x 6"

4. 2.

ALEJANDRACUADRA.COM

@ACUADRA24

ALEJANDRA CUADRA Sculpture / Public Engagement THESIS STATEMENT

When my grandmother turned eighty years old, she embarked on the pilgrimage to see La Virgen de Guadalupe in Mexico City, this was the same day my mom went to a United States embassy in Brazil for the fourth time to get her visa with the hopes of returning here. This current body of work reflects how I am seeking to redefine my own freedoms, identity, home, and belonging. I am inspired by memories that once were and are now being created. I am allowing intuition and freedom to lead in the pursuit of discovery. Through my sensibility within the places I dwell, I am revisiting the narratives of my upbringing and my family’s own journeys. I am threading narratives, memories, beliefs, home, hope, and passages, seeking to redefine my ways of belonging. In the words of Bell Hooks all aspects of life have “revealed to me that the treasures I was seeking were already mine. All my longing to belong, to find a culture of place, ...waiting for me to remember and to reclaim.” This series is evolving, I am not rushing this moment or experience, I am meditating with the intimacies. This is where I stand even with the uncertainties of life. I am reclaiming and redefining my own sense of belonging and freedoms while paying homage to the roots and passages of those closest to me. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Within the roots of humanity lies the foundation of connectivity, hope, and love. Within the roots of Alejandra Cuadra lies vulnerability and resiliency. Alejandra is a persistent and sensitive Human, Maker, Dreamer, and Believer. Her roots are grounded in her homeland Peru and the United States where she currently dwells. Within her studio and social practices she seeks ways of creating space where there is a meditation with human connectivity and experiences through the reclaiming of physical, mental, and spiritual freedoms and spaces. Alejandra threads components immigration,

displacement, belonging, culture, rituals, traditions, and memories. Being transplanted from her homeland she seeks to never forget where she came from while reclaiming her bellowing within the places she dwells. She processes the world through the rituals of making that can involve installations, fabrication, video, re-appropriated objects, sound, intuition and a desire for freedom. Through creativity she has gained hope, a place of belonging and a voice. She seeks ways to discover connectivity and empathy that can transcend walls and barriers through creativity, communication, collaboration, and community.

1. They Stand Tall, 2020, Steel, earth, seeds of paper, weight of uncertainty, longing for breath, rituals of making, Installation. 2. Encapsulating Memories, 2020, red roses, glue, memories that once were, encapsulating of thoughts, (5) 3" x 3" x 2" 3. Know…., 2020, mixed media, paper, colored pencils, thoughts of words, 7" x 9" 4. Estoy Aqui, 2020, mixed media, paper, thread, thoughts of words, 7.5" x 4.75"

HANNAHDAY.ME

@HSDAY.ART

HANNAH DAY Painting

THESIS STATEMENT

My creative practice serves as a means to navigate a space that exists at the crossroads of my natural environment, memories and emotional state. I am interested in how spending time with memories has the potential to shift the account being recalled, which can in turn transform the emotional response experienced. Immersion in natural sites, often on the coast of Maine, heavily influences my work. Overgrown weeds, wild flowers, thistles and abandoned mills act as relics left to decompose in the salty air and unpredictable weather. These images and textures extend beyond the first impression and offer contradictions. They are hope and uncertainty, they are a malicious dream-like state and concrete reality. To me, they are lost memories waiting to be uncovered. I layer paint and collected materials with the intention of then scraping or rubbing the layers away. I utilize this method as a means to cope with change, as well as to initiate it. A conversation takes place between my internal world, emotions and memories and what lies beneath the surface of the exterior layer. My work invites viewers to revisit, reimagine, and rediscover their own memories, feelings, and the world around them. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Hannah Day (b.1997) is currently based in Portland, ME. She grew up on the coast of Maine, spending most of her time on the water, living aboard boats. She summered on a small island where she fished for her food and woke up to the noise of seagulls and diesel lobster boats at the crack of dawn. From a young age she cultivated a deep attachment to the ocean, where she found familiarity and comfort. Day is primarily known for her abstract landscape paintings, and utilizes additive/ reductive processes and collections of natural materials in her method of working. Her practice is entangled with dualities: abstraction and figuration, consciousness and unconsciousness, violence and serenity, industrial and organic, and decay and reparation. Day thinks of painting as an act of healing where she is

permitted to navigate thoughts and hard truths on a personal and societal level. From 2015 to 2017, Hannah Day attended San Francisco Art Institute where she studied environmental philosophy and studio art. Hannah continued her education at Maine College of Art where she received a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2020. Hannah Day received the Winslow Homer Endowed Scholar Award for excellence in painting in 2019, and the MECA Presidential Scholarship 2020. She has worked as an Art Handler at the Institute of Contemporary Art, located in Portland, Maine and at the San Francisco Art Institute. Recent exhibitions include: Nurture in Nature, at Zand Head Gallery 2018, (Portland, Maine) and Sediment, at Friedman Gallery, 2019 (Portland, Maine).

1. Apocalyptic Sublime, Oil on panel, 30" x 40", Portland, Maine, 2020 2. Reparation, Oil, rust and plastic on panel, 18" x 24", Portland, Maine, 2019 3. Red Tide Installation, Oil stick on Muslin (hung with gold kill hooks), Installation View, Portland, Maine, 2019 4. Rising Tide, Watercolor on paper, 9" x 7.5", Portland, Maine, 2019 5. Sea Saw Table with Collected Pigments Brewed with Sea Water, Cliff Island, Maine, 2019 6. Site 58, Oil on canvas, 30" x 40", Portland, Maine, 2019

MIKAYLADENNISON.COM

@MIKADENN_

MIKAYLA DENNISON Metalsmithing & Jewelry THESIS STATEMENT

What are the tools, both physical objects and metaphysically, that humans use for coping, moving through the world, and connecting with others? I believe human interaction creates empathy. Empathy fosters understanding, and with understanding comes meaning. By abstracting traditional silversmithing techniques, I create metal objects that foster unorthodox human interactions. My work provides moments of human empathy by activating an experience of vulnerable intercommunication led by my handmade object placed between two or more people. The objects, made for the table, hand, or body, are inspired by familiar objects that we might use in day-to-day life. Drawing from notions of persona, shadow, and what connects humans to one another, I aim to push ideas of object functionality through uses of play and performance.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Mikayla Dennison is currently awaiting a BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry from Maine College of Art in 2020. Dennison also earned a BA in Expressive Arts from Burlington College in 2016, where she studied psychology, art therapy, and

studio arts. Now, making metal objects that facilitate unconventional human interaction, Mikayla is dedicated to an expressive craft practice that highlights aspects of identity and the human experience.

1. Silly Straw 2.0, 2019, Copper, Brass, Powder coat 2. Silly Straw 2.0 (in use), 2019, Digital image 3. Sharing Straw, 2019, 9" x 7" x 1.5", Sterling Silver 4. Lost Connection, 2020, Prop: Regulated 6" length, copper, brass, Digital Image, Isolation void

5. I Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Hear Myself, 2020, Prop: 16" x 8", hand fabricated copper cone, Digital image, Isolation void 6. Sharing Straw (in use), 2019, Digital image

@THELONELYNATION

TIADOERING.COM

TIA DOERING Photography

THESIS STATEMENT

“There’s Something In The Garden” focuses primarily on developing a feeling of the uncanny in order to express my personal fears about the future. I feel a lack of control over my future that is overwhelming. My view of what is ahead is clouded and full of uncertainty. We are all in an endless struggle against time, a battle that cannot be won. In order to show this, I wander my surroundings looking for landscapes and objects that manifest feelings of decay and abandonment. My images confront the viewer with an unsettling look into the processes of rot and time. By making beautiful images of deterioration, they simultaneously repulse and attract, drawing the viewer in and creating an experiential exchange between the beauty of the print and the disturbing subject.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Tia Doering earned her BFA in Photography at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine in May 2020. She works primarily in black and white, using a 4x5 view camera to capture constructed still lifes and landscapes. She is influenced by contemporary vanitas

photography and artists such as Tereza Zelenkova and Ralph Eugene Meatyard. As a photographer, she uses the relationship between repulsion and attraction to create a sense of the uncanny in her work.

1. “Untitled 1”, 2019, Silver Gelatin Print 8" x 10" 2. “Untitled 2”, 2020, Silver Gelatin Print, 11" x 14" 3. “Unitled 7”, 2019, Silver Gelatin Print, 11" x 14" 4. “Untitled 4”, 2020, Silver Gelatin Print, 11" x 14" 5. “There’s Something In The Garden”, 2019, Silver Gelatin Print, 11" x 14" 6. “Hanged Bird”, 2020, Silver Gelatin Print, 11" x 14"

JECHEVARRIA29.WIXSITE.COM/JE-ILLUSTRATIONS

@SWEETSATEEN

JASMINE ECHEVARRIA Illustration THESIS STATEMENT

We have celebrated the changing of the seasons for centuries and there are so many religions that celebrate it in their own respected ways. The four seasons we experience on earth are all characters in their own right. They give us different weather patterns and phenomena, different trees, flora, fauna, they shorten and lengthen our days and nights. We celebrate and give thanks. For my thesis, I wanted to explore what these seasons would look like — as cosmic horror entities. Cosmic Horror is a genre created by H.P Lovecraft, in which he sets his characters against unknown forces from another realm. With the influence of Lovecraft’s eldritch horrors, these designs also take inspiration from the monstrous feminine, which is a reference to the interpretation in horror movies conceptualizing women as victims. The idea of being a woman is to be feared, to know fear. To hold the two simultaneously within yourself, to know that the body, by the sheer fact of its existence, will be terrified by the society that claims to be terrorized by it; that the patriarchy deems women’s bodies so awful, so monstrous, that it seeks to limit and control their power. These designs reflect the beauty and the ugly, of the female form. Those aspects of our body that society rejects and tries to control. These concepts culminate in a narrative in which these are found documents that were created by a traveling journalist who comes across these entities and documents their existence. But the core inspiration for making the entities female presenting is because of the Triple Goddess, which is a Wiccan figure that represents the three stages of a woman’s life— the maiden, the mother, and the crone. The seasons also reflect which aspect of the goddess is prominent— spring belonging to the maiden, summer for the mother, fall for the crone, and during the winter, the goddess returns to mother, in which she is pregnant and will give birth to the sun god, who brings around spring. I want to celebrate the idea of the beauty and the struggles of being a woman. Representing this concept as powerful entities, that are both revered and feared for all that they symbolize. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

I am Jasmine Echevarria, Connecticut born artist that had wild fantasies of becoming an amazing artist. Those dreams have turned into a desire to become a concept artist for video games, comic books and other interactive platforms. The most common themes within my work include occultism and religion. Being raised Catholic, I take the biblical teachings I learned and twist them into my style. Pairing such imagery with mediums such as ink,

watercolors, acrylic and more. I also paint digitally, being my most preferred method when traveling. Art has been the most important aspect of my life, perhaps being the one thing I have always been good at. It is the outlet that keeps me sane in this hectic world and creating content that can relate to others is what I hope to achieve someday.

1. Eostare, 2020, Watercolors and sea salt, 12" x 16" 2. Litha, 2020, Watercolors, 12" x 16" 3. Yule, 2020, Watercolors, Ink, Sea Salt, 12" x 16" 4. Mabon, 2020, Watercolors, 12" x 16"

ANNFINKEL.COM

@ANNIEFINKEL

ABC

ANN FINKEL Graphic Design

THESIS STATEMENT

Slow fashion is a movement fostering change in the fashion industry towards greater ecological integrity and social good. It is a multi-faceted topic, but broken down to its most basic form means considering the following pillars: 1. Ethical practices of recycling and consideration for waste 2. Putting a wedge in fast fashion and ending mass consumption 3. Garment care, repair, and life cycles 4. Consideration for sustainable materials and resources and 5. Empathetic design and making. In my thesis work I explored activity theory through the making of five garments, pairing one sustainable pillar with each. While making, I considered the garments as a whole and created a brand and brand elements to pair with the collection. This collection not only embodies sustainability, but also is a reflection of my research on activity theory. I chose activity theory as a framework through which I learned to make garments and understand sustainable fashion at its core.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Ann Finkel is a graphic designer and maker interested in human beingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;their connections, emotions, and relationship with the objects they surround themselves with. She has wide range of experience spanning multiple mediums, and considers play and process at the forefront of good design. Ann

is interested in UX/UI design, design research, sustainable fashion, and ethical lifestyle. She considers design a vessel for human interaction and this feeds her work and process. Whenever possible, Ann employs ideas of sustainability and ethical lifestyle into all facets of her work.

1. Garment Explainer Cards, 2020. 2. Clothing Master Sheet, 2020. 3. Sustain Line, 2020, Natural fibers including: cotton, linen, bull denim, and gauze. 4. Sustain Brand, 2020.

ADAMELLISFOWLER.COM

@ADAMELLISFOWLER

ADAM FOWLER

Photography / Art History THESIS STATEMENT

This current body of work is an act in distortion, destruction, and reassembly. The way in which one understands the world is largely formulated through the way in which one observes the world. By constructing and fabricating images through light and space I counteract this function of vision. Is a space, an idea or an image real if one is to distort or manipulate it? Through this distortion does it become something new? The function of the camera is to observe, capture, and control using light and time. Taking these formal properties and using them to make constructed photographs I am challenging the truthful and documentative nature of the camera. I want to learn how an individual may perceive an image without context, and furthermore how the falsification of an image’s content may challenge these visual perceptions. My photographs facilitate investigation and examination. Redefining the “document” as a mutable and movable thing causes a shift or a change for the role of the camera. Contrasting the constructed image with the forensic document I make photographs that split the difference between reality and construction, truth and fiction.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Adam Fowler achieved his BFA in photography with a minor in Art History at Maine College of Art in 2020. Working alongside artists at the school, as well as local galleries and photo collectives, Adam has built a strong connection to the fine art photography community in Portland Maine. Through these experiences, he has gained a knowledgeable understanding of critique, curation, and installation of shows and openings. Adam is interested in implied

narrativity and ambiguity in the still image, investigating themes of fact versus fiction and an image’s construction in the realm of representation. Adam works to understand how connections are made from image to image, and build upon a cohesive and independent language within his body of work. Adam was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1998 and currently works and lives in Portland, Maine.

1. supplement for no. 7, 2020, 26 Digital Inkjet Prints, 3" x 3" each 2. supplement for no. 1, 2020, 26 Digital Inkjet Prints, 3" x 3" each 3. no. 6, 2020, Digital Inkjet Print, 40" x 30" 4. no. 7, 2020, Digital Inkjet Print, 40" x 30" 5. no. 2, 2020, Digital Inkjet Print, 40" x 30"

KATEGARDINERART.COM

@KATEGARDINERILLUSTRATION

KATE GARDINER Illustration THESIS STATEMENT

A series of illustrations based on my grandfather’s travels in 1953, accompanied with short snippets of his letters sent back home.

ARTWORK

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Kate Gardiner grew up in rural Connecticut. She comes from a diverse family tree, growing up within the Native community as a member of the Chaubunagungamaug band of Nipmuck Indians while also experiencing the traditions that come with first generation Polish Americans. Her artwork is inspired by her childhood and the sparks of imagination often lost within the development from child to adult. Kate Gardiner is a recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, such as The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Albert K. Murray Grant, and Outstanding

2d Artwork in the Maine College of Art Merit Show. She has been employed at the Institute of Contemporary Art located in Portland, Maine for three years as an exhibitions ambassador. During her junior year, she studied abroad at the Studio Arts College International, located in Florence, Italy. Recently, she has begun an internship with the Illustration Institute located in Portland, Maine and has assisted in co-curating an illustration exhibition for the upcoming fall. Her goal as an artist is to illustrate and publish her own children’s books.

1. Postcards, 1953 2. Clam Digger, 2020, gouache and collage, 13” x 13” 3. Sailboat festival, 2020, gouache and collage, 13” x 13“ 4. Painter in Hyde Park, 2020, gouache, 11” x 13”

ALAURAGONZALEZ.COM

@ALAURA.GONZALEZ

ALAURA GONZALEZ Textile & Fashion Design

THESIS STATEMENT

I have designed a collection inspired by alebrijes, the hispanic word for spirit guides, to explore the personal disconnect in my family and ethnic culture by using costume as a means of expression. I am exploring what it means to be removed from traditions, culture and ethnicity while trying to find a secure identity. Having a whimsical, magical collection walk down the runway brings myself relief from the stress of identity and culture that todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world demands. Alebrijes can be whatever you want them to be, they are there for you, to help you and guide you.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Alaura Gonzalez is a fashion and costume designer from upstate New York. Studying at Maine College of Art, Gonzalez has majored in Textiles and Fashion. Gonzalez is inspired by helping members of the costume communities fight internal struggles and

gain confidence. She has participated in the 2019 Haystack Crafts Conference and an internship with a private indie filming company. Gonzalez plans on designing and working toward her next collection.

1. Otter, 2020, Sports knit fabric, UV fabric paint, Screen printing ink, Neon Puffy fabric paint / Model Credit: Houston Gonzalez 2. Poncho, 2020, Faux fur, Fabric mesh, Suiting cotton fabric, UV fabric paint, Screen printing ink, Fabric scraps, Velvet / Model Credit: Noah Gonzalez 3. Otter, 2020, Sports knit fabric, UV fabric paint, Screen printing ink, Neon puffy fabric paint / Model Credit: Houston Gonzalez 4. Otter, 2020, Faux Fur, Sports knit fabric, UV fabric paint, Screen printing ink, Neon puffy fabric paint, Polyester fabric / Model Credit: Houston Gonzalez 5. Poncho, 2020, Faux fur, Fabric mesh, Suiting cotton fabric, UV fabric paint, Screen printing ink, Fabric scraps, Velvet / Model Credit: Noah Gonzalez

6. Otter, 2020, Sports knit fabric, UV fabric paint, Screen printing ink, Neon puffy fabric paint / Model Credit: Houston Gonzalez

DAIGOODRICH.WIXSITE.COM

@DAIGOODRICHILLUSTRATION

DAI GOODRICH Illustration THESIS STATEMENT

“Maine Inspired Flora and Fauna Creatures” is a series influenced by native plant and animal species in Maine. Growing up in the state of Maine made me want to pay homage to the nature and wildlife that surrounded me.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Daina Goodrich is an artist from Standish, working in various mediums, such as Maine. Doing art at a young age helped find watercolor, ink, gouache, and digital art her passion within illustration. She enjoys in a whimsical and expressive style.

1. American Bull Frog, 2020, Watercolor and Ink, 7" x 7.5" 2. Loon, 2020, Watercolor and Ink, 9" x 12" 3. Lupine, 2020, Watercolor and Ink, 9" x 12" 4. Agaric Mushroom, 2020, Watercolor and Ink, 7" x 7.5" 5. Red Fox, 2020, Watercolor and Ink, 9" x 12" 6. Moose, 2020, Watercolor and Ink, 9" x 12"

GOSTASTUDIOS.COM

@HIPSTERPANDAS

CANDICE GOSTA Painting

THESIS STATEMENT

When sex is no longer pleasurable, and the validation you once felt from online dating comes to a halt — will you finally confront your traumas head-first? My work is an ode to the body that was once a victim of domestic violence and sexual abuse — which is violent or aggressive behavior within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner. We do not owe our bodies to anyone; our personal boundaries do not have to suffer for any means of sexual gratification. Our triggers can take on many forms — feeling invasive to our safe spaces — prolonging the process of healing.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Candice Gosta is an artist whose paintings and installations explore how domestic violence has affected their perception of the “home,” or intimate spaces. Gosta describes her process parallel to that of making a film: “I cut, copy, edit, collage, and paste together images, video, and audio to build large

scale installations that allow the audience to step into the scene and assume the roles of the figures from my work.” In doing so, viewers can become more than an observer — they are now reliving Gosta’s experience through their own eyes.

1. Untitled, 2020, Charcoal and Graphite on Canvas 2. Untitled, 2020, Charcoal and Graphite on Canvas 3. Untitled, 2020, Charcoal and Graphite on Canvas, 8ft x 8 ft

WILLIAMVGRACE.SQUARESPACE.COM

WILLIAM V GRACE Painting

THESIS STATEMENT

While I have been inspired by many different art movements during my early life, my work is more specifically connected to the art movements from the end of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. The Post-Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism movements have most influenced my work. Post-Impressionism has influenced my color usage, application of paint, subject matter choices, the depiction of forms, and expressive effects. Abstract Expressionism currently has the strongest influence on my work, in scale, influences, and making. The overlapping characteristics of Post-Impressionism, and Abstract Expressionism, have clear connections with the color, subject matter, influences, making, and process, in my art.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

William was adopted by American parents when he was 8 ½ months old. Being adopted and moving to New York City gave William a world of opportunities from his new life. William spent the majority of his early life in NYC, however, during the second semester of high school he went to boarding school in Winchendon, Massachusetts. After graduating from high school, William returned home and attended a liberal arts college in the New York area. After his freshman year, he decided to take a gap year. William decided to start pursuing art as his main focus and in 2015, he was admitted to the Maine College of Art (MECA). While growing up, William was always fascinated with the works of Vincent Van Gogh and his general style of work. But art

wasn’t a constant in his life. As late as 5th grade, the art class wasn’t even part of his schedule. His main exposure to art as a young child came from doing art with his aunt. Before William began pursuing art in college, he had very few experiences with art. However, William used his intuition and imagination to explore the unknown. Most of the art pieces he creates today come from his imagination, or from ordinary objects that have interesting qualities, such as its form or color. Being more drawn to oil paintings and printmaking by creating more abstract work with the style of postimpressionist and abstract expressionism art. William is creating acrylic paintings on bedsheets and exploring water-based mediums like ink, watercolors, markers, and gouache.

1. Untitled, 2019, acrylic paint, 107.75 inches x 100 inches 2. Untitled, 2018, oil paint and paint media, 9 inch diameter 3. Untitled, 2019, oil paint and paint media, 46 inches x 48 inches 4. Untitled, 2019, mixed media (watercolor, ink, graphite, and watersoluble graphite), 22 inches x 30 inches 5. Untitled, 2019, screen print, 6 inches x 12 inches

BENGRIGNON.COM

@EQUIIBENJI

BENJI GRIGNON Painting

THESIS STATEMENT

Isaiah 44:10-11 says, “Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing? People who do that will be put to shame; such craftsmen are only human beings. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and shame.” Painting as an act of devotion, Grignon uses reverence to devote himself to the horse entirely. By enacting devout worship, He points a crooked finger at the Preacher’s trick, and ridicules them by a voice once their own. His brazen act of idolatry fixates on control to surrogate his experience of religion, and radical christianity.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Benji Grignon was born in 1999 in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is in pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Maine College of Art, and currently lives and works in Portland, Maine.

1. faithful man, 2020, oil on canvas, 48" x 60"

2. gentleness, 2020, oil on wood, beaver skin, nails, 8" x 30"

ALEXANDERATGROSS.COM

@GROSSERY_SHOPPING

ALEXANDER A. T. GROSS Woodworking & Furniture Design THESIS STATEMENT

As I grow I am learning that as Americans we have commodified the rocket ship, along with all of its symbolism. Without realizing, we often take for granted the benefits of communications satellites through consuming digital media, heedless of the machines that make it possible. I am interested in how our culture has transformed the role of rockets in society in the same way as automobiles or mass-market furniture. Modern science is driven by hope and truth, but it is also built on industry. During the time of the Apollo missions, building rockets became an unstoppable source of American pride and commerce. Today we are experiencing a world-wide push to venture further out into space as the commercial market for digital technologies expands, and commercial space agencies take contracts formally fulfilled by NASA. Each year it becomes cheaper to lift ever smaller, technology packed satellites into orbit despite growing anxiety about climate change. At the same pace, our dependence on satellite-based technology grows. I am processing my own childhood hopes for technological marvels by remaking iconic vehicles from wood. I make my work because I continue to be puzzled by our renewed efforts to go to space while our planet is burning. And yet, during a global pandemic, I still canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look away. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Alexander Gross is a Portland based artist graduating from Maine College of Art with a BFA degree in Woodworking and Furniture Design. Originally trained as a photographer and filmmaker in New York City, Alex is interested in relationships between technology and woodworking. Remaking space objects cures frustration with intangibility, class, and an expectation for a more hopeful future. Using coopering

and mitering techniques, Alex creates scale models of rockets, rovers, and interstellar objects. Walnut, cherry, and maple replace metal surfaces, and recycled camera parts mimic the instruments used in scientific research. Redefining the physical world in the digital, and vice versa, Alexâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sculptural woodwork interrogates our faith in high technology on a dying planet.

1. Saturn V, 2019, Cherry, 17.5" x 17.5" x 68" 2. Curiosity (detail), 2019, Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Mamiya SLR Lens, 33.5" x 8.5" x 33.75" 3. Moon Base, 2019, Pine, Walnut, 53" x 20" x 20" 4. Curiosity (detail), 2019, Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Mamiya SLR Lens, 33.5" x 8.5" x 33.75" 5. Starhopper Lamp, 2019, Mahogany, 20" x 20" x 18"

@KATIE.HAMBURGER

KATHERINE HAMBURGER

Illustration THESIS STATEMENT

Through this thesis I plan to go outside my comfort zone and create something that won’t simply focus on fantasy but attach real world history to its roots. I want to give my audience an array of narrative illustrations based off my original concept, which was to create a graphic novel that would teach us about some of our oldest ancestry, and have them remain true to the culture and lifestyle during that time period. This thesis concept will be set during ancient Greek times and follow a young male protagonist on his journey as he lives a nomadic existence traveling around Greece. On his travels he will encounter a live Chimera, which in Greek mythology was said to be a fire-breathing beast fused with the bodies of a lion, goat, and snake. This may be the description given to this mythological beast in our history books but what if these depictions were wrong and not only that, but what if these myths were real? If we are presented with stories we learn in history class and never question how they came to be, are we truly learning how not to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors? This thesis will bring to light a whole new perspective on why one should not judge a book by its cover.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Greetings! My name is Katherine Hamburger. I am a nature enthusiast and artist which prompted me to raise two adorable parrots and use nature as inspiration. I produce work that has a voice through its character, charm and willingness to please the eye. My artistic passion comes from growing up in a creative environment with my family. I practice my craft to inspire change and an understanding

of vulnerability in ourselves and our environment. Whatever the outcome my artistic endeavors spark, I will continue to pursue my work throughout my creative journey. “Passion is an elusive presence that hides behind the pressure we put on ourselves everyday. Don’t let your inner critic keep you from your own pursuit of happiness.”

1. Vagabond, 2020, Digital Media, Collage, and Graphite, 9" x 12" 2. The Arena, 2020, Digital Media, Collage, and Graphite, 9" x 12" 3. First Encounter, 2020, Digital Media, Collage, and Graphite, 9" x 12" 4. Vagabonds, 2020, Digital Media, Collage, and Graphite, 9" x 12" 5. The Discovery, 2020, Digital Media, Collage, and Graphite, 9" x 12"

BRIAHUGHES.CO

@BRIAHUGHES.CO

ABC

BRIA HUGHES Graphic Design

THESIS STATEMENT

Throughout our childhood, we establish connections. We construct associations between ideas, places, and people in order to make sense of our environments. These associations can be thought of as a multimodal sensory input where we are perceiving our landscape through more than one of the senses. In certain cases, this mingling of the senses causes a bodily reaction. My thesis analyzes Chromesthesia, a form of multimodal processing where color is involuntarily seen when sound is heard. Through interactive and digital media I consider how to make a viewer feel engaged and immersed in a highly visual environment that brings this experience to life.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Bria Hughes is an award-winning designer and recent Maine College of Art graduate, by way of Portland, ME. Her design work is manifested through experimentation, observation, and research. Her major interests lie within brand development, print material, and interactive media. She has worked with The VIA Agency

ARTWORK

as an Art Direction Intern and Woods Creative LLC as a graphic design intern. If you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find her in the studio chances are sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s climbing mountains, learning to longboard, or having a picnic and watching the sunset with her closest friends.

1. Colorscape Logo, 2020 2. Colorscape VR Screenshot 1, 2020 3. Colorscape VR Screenshot 2, 2020 4. Playtronica Demo, 2020 5. Colorscape App Screens, 2020

@DICK_BUTTERY

ANDREW JACKSON Photography

THESIS STATEMENT

This work acts to represent the qualities found within suburban life in the North East. The images look to dissect and discuss experiences, and to give new context to stories of the area. Through the subjects and imagery I have chosen to provide I look to talk about the presence of religion, aggression, the experience of the young white male, and identity within this setting.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Andrew Jackson is an artist who uses photography to discuss ongoing experiences intertwined with contemporary ideas. He frequently works with areas involving identity, masculinity, anxiety, aggression, and the release of energy. The photographs he creates rely on loose narrative

and storytelling. Using an offhand flash has become second nature and an increasingly important role to the creation of the works as well. Currently working digitally and living in Portland, Maine.

1. Untitled, 2020, Inkjet Print 2. Untitled, 2020, Inkjet Print 3. Untitled, 2020, Inkjet Print 4. Untitled, 2020, Inkjet Print 5. Untitled, 2019, Inkjet Print 6. Untitled, 2020, Inkjet Print

CADEJARVIS.COM

@ARTAHMESS

CADE JARVIS Painting

THESIS STATEMENT

As most of my work has been really flat, the optical illusion of space has slowly taken over. The addition of illusionistic space helps to create worlds based around the grids I create. It has also included a new method of idea-building as I have found more interest through finding found grids in the world and altering the images taken to create these new spaces. Which are then translated back into my painting process. My work is created with the intent to cause its viewersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; eyes to see new perspectives, whether that be through pictorial depth or interacting with the environmental space. I use the image of a grid as a subject which I can alter to form depth and that act as optical illusions in which you are able to perceive the gridded shapes as launching out of the surface, and also pushing inwards which causes a depth to emerge. The outcome of each work is undecided until it feels complete. I am still experimenting with lots of ideas and creating different works that connect with one another through this use of a grid. This is in the hope of understanding myself more as an artist, but more importantly, understanding why I create.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Cade Jarvis is an artist from Maine, who now resides in Portland. He is studying at Maine College of Art to gain a BFA in Painting. Cadeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is a multidisciplinary practice where he is ready to paint with all kinds of mediums and build paintings for certain projects. He has

ARTWORK

always been inspired by the Modernists and the Minimalists and pays homage to them through his use of hard edges and with the use of the grid, making this his signature look.

1. Stained Window 2, Acrylic on Panel, 12" x 12" 2. Stained Window 1, Acrylic on Panel, 12" x 12" 3. Stained Window 3, Acrylic on Panel, 10" x 20"

GKIELTY3.WIXSITE.COM/WEBSITE

EMMA KIELTY Sculpture

THESIS STATEMENT

Emma Kielty’s practice primarily focuses on environment semiotics and their relation to the human figure. She creates worlds which reflect, challenge, and liberate the characters existing within them. She addresses these same topics in the people existing in our own world. Her work ranges from conceptual sculpture to theatre set design. She doesn’t treat these two areas of focus as binary. Rather she amalgamates the two, keeping them inseparable.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Emma Kielty is an interdisciplinary artist originating from Dartmouth, Massachusetts who earned her BFA in Sculpture at Maine College of Art in Portland. She has interned in props and scenery for the theatre

ARTWORK

company Theatre at Monmouth and has worked as a set and props designer for Madhorse Theatre Company. She has also had her work exhibited at New Systems Exhibitions in Portland, Maine.

1. You Got Older Set Detail, 2020, mixed media, 12’ by 12’ 2. You Got Older Set, 2020, mixed media, 12’ by 12’ 3. You Got Older Set Detail, 2020, mixed media, 12’ by 12’

4. You Got Older Set Detail, 2020, mixed media, 12’ by 12’ 5. You Got Older Set Detail, 2020, mixed media, 12’ by 12’

SCLAPPIN.COM

@PETITELAPPIN

SADIE LAPPIN Illustration

THESIS STATEMENT

“Nothing of him that doth fade/but doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange.” -- Ariel’s song from “The Tempest”, Act I scene ii My thesis is a series of illustrations for William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, using text from both the play and E. Nesbit’s “The Children’s Shakespeare” (1900). The illustrations embrace the meta-theatrical aspects of the play, as well as its themes around leaving, returning to, and creating a home. The troupe of players in my illustrations and the stages and sets around them are all drawn from my hometown of Plainfield, New Hampshire, the village of Meriden within it, and its historical connection to the neighboring Cornish Arts Colony. Plainfield has a rich history of theater, including a hand-painted stage set in the town hall created by Maxfield Parrish. This appreciation for theater transcends time, and my use of both local historical figures as well as the people I grew up knowing as models for the players is a nod to this. The subject was initially chosen as a way of saying goodbye, and dealing with my sense of placelessness as I prepared to graduate with no intention of ever living in Meriden again. These illustrations have undergone several sea-changes as I explored the history of the town, fell down some unexpected rabbit holes, and eventually, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had to return to my childhood home.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Sadie Lappin is an illustrator from Meriden, New Hampshire. She uses a variety of media in her work, including gouache, collage, digital painting, filmmaking, and found objects. She has a preference for working in pen and ink. She has had a lifelong interest in history and archaeology, and often incorporates historical events and folklore into her work.

In her free time, Sadie enjoys cooking, roller-skating, and falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes. She lives with her cat, Peach, who refuses to go on walks with her.

1. Prologue, A Ghost Light, 2020, India ink on Bristol paper, 5" x 7" 2. Dramatis Personae, 2020, India ink on Bristol paper, 10" x 14" 3. Act I: They gave themselves up for lost, 2020, India ink on Bristol paper, 10" x 14" 4. Act I: Ferdinand followed the music to shore, 2020, India ink on Bristol paper, 10" x 14"

EMMAMALBON.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

@COWFOOL

EMMA MALBON Animation & Game Art

THESIS STATEMENT

For my capstone, I have animated a five minute pilot episode of my cartoon, Chaps and Tumbleweed. Chaps and Tumbleweed initially started out as doodles on my classwork. I didn’t think much of it then, but I quickly fell in love with the tall and stoic character versus the short and energetic character. Tumbleweed is a caricature of the classic outlaw type typically seen in western media; aggressive and a little dimwitted. Needless to say, he’s still got a big heart. I designed him to be both friendly and intimidating - small and round contrasted against the wild hair sprouting from his circular face, much like a tumbleweed. Chaps on the other hand, is a caricature of the cowboy himself - Clint Eastwood. He’s tall and silent, much like the Man With No Name. He’s the brains of the operation, but lets Tumbleweed do all the talking. Chaps also has a body that is shaped like a coffin, which helps structure his character as being the strong morally grey type as most cowboys are in cinema From there, I slowly began building the wild world of Chaps and Tumbleweed. The two of them share a best friend named Long John - a non-binary, knife slinging vaquero with a little bit of an attitude. Long John represents a little mixture between both Chaps and Tumbleweed, exhibiting personality traits from both leading characters. But what’s a western without an antagonist? I created Two Shooter Red Rattlesnake shortly after Tumbleweed and Chaps. His name is a play on ridiculous enemy names seen in comic books such as Marvel and DC, and his overall appearance is inspired by Esteban Rojo from A Fistful of Dollars. He’s arrogant yet smart, and finds it entertaining to torment poor Tumbleweed. The two of them go way back. Coming up with the pilot episode was a little difficult in the beginning. I wanted something that introduced all of the important characters in the series - including important supporting characters such as Long John. It was messy at first, having over six characters to stage and write dialogue for - but eventually I established roles that would help bring out the best of their personalities. The plot follows Chaps and Tumbleweed and their best friend, Long John. They heard about an explosion at the nearby bank and decided it was up to them to bring the robber to justice. Unfortunately, the three of them end up in a sticky situation. The robber gets away but Sheriff Blueberry catches Tumbleweed with the bag of money the robber left behind. Thinking they’re in trouble, the three of them flee out of town to avoid getting caught. They have no intentions of going back...not until they realize how hungry and thirsty they are. Together, Chaps, Tumbleweed, and Long John devise a sneaky plan to get drinks at the local saloon. The final runtime is roughly six minutes, and the trailer I initially made for it is around one minute.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Emma Malbon is a native of Madison, Maine. She majored in Game Art and Animation as a senior, and graduated in May 2020. Specializing in cowboy art, Emma is a multidisciplinary artist who mainly focuses on character animation and character design. She has had her work published online and in zines ( Recently, ‘Wolfs

Head’ - A Red Dead Redemption 2 Art Book), and currently works as a freelancer. When she isn’t busy animating her spaghetti western thesis, Chaps and Tumbleweed, she’s often found watching and taking inspiration from all sorts of cowboy media.

1. Long John's Profile, 2019, Digital 2. Cowboy Calamity,, 2019, Digital 3. Two Shooter Red Rattlesnake's Profile, 2019, Digital 4. Chaps and Tumbleweed, 2019, Digital

ZMATTHIESSEN.WIXSITE.COM/MYSITE

@TIINYPUNK

ZOË MATTHIESSEN Illustration THESIS STATEMENT

For my thesis, I chose to illustrate a tarot deck suit known as the major arcana. Every card of this suit is represented by a character, and in my series I chose to carefully illustrate each card as an animal. The major arcana is a suit of twenty-two cards found in the standard tarot deck, which is used in modern-day media for divination. Each major arcana card has its own set of meanings and predictions, so I chose animals with cultural folklore and history that aligned best with the message of the card. Each animal was selected from a variety of cultures found around the globe and their aligning myths to deliver an individual message to the card drawer. This notion was inspired by human interpretation of animals being a messenger of a god or a symbol of an outcome. I illustrated the deck with vibrant colors, flora, and imagery in the hopes that when each card is drawn, the animal will offer comfort along with the foretelling. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Zoë Matthiessen is an artist from suburban Connecticut where the four seasons have taught her to value time outdoors. In nature, she learned the importance of admiring and preserving earth’s natural world from firsthand experience with it’s inspiring qualities and integral value. Driven by a passion for animals and plantlife, she often depicts a

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variety of creatures and natural elements in her work. In her leisure time, she enjoys an exploration of books and storytelling media which has supported a love of psychology, philosophy, etymology, and anthropological creativity, which are all important factors that aid her artistic pursuits.

1. Series Collection, 2020, Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Photoshop CC, 25" x 17" 2. 19. The Sun, 2020, Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Photoshop CC, 3.5" x 5"

FSMCCREA.ITCH.IO/CHARACTER-OF-INTERACTION

FINN MCCREA Animation & Game Art THESIS STATEMENT

My thesis was an exploration of game development and ideation in which I designed, modeled, rigged, and animated 3 character models and then programmed movement controls for them. My goal was to use the tactile interaction of alternative control schemes to express character and weight through game-feel, extending the work done by the animation and models themselves. My process saw me prototyping different methods of programming these character controllers, and I ended up with 40 scripts and rewrites in which I tried different ways of implementing the interactions between gravity, collisions, animations, and player input. My time was split between exploring and iterating on the programming and design of the gameplay, and exploring and iterating on the character designs, models, rigs, animations, and all the connections to be made with my workflow in between those things. Software used was Photoshop for digital drawing, Blender for sculpting, modeling, rigging, and animating, Unity as the game engine, Visual Studio as the programming environment, and GitHub for version control. A selection of the prototypes can be downloaded from my itch.io page. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Finn McCrea is a game development generalist from Boston, Massachusetts.

1. Planning out different movement options and establishing animations required

2. Character #3 in motion

3. Charater Design #1 (detail) 4. Sculpting and retopology process of the first character, final rigged character on the right

2.4.

OMCGOWAN.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

@OLLIE_MCGOWAN

ABC

OLLIE MCGOWAN Graphic Design / Art History THESIS STATEMENT

Let’s Talk Substance is a body of work and podcast that explores the Harm Reduction grassroots movement in Maine. Intending to destigmatize societal views on people who use drugs, this thesis is centered around the voices of those being affected by the War on Drugs.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Ollie McGowan; (He/Him/His), is a senior at Maine College of Art studying Graphic Design and Art History in Portland, ME. Ollie’s work explores the complex world of inequalities through research, personal experience, and political dialogue. His intention is to create intersectional spaces for deep discussion and exploration. Ollie has skills in Woodworking and Fabrication, Digital and Wetlab Photography, Bookbinding, Motion Graphics, and Interface Design. He also loves Art History and has done extensive research on Frida Kahlo, Feminist Art Movements, and Activist Art Movements.

Ollie is very active within the Activist community, and believes that his outreach work informs his creative practice. Ollie participates in multiple organizations including Portland Overdose Prevention Society, Planned Parenthood, Maine Access Points, and NextGen America. In October 2018, Ollie started his activist career with organizing the Won’t Be Erased Protest. From there he has continued to dedicate time to outreach work and received the “Marissa Rose Swift Rabble Rouser of the Year Award” from MaineTransNet.

1. Drug Scale Pattern, 2020, Illustrator 2. Let’s Talk Substance, 2020, Illustrator/ Digital Photography 3. Recovery is Not Always Abstinence, 2020, Digital Photograph/Illustrator 4. Narcan Saves, 2020, Digital Photography

@LYSSAMERKZART

ANA-LYSSA MERCURIUS Animation & Game Art / Art & Music THESIS STATEMENT

Israel is a combined 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional (predominantly 3-dimensional) motion capture based animated trailer that set its story in a hybrid world; a world belonging to both the past and present. In this story, a young black woman comes across an ancient-looking building and decides to investigate. Upon her investigation, she realizes that she is the key in unlocking information that she was blind to and information that she didn’t know. Through the simple touch of a surface, she activates four walls.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Ana-Lyssa Mercurius was born in 1996 in St. Catherine, Jamaica. Mercurius utilizes 3D modeling and programming to bring about a unique combination of her skills in contemporary culture. She will receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation and Game Art with a minor in Music from Maine College of Art in 2020. Her interest in the world of animation and programming stems from a love of Walt Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Computer Science. This led her into the development of motion capture skills which she explores in her thesis, “Israel”. Israel will be a two minute motion capture-based trailer about

Mercurius’ identity and truth coming in May 2020. She spends most of her free time watching movies inclusive of inspired films like Avatar, Leap, Avengers, and also playing The Sims 4 video game. She is interested in human connections and the way a person can be affected by enchantments. With this in mind, she endeavors to create within the mind’s eye myths, truths, logics and history culminating into a fascinating and captivating effervescent flow that transcends depths of movement and composition. Mercurius currently resides in Westbrook, Maine.

1. Israel, 2020, video still 2. Israel, 2020, video still 3. Israel, 2020, video still 4. Israel, 2020, video still 5. Israel, 2020, video still

RENEELULAMICHAUD.COM

@RENEELULAMICHAUD

RENÉE LULA MICHAUD Sculpture / Public Engagement

THESIS STATEMENT

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

s o f t n e s s

Born and raised in Maine, Renée first found solace with music, poetry, and the outdoors. To distill, to slow, to bring forth space and time for people to move with softness through controversy and conflict; their work offers an opportunity for the audience to engage in soft moments of vulnerability. Making for them means making spaces for listening, being, and feeling with the self, with each other, and with everything in between. Repeatedly, sometimes violently, rendered silent, Renée has grown to make more of their life than giving up. They rise, shake it off, and salvage the residue to create moments for reflection, reconciliation, and resistance.

wraps my being. be (ing) wracks, wracks, wracks havoc onto the fears I jeer and rear to the back of my mind: many months m’olding. my tongue strung with buds is stung ! by the buzz of words held in a tomb with no honey to pour. fazed by these days, I fumble and fall and fail to see how I may be beyond this — how all may see this war diminish.

1. tension cradle (series detail), 2020, Photo: Hannah Felker

2. tension cradle (series detail), 2020, Photo: Hannah Felker

3. tension cradle (series detail), 2020, Photo: Hannah Felker

4. tension cradle (series detail), 2020, Photo: Hannah Felker

lulling the earth is a’hummm (ing)

drum, drum, drum, drumming at the heart to talk with mind, to set aside the differ, hence

forth the yonder into which we bear our spirits to be gnawed.

knock, knock on the door of life.

raw, raw are our beings u n i t e

5. tension cradle (series detail), 2020, Photo: Hannah Felker

MADISONSHAYMILLER.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

@MADISONSHAY_ILLUSTRATION

MADISON MILLER Illustration / Writing THESIS STATEMENT

“Famous Flora” is an illustration thesis centered around highlighting many of our flora-based characters. Plants have a large role to play in a lot of our well-known fairy tales, although not many are recognized for the importance they play in these stories. This project was meant to give them their spotlight. It specifically centers around Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors”, the rose from “Beauty and the Beast”, the mushroom forest from “Alice in Wonderland”, and the versatile Enchanted Forest. All images were painted with watercolor gouache, sized at 11″ x 14″, matted and framed.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Madison Miller is an Illustrator from South Carolina who has a love for nature-inspired patterns and paintings. She grew up drawing and was constantly surrounded with support as both of her parents were also artists. Over time, Madison has developed an interest in literature and fantasy books. This inspires

many of the pieces she creates today. Madison’s illustrations are also inspired by nature and often include animals; she uses these landscapes to create decorative and graphic scenes. Her paintings start with pencil sketches and are finished with watercolor or gouache medium.

1. The Rose, 2020, Gouache, 11” x 14” 2. The Mushroom Forest, 2020, Gouache, 11” x 14” 3. The Enchanted Forest, 2020, Gouache, 11” x 14” 4. Audrey II , 2020, Gouache, 11” x 14”

@CATTTARTTT

CAT MITCHELL Painting

THESIS STATEMENT

A thought taking a physical form. These images start with the surface they are laid upon. Through motion and self reflection they take their shape in the field of space given to them. Utilizing acrylic paint to maintain an intensive amount of layering and glazing. They seek to be conscious of the interlocking matrices found in every movement, moment, sound and stillness. Which are inherently connective, acknowledging that. Through these works there is encouragement for a moment of stillness. Reflecting the principle as above so below, aiming to display not only the joy but the torment of existence as well. With the literal nod to this concept within the works being the visual reference to sky and soil. An expression of desire to know the entirety of oneself. To reflect not only the movement of the audience within the room, but the movements of the artists self as well. They seek to express all the sundry within the self.

ARTWORK

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Interdisciplinary, process based maker Cat Mitchell coaxes the viewer in a moment of oneness within a society that almost seems to have forgotten how to be still. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts on February 12th, 1998. During her high school years she was accepted into an apprenticeship program with the non-profit organization Artists For Humanity. Working with the mentors and the exhibition team she had her work shown in many venues, some being: Logan Airport, the

Strand Theater, as well as Teknion Boston Showroom. She was awarded an unbeatable scholarship to Maine College of Art in 2016. In the summer of 2019 she worked with Artists for Humanity again as an Exhibitions Intern. During this time she gained key experience in handling, packaging as well as installing large bodies of work. She earned her BFA degree in painting at Maine College of Art in 2020. Continuing to inspire stillness and introspection through her work is her continued priority.

1. Gut Feeling, 2020, Hand Stretched Canvas, Gesso, Acrylic Paint, Heavy Gel Gloss, Polymer Varnish UVLS, 36" x 12" x 2" 2. Belt Of Venus, 2020, Hand Stretched Canvas Gesso, Acrylic Paint, Polymer Varnish UVLS, 24" 48" x 2 Â˝" 3. Rayleigh Scattering, 2020, Hand Stretched Canvas Gesso, Acrylic Paint, Polymer Varnish UVLS, 36" x 18" x 2 Â˝" 4. Matrices of my Shoulders , 2020, Hand Stretched Canvas, Gesso, Zinc White (Acrylic), Slashes, 18" x 28" x 2"

@GENEVIEVE.L.A.MOBERLY_ART

GENEVIÈVE MOBERLY Painting / Art History THESIS STATEMENT

“In Xanadu” is an homage to the forested scenery Geneviève Moberly was raised within, and more specifically the act of gardening, landscape design, or any way that these landscapes have been manipulated and cultivated for communal use.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Geneviève Louisa Moberly is a New Hampshire born painter who finds the culture of the North Country to be an innate point of identity and inspiration. A deeply rooted respect, reliance, and coexistence with the

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natural world found in the White Mountains is a consistent element within her paintings. Moberly works with recurring themes such as familial relationships, ecological reverence, and institutional critique.

1. “In Xanadu”, watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 9" x 12", 2020 2. “Cheese & Crackers”, watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 9" x 12", 2020. 3. “Together”, watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 9" x 12", 2019 4. “Breathing & Barefoot in your Thistles”, watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 9" x 12", 2020

AMORGO.WIXSITE.COM/MYSITE

@AMORGO_ART

ALYSSA MORGO Illustration / Writing THESIS STATEMENT

For my thesis project, I decided to combine my writing minor capstone and my majors work; in doing so, I created pen and ink illustrations to go with my short sci-fi novella about an alien abduction.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Alyssa Morgo is a 2020 graduate at Maine College of Art with a major in illustration and a minor in creative writing. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s originally from Manchester, New Hampshire. She enjoys working in traditional mediums such as inks, watercolors, charcoals and a variation of printmaking techniques. Her work consists

of book illustrations, portraits, and character designs that are inspired by her love for horror and imperfection. Outside of her studio you can find her watching cartoons, or at the local arcades with her friends competing for the highest score in Galaga.

1. Spaceship, 2020, Pen and Ink, 14" x 17" 2. Growing Heart, 2020, Pen and Ink, 6.25" x 10" 3. Door, 2020, Pen and Ink, 6 " x 8.5" 4. Microchip Gun, 2020, Pen and Ink, 8" x 6.5" 5. Jar of Eyes, 2020, Pen and Ink, 6" x 8.5" 6. Living Plant, 2020, Pen and Ink, 5" x 10" 7. Room, 2020, Pen and Ink, 8.25" x 12.5"

RACHELMORRISSTUDIO.COM

@STICKYHANDSPRESS

RACHEL MORRIS Printmaking THESIS STATEMENT

My current body of work is a personal exploration of control during my process. I have modified my own practice to give space for spontaneity in specific circumstances. For instance, not planning composition and printing from a predetermined group of shapes or switching out different variations of color for the same layer within a series of prints. There is spontaneity not only in my actions but surprises in the end product of overlapped colors and their blending that I embrace. I push and pull precision with play. The playfulness comes through the fluidity of the shapes and bright color palettes. These palettes are balanced, but bold, using neons and custom mixed colors. I want the viewer to feel how excited I was to make the print and feel the energy that the shapes create interacting in compositions. My work lives in the abstract; drawn from my own intuitive hand are shapes without a reference in reality. I am not trying to explain or depict the natural world. I study the dimensional, rounded, organic, and fluid forms I have deemed â&#x20AC;&#x153;squigglesâ&#x20AC;? and how their compositions support the in-between spaces and each other. ARTWORK

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Rachel Morris is currently based in Portland, Maine. Morris received a BFA in Printmaking from Maine College of Art in 2020 and an 1.

Associate Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences from Tunxis Community College in 2017. 3.

1. Untitled, 2020, photolithography on lightweight BFK, 8" x 10" 2. Playing in the Dark, 2019, lithograph on BFK, 11" x 15" 3. rules #5, 2019, screen print on Stonehenge, 11" x 15" 4. Untitled, 2020, hand colored monotype, 4.5" x 6.5" 5. Untitled, 2020, hand colored monotype, 6" x 10" 6. 10-in-1 Pen, 2019, screen print on lightweight Mulberry, 12" x 13"

7. rules #1, 2019, screen print on Stonehenge, 11" x 15"

TYLERMOULTON.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

ABC

TYLER MOULTON Graphic Design THESIS STATEMENT

My thesis is a series of Infographics and data visualizations centered on my collection of science fiction novels. My goals for this project are to explore different forms and tools for information design and to truthfully represent my personal connection to the data set. My strategy for generating content from the collection will rely on deducing relationships between the books themselves, the books and I, and discreet qualities of the books as objects.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Tyler Moulton is a Graphic Design senior at Maine College of Art and former intern at Might and Main. He has a passion for information design and type design as well as a foundation in illustration and engineering. As such, his design relies on his logic as much as his creativity and sense of humor. Always growing,

Tyler approaches every job as an opportunity to learn and to implement a new technique.

1. Routine Rearranging, 2020, Ink on Paper, 8.5" x 11"

Tyler is most himself when communicating his humor and charm. When heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not designing, Tyler organizes the school film club, creates music, and makes gadgets and serious trinkets out of found materials.

2. My Collection, 2020, Marker on Paper, 14" x 17" 3. Library by Publisher, 2020, Ink on Paper, 11" x 17" 4. Contour Heat Map, 2020, Marker on Paper on Paper, 11" x 16.5" 5. The Science In My Sci-fi, 2020, Vector Graphic

AUDNOYESDESIGN.COM

@AUD_NOYES_DESIGN

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AUDREY NOYES Graphic Design THESIS STATEMENT

Through the semester I developed the experience of a futuristic health office called “Adapt” that helps Maine residents cope with hazardous environmental changes through adaptive surgeries. Adaptations like gills and philangical webs, that help reduce the chances of drowning during frequent storm surges. Esophageal filters that help remove sodium and parasites from now salinated and parasite infested groundwater. Basal Temperature monitors that help keep your internal body temperature within a healthy range as rising temperatures put many in danger of heat exhaustion or strokes. “Adapt” takes place around the year 2100, patients can book appointments and check in through an app. Within the app, they can also see what surgeries are recommended for where they live and log their symptoms. While in the waiting room, they would have access to many informational posters, educational flyers to look at during their wait. My goal within this project was not only to educate on the future dangers of climate change but to make it more personal and induce empathy by making it an experience and bringing it to a local level. I feel fortunate to have had a semester to explore a topic I feel so passionate about and to have months to evaluate research and educate myself on things I did not know about climate change in Maine. It has been rewarding to spend time with such a heavy topic but I also look forward to the opportunities design will give me in the future to explore and research other topics that will expand my knowledge, networks, and interests.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Audrey Noyes is a graphic design major at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. When not working on freelance design projects, she often is spending time making and exploring

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various creative hobbies and visiting New England beaches. She is currently interested in using design for activism, with a main interest in current environmental issues.

1. Trifold, 2020 2. App, 2020 3. Waiting Room, 2020 4. Adaption Icons, 2020

ASHLEYPAGESTUDIO.COM

@ASHLEYPAGE.STUDIO

ASHLEY PAGE

Sculpture / Public Engagement THESIS STATEMENT

My practice is a vessel used to present larger conversations of representation and visibility of the African American image, intellect, and spirit. I look to explore future possibilities of expression for myself and my peers using craft techniques and research processes. Stitching together language, paper, steel, and my community, I present my perspective of the vulnerability and grace within the black experience. By constructing a new world of possibilities, my practice continues cultivating the generosity of exchange and conversation. To begin unlearning and relearning the histories of untold memories, stories and truths is to reconfigure the way we interact with the present. This, in turn, begins to unfold possibilities for the future. My work is an ode to the people who came before me, a reflection of the time in which I currently reside, and a point of reference for those in the future.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Ashley Page is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Portland, ME. She presently holds a BFA in Sculpture and a Minor in Public Engagement from Maine College of Art. Envisioning a world where individuals are given the autonomy to represent themselves, she uses paper, steel and fiber to explore different modes of black portraiture and identity expression. As a maker, a woman of color, a little sister, and a daughter, she creates space for dialogue, intergenerational exchange, and creative expression. Most recently, she has been awarded the 2020 Heart and Soul Student Award by Maine

Campus Compact for her work on the collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2020 Resilience Week and is the 2019 - 2020 Stephen and Palmina Pace Endowed Scholar at Maine College of Art. Following her 2018 - 2019 Warren Public Engagement Fellowship at MECA, she was the inaugural Public Engagement Intern at Indigo Arts Alliance and worked as a studio assistant with Daniel Minter, as well as being awarded the Professional Development and Creative Entrepreneurship Grant. Her practice resides in the power of communal growth, collaborative learning, and mutual understanding.

1. Collective Identity, 2018, Plaster, Found Clothing, Wooden Shelves, 78in x 48in x 20in 2. Pupa State, 2020, Yarn, Wax, 32in x 15in x 20in 3. Spatial Drawing, 2019, Clothes Line, Paper, Thread, 14in x 12in x 16in 4. Conversation Pieces, 2018, Paper, Canvas, Wax, 12in x 12in x 8in 5. Nigreos Seminbus (Black Seed), 2019, 48in x 16in x 15in 5. A Departure From Should To Could, 2019, Wooden Reed, 23in x 5in x 12in

MAIAPARSONS.COM

@M.AIA.P

MAIA PARSONS Printmaking THESIS STATEMENT

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Maia Parsons is a printmaker raised in Vermont and now based in Portland, Maine. She uses print and book arts to respond to the current socio-ecological crisis. Her work explores multiple areas of printmaking and collage, mainly in relief, to create a landscape or dialogue based on her research. Maia

focuses her subject matter on the local environment, natural and manmade. Her work uses a hyperlocal lens to push the audience to understand what effects they are having on the environment around them and encourage them to take part in efforts to help the planet.

1. Spore Print, 2018, Reductive Linoleum Print, 12" x 12" 2. Baxter Book Spread, 2020, Screenprint and Linoleum Print, 6" x 12" 3. Attempt at Escape, 2019, Lithograph, 11" x 14" 4. Real Imaginary Fish, 2020, Linoleum Print, 12" x 12"

5. Double-crested Cormorants, 2020, Linoleum Print, 11" x 11" 6. Rough Hands, 2020, Woodcut Print, 3" x 3" 7. Snake Card, 2019, Linoleum Print, 4" x 6"

MATTIEPERRY.COM

MATTIE PERRY Painting / Drawing THESIS STATEMENT

I mine memory, emotion, and personal experiences that have left an impression on me in order to cultivate my ideas. I create oil paintings with subject matter that varies from flowers to cat portraiture.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Mattie Perry is a painter who was born and raised in Bangor, Maine. Growing up, Perry always found art as a form of expression and an outlet for her shyness, and she would turn to drawing flowers and still lifes inspired by her mother’s painting and grandmother’s garden. Family was at the core of her childhood and helped shape the emotional, imaginary world that she creates in her work today. Perry constructs paintings that are heavily inspired by her youth, experiences, emotions, Disney animation, Pop Surrealism, 2.

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and her constant search for escape within her studio practice. Perry’s work attempts to build a visual escape through nostalgic imagery such as clouds, candy, and flowers in an effort to make objects that allow an audience to forget their worries for a few moments and be immersed in their own memories. Perry lives in Portland, Maine, and studies at the Maine College of Art pursuing her BFA in painting with an expected graduation date of May 2020.

1. Cat’s Scratch, 2020, oil on panel, 30" x 30" 2. Sting, 2020, oil on wood panel, 18" x 24"

@MADISON_POITRAST_UPTON

MADISON POITRAST-UPTON Textile & Fashion Design

THESIS STATEMENT

For thesis I have chosen to create a new line of garments for vocalist performers when they are on stage. There is one reason that I realized plays a huge role in why I choose to make the work I make, and that is my family. Without them, music and art would have not been as important to me. They made it a part of my life from the beginning. This gift has helped me grow into the person I am today. I wanted to be able to create work about something that I really cared about in a medium I really care about, and so for this work I have focused on creating fun, comfortable and reusable garments for the stage.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Madison Poitrast-Upton is currently enrolled as a fashion and textiles student at Maine College of Art. She grew up in Henniker, New Hampshire and currently lives in Portland. Her work is frequently growing and advancing; performative wear has recently become the platform of her work. She started with a focus on bridal wear. Her intentions were to expand the options for brides, doing so by playing with color and silhouettes normally not seen

in that genre. Now she has moved onto studying vocalists and their costumes on stage, concentrating on how garments for singers can be expressive, movable, and vibrant. Music has always been a big part of her life. Madison is a singer and grew up in a family of musicians. She is happy to now be doing work that combines two very important pieces of her life.

1. hip jeans, 2020 2. green two piece set, 2020 3. screen print top, 2020 4. wrap outfit, 2020 5. orange jumpsuit 2020

SHELBYPYRZYK.COM

@RAGDOLL_ARTS

SHELBY PYRZYK

Ceramics

THESIS STATEMENT

Like childhood imagination, ceramics is a fluid material and provides the opportunity for creating and transposing what’s inside my head into a physical form. Exuding playfulness through sculpted variety of pastries and sweets and costumery. My method of making is an experimental strategy to help transpose and embody my lighthearted and colorful personality within every object I create. Venturing beyond simplistic functional forms that dominate the field, I’ve chosen to refocus attention on the overlooked histories of sculptural figurines. Surfacing is vital to give each figure life, from colored acrylics to bright glazes, along with the gestures, poses, and size enhances each object’s personality. I find making objects look similar to their edible counterparts while giving them a cartoony spin, such as adjusting scale and using brighter colors, successful with the intent for my audience to see the playful twist on what they already know. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Shelby Pyrzyk is a ceramics artist born and raised in Maine. She is expected to receive her BFA in ceramics from Maine College of Art in 2020. She has worked with the tile designer Paul Spaulding at Timeless Tile & Designs, a handmade production ceramic tile company operating for more than 20 years. Her works exude playfulness through sculpted animal figures, a variety of pastries and sweets. Her methods of making is an experimental strategy to help transpose and embody her lighthearted and colorful personality within every object.

1. Ceramic Senior Showcase, 2019 - 2020, ceramic, acrylic paint, polymer clay, essential oils for scent, wax candles

2. Pretzel Cloud, 2019, ceramic, acrylic paint, dyed cotton balls, paper, essential oils for scent

4. Ceramic Senior Showcase: Donut Collection, 2019 - 2020; ceramic, acrylic paint, polymer clay, essential oils for scent

5. Outdoor Tea Party: Shot 1, 2019 - 2020; ceramic, acrylic paint, polymer clay, essential oils for scent, wax candles, moss & leaves

3. Outdoor Tea Party: Close Up, 2019 - 2020; ceramic, acrylic paint, polymer clay, essential oils for scent, wax candles, moss & leaves

@REBECCA_L_RICHARDS

REBECCALRICHARDS.COM

REBECCA RICHARDS Metalsmithing & Jewelry THESIS STATEMENT

Through my work I explore the tenuous state of the environment by focusing on native New England plants and their benefits to local ecosystems. American native plants are traditionally undervalued, though they are scientifically proven to be better for their local environments. Through my practice of metalsmithing, I commemorate plants native to New England through a wearable jewelry format. By translating these plants into jewelry that is appealing to wear, the work facilitates a discussion through the interactions people have about adornment. Understandably, this will not solve the problem, yet my work presents the viewer with information that steers them in the right direction of inquiry and action.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Rebecca Richards is a candidate to graduate in 2020 with a Bachelors of Fine Art Degree in Metalsmithing and Jewelry from Maine College of Art. Her skills and dedication to art has been recognized by the William Randolph Hearst Scholars Award, MJSA Jewelry Foundation,

the Albert K. Murray Scholarship and the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. Her work explores the plant life native to New England through the use of metal, enamels and other materials.

1. Blue Cohosh - Back, 2019, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Enamel, Beading Wire, Powder Coating, 78mm x 87mm 2. Blue Cohosh, 2019, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Enamel, Beading Wire, Powder Coating, 78mm x 87mm 3. American Hazelnut, 2019, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Enamel, Beading Wire, Powder Coating, 82mm x 86mm 4. Indian Cucumber Root - Back, 2020, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Enamel, Beading Wire, Powder Coating, 65mm x 71mm

5. Indian Cucumber Root, 2020, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Enamel, Beading Wire, Powder Coating, 65mm x 71mm 6. Maidenhair Fern, 2019, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Enamel, Beading Wire, Powder Coating, 98mm x 102mm

7. Jack-In-The-Pulpit, 2020, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Enamel, Beading Wire, Powder Coating, 59mm x 111mm

POORHANNAH.COM

@POOR_HANNAHS_ILLUSTRATIONS

HANNAH ROOP Illustration

THESIS STATEMENT

My goal when leaving MECA is to pursue a tattoo apprenticeship and so for my thesis I decided to build a portfolio of work highlighting different styles of tattooing. My goal with my thesis was to research and study the variety of styles and better acquaint myself with them. There are strict rules and common iconic imagery within each style, my goal was to try and put my own spin on some of these classical designs as well as incorporate my own. As a common theme throughout my pieces I decided to use each sheet to depict a different famous cautionary tale. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Hi, my name is Hannah Roop (pooR hannaH). I am an illustrator from South Shore, MA, currently residing in Portland, Maine. Like many of my fellow classmates I have been drawing since I was young, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been obsessed with the idea of body modification since I can remember. As a child I would get sent to the principalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office for selling

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sharpie tattoos on the playground. My work tends to focus around portraits and the female form. I try my best incorporate some sort of subtle tongue in cheek humor in as many of my pieces as possible, usually trying to poke fun at and exploit the male gaze. I enjoy using strong, bold line work and a minimal color palette in my pieces.

1. Scorpion and the Frog, 2020, Digital Media, 11" x 14" 2. Legend of the Hannya, 2020, Digital Media, 11" x 14" 3. Brittany, 2019, Risograph Print (Florescent Orange and Black), 11" x 17" 4. Barbara and Babs, 2019, Risograph Print (Florescent Orange and Black), 11" x 17"

5..

AMANDASAKERART.COM

@AMANDASAKERART

AMANDA SAKER

Animation & Game Art THESIS STATEMENT

Rage Rider II is a heavy metal fueled, viking inspired, 2D game. You, astride your warhorse and accompanied by your magic healing dog, ride into the hellscape, dodge lava pits, and cut down the enemies that have invaded your home forest. Programming by Jason Gertner | Music by Ethan Reese

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Amanda Saker is a game artist and animator living in Portland, Maine. Amandaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s years of experience as a veterinary technician have given her a unique insight into animal movement and she specializes in quadruped animation. In addition to game art and animation, Amanda enjoys working in acrylic and oil, and painting the Maine coast, landscapes, and pets. Her work in traditional media continues to inform her digital concept work and strengthens her

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practice. Amanda has received recognition in the Maine College of Art Merit Show. In the summer of 2019, Amanda was accepted as one of 25 students to the MassDiGI Summer Innovation Program where she, working on a team of six, made and shipped a complete mobile game. Her current projects include Rage Rider II and personal work in gouache. She lives in Maine with her dog, Rye Bread.

1. Attack Sprite Sheet, Digital, 2020 2. Lava Hazard from Rage Rider II, Digital painting, 2020 3. Rage Rider II Arcade Cabinet Design, Digital, 2020 4. Rage Rider II Character Concepts, Digital, 2020 5. Rage Rider II Logo, Digitally hand lettered and drawn, 2020

SKETCHFAB.COM/TORSHOE

@TS.MAKER

TORI SHOEMAKER

Animation & Game Art THESIS STATEMENT

As a part of my senior year thesis project, this is a recreated 3D model of my childhood home. I wanted to explore the idea of people adapting to their environments, and how to settle in to call a place “home.” This is for a larger reproduction of the entire house, with an interactive walkthrough still in the works. The models are created in Autodesk Maya, and rendered with Arnold.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Tori Shoemaker hails from Syracuse in Upstate New York. She is currently a graduate from Game Art and Animation at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine where she currently resides. Her practice has been focusing on 3D environments -- particularly in interior design and the relationship of people and their surroundings. She finds her inspiration in the mundane; studying everyday objects, routines of herself and others, and how we decorate our lives.

When she isn’t working her heart out, she finds herself sketching a ton. Anything from people to the pretty mug she gets at a cafe to a really cool rock. She finds amusement in the little things and is deeply interested in these little moments. But at the end of the day, she is always inspired by video games, and will spend many hours playing what got her into art in the first place.

1. “No Place Like Home” Progress Image, (L) rendered, (R) working flat color, 2020 2. “No Place Like Home” Screenshot, 2020 3. “No Place Like Home” Progress Image, (L) rendered, (R) working flat color, 2020 4. “No Place Like Home” Screenshot, 2020 5. “No Place Like Home” Screenshot, 2020

6. “No Place Like Home” Screenshot, 2020

BUBONICC.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

@BUBONICCC

JESSICA SILVIA Animation & Game Art THESIS STATEMENT

Through close study of movement and animation techniques, my goal by the end of my senior year was to produce a strong Stop Motion animation Reel. My focus was primarily on character animation rather than puppet and set building. I used a Stickybones and several found objects in each project that I filmed. The end goal was to produce an eyecatching reel with discipline in technique and emotional movement.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

My Name is Jessica Silvia and I am weird. I grew up in a little town in Massachusetts on a little horse farm for the majority of my life. Now you might think I would have been a horse farmer, or maybe harvesting corn but no, I decided that robots, comic books, and video games were cooler and that I should chase that in life instead. I always knew I was going to do something art-related with my life when I was younger. I loved comic books and Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles too much not to. I first wanted to do comic book work, because I had such huge heart eyes for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine at the time that I knew I just had to do something with Wolverine. Later in life, I fell head over heels for transformers and spent a huge amount of my teenage years drawing nothing but robots and read nothing but transformers comics for the

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longest time. I consider myself lucky enough that I was able to work on a few transformers comics as part of the colorist team. When it came to animation, I was all over the place. I love doing 2D animation and for the majority of my college journey, was a 2D animator. Only now, during my senior year of college did I awaken to Stop Motion. Sure, I had tinkered with it a lot when I was younger, but I never thought I’d end up settling on it. It’s actually been a good journey up until this point in discovering myself. My goal for graduation is to work for studios like LAIKA or Stoopid Buddy Studios. I want to make art, I want to make things that make people emotional and laugh. Even if I do not find myself where I hope, I will keep making, keep creating, and keep moving forward.

PHOEBESMITH.MYPORTFOLIO.COM/WORK

@ADAMANTSHREW

PHOEBE SMITH Illustration / Drawing THESIS STATEMENT

When creating my thesis I wanted to show my viewers that Maine is a wonderfully unique and tight-knit community. Mainers love to show support to their local providers and in return, these providers are able to give back such exclusive and diverse experiences. Each landscape and scene is a representation of what makes these farms so special. I wanted to celebrate these contexts of community by inviting the viewer into the piece and hopefully sparking an interest in agriculture, artisan goods, livestock, and education. I believe that now more than ever we as a society need to remember these important relationships with our providers and appreciate what they are able to do for their fellow Mainers. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

I grew up in Northern New Jersey on Greenwood Lake. I would spend most of my days swimming in the lake or planting flowers and vegetables in my garden. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve drawn a lot of my inspiration from music, movies, video games, books, TV shows, and the natural world. I most certainly would not be where I am today without

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the love and support from my parents, sister, family, roommate, friends from back home, friends from school, coworkers, teachers, mentors, and so many others. I am so thankful for being surrounded by so many artists and art appreciators in my life.

1. Wolfeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Neck Farm, 2020, Watercolor and color pencil, 11" x 14" 2. Snug Harbor Farm, 2020, Watercolor and color pencil, 11" x 14" 3. Ten Apple Farm, 2020, Watercolor and color pencil, 11" x 14" 4. Snell Family Farm, 2020, Watercolor and color pencil, 11" x 14"

LINSNOWART.COM

@GOOSE_IFER

LIN SNOW

Illustration

THESIS STATEMENT

My thesis is a field guide for spores and the species that they become such as moss, fungi, and ferns. I already loved this subject but I wanted to further explore it so I could share my knowledge through art. Taking a historical, naturalist approach; working from life with terrariums at my desk was the key component to my process. With creating this type of work I hope everyone and anyone is able to take away something interesting that they didn’t know about our natural world prior.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Lin Snow is from a small town in New Hampshire of less than 1,000 people. She is anticipating graduation in May of 2020 from Maine College of Art with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Illustration. Her work often includes nature to explore identity and even more so: surroundings as people and what they contribute to identity. Using science, biology, and ecology she submerges viewers in the unknown natural world that we all live in. She creates in a wide range of mediums and is

always looking towards the next. Lin has been busy with commission based work; designing logos and illustrations for clients, MECA’s BFA Thesis Curatorial Team, and local exhibitions. She has been awarded for her art in contexts such as the Presidential Scholarship, Annalee Dolls Scholarship, and most recently: The MECA Award for most Innovative. She is looking forward to attending the EMMA Collaboration Residency this summer.

1. “Fungus Life Cycle”, 2020 Sepia ink and Watercolor, 11" x 14" 2. “Cedar Waxwing”, 2020 Sepia ink and Watercolor, 11" x 14" 3. “Common Moss”, 2020 Sepia ink and Watercolor, 11" x 14" 4. “Fungus Anatomy”, 2020 Sepia ink and Watercolor, 11" x 14"

COURTNEYSTENMAN.COM

@COURTNEYSTENMAN

COURTNEY STENMAN Metalsmithing & Jewelry THESIS STATEMENT

My work focuses on abstract renderings of non-existent buildings. Playing with form, line, and color I build the framework of an enclosed space emerging from a body. The pieces come together to create the contour of form, able to be worn on the neck, hand, ears, or wrist. While not fully enclosed they leave room for the viewer to continue building and assembling a world around their bodies while also encouraging reflection on the environment that does surround us.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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Courtney Stenman is a candidate for a BFA degree in Metalsmithing and Jewelry at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. Residing in Winsted, CT, her current body of work is an exploration of architectural

relationships through wearable jewelry. Form, tension, and stability are expressed through their reference to and on the body and brought together with large scale architectural ideas through the use of steel.

1. Cross Pull, 2020, Steel, Powder Coating, 3” x 2.25” x 3.25” 2. Shoes?, 2020 Steel, Powder Coating, Sterling Silver Ear Posts and backs, 2.75” x 2” x 1.75” 3. The Tower, 2019, Steel, Powder Coating, 3.75” x 1.75” x 1.5” 4. Architectural Footprint, 2020, Steel, Powder Coating, Sterling Silver Ear Wire, 4.75” x 2” x 2.69” 5. Crossing, 2020, Steel, Powder Coating, 4.25” x 1.5” x 3.44” 6. Blue Wave Suite, 2019, Steel, Powder Coating, Bracelet: 5” x 1.5” x 3.75”, Earrings: 2.25” x 1.5” x 0.25” 7. Red Roller, 2019, Steel, Powder Coating, 4.25” x 2.75” x 4.25”

@MATTSTEPHANY

MATTSTEPHANY.COM

MATT STEPHANY Photography

THESIS STATEMENT

I am a photographer who feeds off of the current situations that surround me in the landscape. My photographs enshrine the seemingly unimportant or frivolous parts of life, while focusing the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s access to greater feelings of loss, death, and rebirth without hitting them over the head with these feelings we often try to avoid. This body of work navigates these ideas through still life and landscape photography, putting emphasis on the relationship between the domestic world, and the wild.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Matt Stephany is a photographer from Rochester, NY, currently based in Portland, ME studying at the Maine College of Art. Inspired by visions within dreams, near death experiences, and mankindâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tendencies of creating barriers between themselves and the wild, Matt creates worlds and experiences with paper and light that connect to landscape

photography. By creating temporary scenes that only exist in the moment it was photographed, the seemingly unimportant or frivolous parts of life are enshrined within each piece, giving the audience time to reflect on these moments. Images made by Stephany transform into myth to find their way into the lives of his audience.

1. Flowers for Joel, 2019, Archival Inkjet Print, 20" x 30" 2. Little Houses, 2019, Archival Inkjet Print, 18" x 24" 3. Untitled, 2020, Archival Inkjet Print, 1 8" x 24" 4. The Bus to Never Ever Land, 2020, Archival Inkjet Print, 20" x 30" 5. Untitled, 2019, Archival Inkjet Print, 16" x 20"

ANUBISRAMPAGE.COM

@ANUBISRAMPAGE

LEANNA SULLIVAN Animation & Game Art / Art & Music THESIS STATEMENT

Star Crossed Criminals is about a young man named Snake. His parents died when he was very young and his grandparents, who were motivated to rear up their grandchild through their traditional and old fashioned discipline techniques, were only able to keep him shut up in their house until he was 12. He ran away, using the small amount of money he could find to arrive in the city of Belton, very closely modeled after the modern city of Seattle, Washington. There, he meets a boy whom he nicknames Pip and shortly after they become close friends - the gang, Shadows, finally find them. They start off doing easy small jobs, information broking and acting as messengers but as they grow, their jobs in the gang get a lot moreâ&#x20AC;Ś. deadly. After years of killing and secrets, Snake has no plans to change his course in life until something, or someone, comes into his life that turns his world into chaos. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Growing up, Leanna Sullivan has always been drawn to stories. The world in which we live is rich in history, lore, and tropes of the people that inhabit it and Sullivan has made it her wish to explore different ways to tell the incredible stories she creates.

a boy named Snake who has lost touch with the world he currently inhabits- but his views shift on a dime when he finally is able to feel again thanks to an unexpected interest. Within this project, she has created 8 different music sequences while working towards her music minor. She uses music to push tone in the scenes of the game.

1. Crysta, 2019, Photoshop

She hopes to continue working with color and design elements of storytelling within the visual entertainment industry to eventually progress to working on larger projects and within larger companies to keep expanding her understanding.

6. Spring Park, 2019, Photoshop

As a graduate of Maine College of Art for her BFA in Animation and Game Art, she focuses on storytelling and how to subconsciously affect mood and tone while interacting with pieces she creates through color and character expressions. Most recent works she has been focusing on is the first chapter in a visual novel titled Star-Crossed Criminals. It follows

2. Snake, 2019, Photoshop 3. Main Menu Screen, 2019, Photoshop 4. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Done, 2019, Photoshop 5. Church Background, 2019, Photoshop

2.6.

ALISSASZEPLAKI.COM

@ARCTIC_ARTIST

ALISSA SZEPLAKI Illustration THESIS STATEMENT

“Ezequiel” the kid’s television show is a story of acceptance amidst a colorful world of ballet, video games, and friendships. The show follows our namesake main character, Ezi, and his friends as he strives to become a ballet dancer in a family built on the notion that “boys don’t do ballet.” My goal with the development of this animated show was to bring to light the small details of the ballet world that are largely overlooked, while at the same time touching on important topics in the world, such as LGBTQ+ acceptance, support from family and friends, and gender stereotypes. With an emphasis on family dynamics, the work revolves around creating an inclusive environment of diverse characters that kids can find themselves in so that they may enjoy watching the characters succeed while learning a thing or two about the world around them at the same time.

ARTWORK

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Alissa Szeplaki is interested in fantasy worlds, animals, and LGBTQ+ topics. As a visual development illustrator, she creates unique character designs and backgrounds for motion pictures and books, along with beautiful illustrations for picture books and posters. Her work is a generous mix of digital

and traditional mediums, such as watercolor, gouache and colored pencil. When she’s not creating, Alissa can be found attending music concerts, practicing her ballet technique, walking her dog, or devising delicious recipes for her friends and family.

1. Kavya Prop Sheet, 2020, Digital, 11" x 17" 2. Grandpa Lucas Character Sheet, 2020, Digital, 11" x 17" 3. Ezequiel Turnaround, 2020, Digital, 11" x 17" 4. Ezequiel Prop Sheet, 2020, Digital, 11" x 17"

5. Dance Studio Backdrop in Situ, 2020, Digital, 11" x 17" 6. Friends Character Sheet, 2020, Digital, 11" x 17"

@EXPRESSIONS_OF_A_SOUL

SHAMIRA TANGUAY Textile & Fashion Design

THESIS STATEMENT

This work is a series of illustrations from The Magic in You, a childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book I wrote, as fairy tales aid children in navigating the world. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal is to show children they have agency over their own reactions and emotions to situations. Fairy tales, Celtic lore and my family history inspired this project. In my journey here I have found art creates and, though we may think so, we are not bound by trauma from our past. Over time we can start to replace negativity with new memories and live freely but intending to heal. As a textiles major, also I intended on creating the costumes of the main characters, Ava and Queen Mab, bring them into our reality. Due to the limitations of COVID-19, I was only able to finish my illustrations. Both of the costumes would be covered in laser cut fabric vines and flowers, the accumulation showing the growth and healing as a result of a positive mental state. Some of the vines I created are digitally added into page 6 to show this vision. The first illustration is 11" x 8", while the rest are 11" x 16". The images were made with a mix of watercolor, ink, colored pencil, graphite, gouache, acrylic and digital overlay. The act of layering is important to my method. Memories are complex and multifaceted, which reflects my intuitive way of illustrating, adding layers upon layers of medium mixing until I have reached my desired level of finish.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Shamira Tanguay was born in 1998 in Lewiston, Maine. Having grown up around forests, she finds sanctuary in forms, colors and textures found in nature. Her work encompasses the ideology that one can heal themselves from trauma by re-associating memory. She received her BFA in Fashion and Textiles at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine.

1. Page 5, 2020, watercolor, ink, marker, colored pencil, 11" x 16"

2. Page 9 (detail), 2020, watercolor, ink, gouache, colored pencil, 11" x 16"

4. Page 7, 2020, watercolor, gouache, ink, colored pencil, 11" x 16"

5. Page 8, 2020, watercolor, ink, colored pencil, gouache, acrylic, 11" x 16"

3. Page 6 (detail), 2020, watercolor, digitally colored laser cut vines, watercolor, digital, ink, 11" x 16"

KIANATHAYER.COM

@WARMHUMMUS

ABC

KIANA THAYER Graphic Design

THESIS STATEMENT

I consider objects as living things. Objects exist within our daily lives, some go unnoticed, some we depend on and others we cherish. With The Living Object I am questioning what tableware affords the user. Could I design tableware that asks the user to pay close attention to their actions and the food they are consuming. Could tableware facilitate slowing down, could it command your full attention, to focus on one thing at a time, to appreciate what you have? The Living Object invites the user to renew their perception of the objects they often take for granted. In hopes of fostering a deeper appreciation for the things that surround them and the actions they support. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Kiana Thayer is an interdisciplinary artist and designer working between Portland, Maine and Providence, Rhode Island. With a BFA in Graphic Design from Maine College of Art, their practice is heavily rooted in research and user interaction. Creating space for interaction

from the spectator author is at the core of their practice, it affords a level of accessibility to whoever may be experiencing their work. Ultimately allowing the viewer to create the experience they are receiving.

1. The Living Object Set, Porcelain 2. Hole Cup, Porcelain 3. Hole Cup, Porcelain 4. Hole Cup, Porcelain

ATHON8.WIXSITE.COM/GARDENOFEDEN

@ABBEYKIN

ABBEY THON

Animation & Game Art THESIS STATEMENT

“Garden of Eden” is a 2-D animated TV series aimed at children while remaining accessible to teens and young adults. This project encompasses several aspects of developing a television series. With the final product being an 11-minute pilot episode animatic, the process began with broad concepts and vague ideas. These ideas were then shaped into a detailed season plot arc character outlines. These outlines were turned into unique visual designs, and the environments around them were developed. Once the characters and the world were in place, the pilot episode was drafted. A script was written and re-written. Storyboards were sketched and dialogue was recorded. The storyboards were then put into a moving sequence combined with the voice-over, sound effects and music to create a rough visual draft of the pilot episode. This animatic, along with the initial concept art and ideas can now be presented to a television network in a pitch meeting with the hopes of a positive response. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Abigail (Abbey) K. Thon is a character designer, storyteller and illustrator from Burlington, Vermont. Her work focuses on creating unique stories that feature dynamic characters. Using compelling color, eye-catching fashion, and expressive features, Abigail brings a breath of fresh air into the world of character design. Much of her work is digital, utilizing Procreate, Medibang Paint Pro and Photoshop.

Abigail has created published work for clients across New England including True Tone Studios and Gemhammer and Sons Gaming. When she isn’t in the studio working, Abigail enjoys adventuring outdoors, beating her high scores in MarioKart, drinking tea from her favorite mug, playing Animal Crossing and spending time with her pets.

1. ”Forest Concept” 2019. Digital. 8.5" x 11" 2. “Lake Concept” 2019. Digital. 8.5" x 11" 3. “Desert Concept” 2020. Digital. 8.5" x 11" 4. “Eden Plush (made by Amy Simpson)” 2020. Minky fabric, embroidery, polyfill. 15" 5. “Eden Color Studies” 2019. Digital. 8.5" x 11" 6. “Garden of Eden Poster” 2020. Digital. 24" x 36"

MVELIE.WIXSITE.COM/MSMOONJELLYART

@MS.MOONJELLY

MELISSA VELIE

Animation & Game Art THESIS STATEMENT

My thesis A Fish Out of Water features Byrnn a young ringmaster to a failing circus. After his father passed away he inherited the circus and a mountain of hidden debt. One night after looking over some papers he takes a walk. Byrnn ends up on a beach walking along the shore before he stumbles upon a mass of breathing, stirring seaweed. He, being a curious man, starts poking at the pile, uncovering a gross looking creature. Its closed, bulging eyes and rock-like skin repulses Byrnn, but he can’t stop looking at it. If he’s so fascinated by this creature, maybe it could be an attraction at the circus. He didn’t take her home out of kindness but from desperation. However, the more Byrnn fed and maintained this gross creature the more he actually cared about it. Finally, at the end of the animation, the creature opens her eyes and they look at each other. He sees intelligence behind her eyes and suddenly it clicks for Byrnn, this creature is more than just some beast. By then Byrnn had grown fond of her and had even given her a name: Trish. Other characters in my thesis were designed to fit into the circus as the years go by. The circus gets bigger and bigger bringing in more unique and strange performers to add to this mismatched family. The chaotic childish Izzy and stern, snarky Thaddeus are a glimpse into the future of the circus.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Melissa Velie is a 2D animator, game artist, and character designer born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She is currently attending Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. She will be graduating in 2020 as a Digital

Media major. Melissa’s work has heavy influences of Tolkien-esk fantasy, nordic culture and steampunk as well as Legend of Zelda.

1. Thaddeus and Izzy’s Caravan, 2020, Digital Media/Photoshop 2. Pink Shores, 2019, Digital Media/Photoshop 3. Thaddeus the Witch 2019, Digital Media/Photoshop

4. Byrnn the Ringmaster 2019, Digital Media/ Photoshop

5. Izzy the Clown 2019, Digital Media/Photoshop 6. A Little Light in The Dark, 2020, Digital Media/Photoshop

@TINY_SPOON_PRODUCTIONS

KAITLANAVIGLIELMO.COM

KAITLANA VIGLIELMO Ceramics

THESIS STATEMENT

My thesis work was going in the direction of creating work based on my memories and life experiences. I was working on creating a living room installation full of ceramic dishware and any other things that could be made from ceramics which might be found in a hutch, both hand built and thrown, plus a coffee table that I made, found furniture and other objects. My goal was to create a space that when entered would give the feeling that you had entered someone’s loved and lived in home. I ended up installing my work in the woods behind my house where my childhood tree-house once stood. All the objects are based off of objects that are similar to objects that bring back specific memories to me; they are not the objects nor exact replicas because I wanted to experience the installation in the same way that the viewers would have. My thesis has taken a sharp turn away from the physical aspects of this idea, but I am still working from the same concept. Instead of the primary focus being on ceramics, I have constructed a scrapbook, folding and binding the pages together myself. I have been making a visual representation of what goes on in the folds of my brain. I have taken all the photos that I had compiled for the picture frames and sectioned them into their own corresponding pages or overloaded onto a single page to accomplish this. I’m trying to represent the order and chaos of remembering certain moments in time, along with adding text and other elements such as pressed plants and liftable flaps.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Kaitlana Viglielmo is a potter born and raised in Woodstock, NY. Kaitlana’s work focuses on functional art for the home, from dishware to ceramic furnishings like

kitchen, bathroom, and tabletop tiles. She attended community college before settling at Maine College of Art, where she is set to earn her BFA in Ceramics in 2020.

1. Scrapbook intro page, 2020, pen on paper, glue, printed images, string 2. India, 2020, photos I took, mixed media of found objects, pen, glue, string 3. Scrapbook pages, 2020, pen on paper, glue, printed images 4. The Folds of Memory, 2020, Installation 5. The Folds of Memory, 2020, Installation

AVWEINER.COM

@_CARYOPSIS_

VIOLET WEINER Metalsmithing & Jewelry THESIS STATEMENT

Our bodily remnants, such as fluids, shed hair, and other refuse, confront the viewer with abjection — what has been physically or psychologically cast off. The abject reminds us of what we try to forget — our filth, our mortality, the inevitability of the body’s decay. Elements of the uncanny are also included in the abject. In Western culture, objects and shapes that elicit these feelings of unease are fairly universal. We have an instinctual, visceral reaction to these forms due to millennia of accumulated cultural knowledge. Even when highly abstracted, visual and tactile features that reference biological suffering such as holes, tumors, and other protrusions provide an immediate psychological connection to physical suffering and the emotions that these symptoms evoke. In my work, I investigate abstracting and transforming elements of the abject through the juxtaposition of objects and materials that have vastly different sociocultural connotations — gemstones and fingernails, precious metals and pubic hair. I have no interest in making work that’s straightforwardly attractive or grotesque. My work confuses these emotional binaries between seduction and repulsion. Besides visual qualities, tactility in material is vital to the work — how the material warms with body heat, causes static cling, or leaves marks on the skin— and the way in which it impacts the wearer.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Violet Weiner is a Portland-based interdisciplinary metalsmith who works with a wide range of material, including taxidermy, stone, hair, plastic, silicone and precious metals. She is currently working on her BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry from Maine College of Art as well as training under Patricia Daunis-Dunning of Daunis Fine Jewelry. Her

current body of work investigates abjection through objects that follow traditional jewelry typeforms, and is inspired by the soft, biomorphic forms of fungi and organs. Violet’s work aims to elicit a psychosomatic response in those interacting with the piece, simultaneous seduction and repulsion, the desire to touch and the desire to cringe away

1. Pupae, 2019, Marble, cubic zirconia, silicone, sterling silver, fox fur, 18" x 3.5" x 2" 2. Pubic, 2019, Marble, pubic hair, sterling silver, epoxy plastic, rubber, 16"x 4" x 1" 3. Filiform I, 2019, Marble, glass, vitreous enamel, sterling silver, steel, 2" x 1.5" x 1.25" 4. Teratoma, 2019, Marble, rock crystal, hair, sterling silver, epoxy plastic, rubber, 18" x 4" x 2"

JAYWICKERSHAM.COM

@JAYWICKERSHAM

JAY WICKERSHAM Photography

THESIS STATEMENT

My work transforms how we as humans think about the spaces we inhabit, as well as how to use or not use them, and what it means to be a part of a place.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Jay Wickersham will be a graduate with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Maine College of Art in May 2020. Jay started taking photographs in his junior year of high school, where he immediately fell in love with photography. Following his graduation from high school he started freelancing his talent to friends and family around town, as well as working for a portrait studio and camera shop where he learned the foundation of photography. Following that he started at Maine College of Art, where he has refined

1. The Next Generation, 2019

his craft immensely. Jay’s most notable work is his series ‘Are We There Yet?’ where he describes a small rural town called Waterford, Maine. He does this through large constructed photographs using strobe lighting, colored gels, and set design. His major focus with this work is to show people who otherwise wouldn’t look twice at a rural town that there is more involved in living in a place like this. In some cases it is a dream, and in other cases it can be a nightmare.

2. Ripped Apart, 2020 3. The House That Is Never Complete, 2019 4. White Whale, 2020 5. The Weight of the World, 2019

AWIGHTDESIGNS.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

@AWIGHTDESIGNS

ABC

ANNA WIGHT Graphic Design THESIS STATEMENT

For my thesis, I chose to explore communication through floriography and the possibilities of combining past forms of communication with modern forms. Within the past few decades, our society has grown used to instant communication allowed for by technological advancement. Back in the Victorian era the most common form of communicating was sending letters and postcards, which we now refer to as snail mail. Another way Victorians also communicated was through floriography, which is the use of flowers to send messages. Each flower is assigned a meaning or meanings, which could be found in flower dictionaries, and a combination of flowers created messages. I was interested in this method of communication and began questioning how it could be incorporated into modern times, or if it could be incorporated? So the group of projects I had worked on through the semester explored this thought process.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Anna Wight is a Graphic Designer currently based in Upstate New York. Anna received her BFA in Graphic Design from Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. She has experience in marketing, branding, information design, book design, UX/UI design, and motion graphics.

Anna has work experience from internships at Maine College of Art in the marketing department and at Inficon, an electrical engineering company in Upstate New York, within their marketing department. She has also taken on various freelance projects.

1. Floral Illustrations, 2020, Watercolors, 3" x 3" 2. Postcards, 2020, Watercolors and Adobe Suite 3. Message Cards, 2020, Adobe Suite 4. Floral Photography, 2020, Canon Rebel T6 DSLR Camera and Adobe Suite 5. Thesis Process Book, 2020, Adobe Suite, 8.5" x 11"

CHAOSNCONTROL.COM

@CHAOS.NCONTROL

ABC

KATHERINE WOOD Graphic Design THESIS STATEMENT

My thesis is the branding of a high-end dispensary called Euflorie, which focuses on the euphoric feeling while on cannabinoid products. With the rise of the cannabis industry, it brings a new niche and opportunity in the design world that I would like to explore. This includes pushing boundaries of branding and experimentation in packaging design. Throughout this branding process, I am bringing together the medicinal and recreational uses of cannabis in the product and design.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Katie Wood is a driven graphic designer in her final semester at Maine College of Art. She has worked as a design intern with Toderico Creative in Portland, ME, and Engine: Propelling the Creative Community in Biddeford, ME. She is passionate in multiple

fields of graphic design such as branding, UI and UX design, and environmental design. She believes that all of these fields interrelate with each other. They are what builds the face of a company and shape what they serve to the audience.

1. Interior of Euflorie, 2020, Photoshop 2. Euflorie CBD Products, 2020, Print 3. Euflorie Poster, 2020, Digital Print, 11" x 17" 4. Euflorie Body Balm, 2020, Print 5. Euflorie CBD Hemp Oil, 2020, Print 6. Euflorie CBD Hemp Oil Tincture, 2020, Print

AURELIAWRENN.COM

@AURELIAWRENN

AURELIA WRENN Photography

THESIS STATEMENT

In addition to my trials with mental health, my work is concerned with shared concepts of gender and sexuality; it is more accurate to describe my work as an exploration into the intricacies of human existence.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Aurelia Wrenn is an artist who utilizes photography to create a visual language revolving around issues of ritual, gender identity, sexuality, feminism, and mental health. Having studied photography at Delaware College of Art and Design and at Maine College of Art, they specialize in digital

and alternative processes. Based in Portland, Maine, they are currently generating a body of work that aims to enact positive representation of transgender individuals. They are also actively involved with Maine Transgender Network and its community.

1. “M and Chai in the Garden”, 2019, digital photograph 2. “Untitled still life”, 2020, digital photograph 3. “Max in the Garden,” 2019, digital photograph 4. “Untitled still life with bread and pomegranates”, 2019, digital photograph 5. “Untitled still life”, 2019, digital photograph; cyanotype and gold glitter on stale bread

@FMWMAKES

FIONA WYNNE

Woodworking & Furniture Design THESIS STATEMENT

My thesis project entails recombining a single form in several different ways to showcase different aspects of Identity. Throughout my junior and senior year I have been investigating how the construction of a piece can affect its meaning and symbolism. Materiality changes how a form is thought of and alters the context that it represents. A statue made out of aluminum would give a different reading and impression than the same form made from steel, bronze or plaster because of the typical symbolic and metaphorical associations that are common to those materials. The species of wood or type of joints used in construction can have the same effect on symbolism as different materials. I create objects that are meant to be used in everyday life; without that element of use the work is not complete. The things that I create, even the ones that aren’t explicitly useful, have their meaning, their reason for existing tied to the action they are used to complete. A washstand with a pitcher and bowl can act as a gesture of hospitality, for example. The table on its own does not spark much interest or hold much significance, but when combined with the bowl and basin it becomes something more by the gesture it implies: washing one’s face- a gesture of hospitality and welcoming.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Fiona Wynne studied at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine, graduating with a BFA in Woodworking and Furniture Design. She has been apprenticing with furniture maker John Moore in Westtown, New York since 2015. Her work was included in the 2018 WilsonArt Chair Display.

Fiona’s process is research-intensive, focusing on how function informs meaning. She is captivated by the way that furniture often holds great meaning, and how the function informs the feeling and look of a piece. She loves puzzles and problem solving- a passion she brings to tricky joinery and complex forms.

1. Immitation Shaker Cabinet, 2019, Cherry, 18" x 7" x 25" 2. Irish Country Chair, 2020, Ash and Mahogany, 20" x 24" x 42" 3. Eileen Gray Transat Chair Model, 2019, Wood, 5" x 9" x 7" 4. Memorial, 2019, Walnut and Basswood, 6" x" 7" x 12" 5. Washstand, 2019, Maple, Poplar, Found Pitcher, 20" x 20" x 54"

PHOEBEZILDJIAN.COM

@PHOEBEJOYZILDJIAN

PHOEBE ZILDJIAN Metalsmithing & Jewelry THESIS STATEMENT

My practice relies heavily on play to define project structures and maintain momentum. My methodology originates in how I interacted with toys growing up. I was attracted to dollhouses, animal figurines, and building blocks. Organizing objects, setting stages, building forts, and exploring the natural world around me are the most important parts of my day, and dictating spaces in a way that is appealing and functional is necessary. The small worlds that I assume control over are proxy to the larger spaces that I psychologically project. Miniature worlds outfitted with detailed furnishings allow me to have complete control over more space than I actually have at human scale. Within this play structure, miniature objects allow me to imagine that I have the opportunity to build within spaces larger than any one person has access to. I design gardens, houses, and landscapes and move through them in my imagination.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Phoebe Zildjian is a metalsmith and sculptor expecting to graduate from Maine College of Art in 2020 with a BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry. Zildjian consdiers herself to be a feminist architect, constructing fantasy spaces designed to reclaim privacy, leisure, and power over space. Zildjianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work exists because she feels that these qualities are things she is denied in her climate. She builds miniature architectural structures based on the objective of finding solitude as a way to exert power

over space and create a sense of place that responds to her struggles with mental illness. Through this practice she reclaims small parts of the world in the name of solitude. Her methodology of play is combined with study of architectural theory, and seeking the genius construction of devalued buildings. Growing up in Castine, Maine and currently living in Portland, Maine, Zildjian has a deep connection with the emotive qualities of her familial landscape.

1. Five Broaches, 2020, MuseumBoard, epoxy, powdercoatedsteel, magnets, 10" x 3" x 3" 2. Timberframe Model, 2020, Plywood, red thread, brass nails, 2" x 3" x 3" 3. Void One, 2020, Cherry, veneer, powder coated brass, ash, 3" x 3" x 6" 4. Pavillion, 2020, Wood, silver chain, 5" x 5" x 5"

PAULINAZUCKERMAN.COM

@YINGY.ZU

PAULINA ZUCKERMAN Ceramics / Art History

THESIS STATEMENT

With jagged claws and a tanned leather tricorn, a Scottish terrier raids the seas searching for delicious bird eggs. He disrupts calm waters and tricks small birds, but finds himself in a strange predicament after chasing an enormous albatross, leading him into the middle of a global pollution problem. Using white porcelain as my canvas, I wanted to create a three dimensional illustrated story where narratives and characters were inspired by my reverence for the natural world. The final work had two products - one being the ceramic item as a sculptural object and the other being the ceramic pieces individually photographed and printed into a book with text for children, binding descriptive text with the imagery. Because of the COVID-19 virus outbreak, I was unable to finish my thesis in the ceramic medium so I started again, using cut watercolor paper, watercolor, and gouache to tell the story. Using animals and modern environmental issues, I am looking to create stories which offer a perspective on the anthropocene that can be understood by generations growing up. By combining the two dimensional language of illustration with three dimensional clay and paper, I am carving the space to make work that is both sculptural and draws from high relief. Ultimately, my goal is for my art to tell stories that transition seamlessly and elegantly from the two-dimensional world into a space in which they provide a weight and tangibility to the complicated intersection of human and natural ecosystems.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

ARTWORK

Paulina Zuckerman lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and is expecting to graduate in spring 2020 with a BFA degree in Ceramics from Maine College of Art. She grew up by the ocean, exploring Cape Cod beaches with her adventurous pugs. Using ceramics and illustration, Zuckerman investigates the way humans view and interact with animals and 1.

the environment. She reimagines the flora and fauna we take for granted in a personable and charismatic light, and considers if the narrative is bringing us closer to the world we live in or if it acts as a form of escapism. It combines the tangibility of ceramics with illustrative surfacing inspired by childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s books.

1. Herring Gull Attack, 2020, Porcelain and underglaze, 8" x 10" x 2" 2. Laysan Albatross Chicks, 2020, Porcelain and underglaze, 8" x 10" x 1" 3. Marine Debris, 2020, Paper, watercolor, gouache, ink, 11" x 17" x 1" 4. Full Speed Ahead, 2020, Paper, watercolor, gouache, 11" x 17" x 1"

5. Following the Albatross, 2020, Porcelain and underglaze, 12" x10" x 1"

2020 GRADUATES MFA Jesse Ryan Brown Oscar Chacon kt coleman Christina Raquel Daley Jessica Parker Foley Justin Love Elyse Noelani Grams Frances Derby Hildreth Will Jacks Emily Grace Johnson Dasha Ann Kalisz Steven Michael Kelly Jeremy David Owen John Quigley Liz Rhaney Brian Smith Anna Valenti Rachel Anne York

MAT Miguel Gaspar Benitez Karol Carlsen Arianna Christine Dilios Dylan Fruh Anne Patricia Hayes Kristen Kaiser Adrienne Munger Ian Jones Myers Jon Rudnicki Melissa Weglein

BFA Chloe Adams Vince Amoroso Lauren Ashlee Anderson April Joy Azutillo Austin Bach Elizabeth Badamo Amanda Baldwin Seth Leander Baron Matanah-Breza Betko Cooper Binette David Boyer Elinor Jordan Cania Josephine Chase Gabriela Therese Chastain

Khayman Clancy Ian Colwell Heather Flor Cron Florence Crowe Alejandra Jimena Cuadra Sanchez Hannah Sullivan Day Mikayla Dennison Tia Doering Jasmine Echevarria Ann Noel Finkel Adam Ellis Fowler Kate Gardiner Alaura Gonzalez Daina Goodrich Candice Gosta Alexander Adams-Tewksbury Gross Katherine Hamburger Spencer Samuel Hansen Sarah Harrison Heath Olivia Houston Bria Hughes Andrew Jackson Cade Jarvis Mitch Johnson Hayden Jones Imani Delores Jones Aly Kaye Emma Kielty Ashley LaBombard Ramone Lampos Sadie Lappin Joshua Paul Lightbourne Athena Capella Lynch Emma Malbon Taylor Mastrio Zoë Matthiessen Ollie McGowan Samantha Athena Mckenzie Ana-Lyssa Mercurius Renée Lula Michaud Madison Miller Catherine Mitchell Geneviève Louisa Antoinette Moberly Andrew Thomas Moran Alyssa Morgo Rachel Morris Tyler Moulton

Audrey Noyes Taelyn Connor O’Keefe Ashley Page Maia Anna Josephine Parsons Mattie Perry Madison Victoria Poitrast-Upton Shelby Nicole Pyrzyk Dylan Michael Quinn Shealyn Rae Quinn Rebecca Richards Evan Roman Robidoux Hannah Roop Wilfred Rosario Amanda Saker Owen Abbott Scott Tori Shoemaker Riley Silva Jessica Silvia Phoebe Smith Piper Smith Lin Snow Courtney Stenman Matt Stephany Adrianna Stewart Leanna Marie Sullivan Nina Sophia Swart Alissa Szeplaki Shamira Tanguay Kiana Thayer Abigail K. Thon Melissa Velie Kaitlana Viglielmo Rosalind Wade Josiah Stephan Wagner Max Waltman Amelia Anne Walz Violet Weiner Logan White Keegan L. Whitford Jay Wickersham Anna Wight Katherine Wood Aurelia Wrenn Fiona Wynne Phoebe Joy Zildjian Paulina Zuckerman

MAINE COLLEGE OF ART

522 Congress Street Portland, Maine 04101