Limbo
Work from the 2021 graduating class of the Illustration Program at Parsons School of Design
Loop Santo
I wrap around the block again. My fingers, toes and strands of hair Could not keep track of how many times I’ve done that.
Cupping my hand beneath
The wide mouth of the faucet I draw a bath to Erase the only new thing in my life: My cells.
I cannot remember your kiss, Much less the way your arms wrapped Around me.
The parts of me that remember have been Scrubbed and swirled away.
Electricity, glass and metal, That is all I have to see you once more The heaven I experience Is one click away from hell.
Maybe you smell like honey, It is hard to recall.
Or maybe the phone rings true and Smell like nothing at all.
Ruminations in Limbo
Madds Ellis
The tragedy is in the unknown. It almost always is, for there can be no certainties for a humankind so vast, especially when empathy is conflated with submission. We’ve learned that now. Some had already known this, but now the rest of us have caught up. Parts of the human experience—that many-limbed figure—shy from decision, from the definite, from black and white; they stay still, suspended, drawn into themselves.
The tragedy is in the bigger picture. Staticity implies different things for different people; sometimes one implication is worse than another. And it’s impossible to know how to help, how to level the playing field, how to fight fair. And perhaps the answer is that there is no answer. Maybe that’s the reality and we’re simply delaying its solidification in our collective truths.
The tragedy is how quickly we’ve become acclimated to discomfort. It’s how prepared we are to lay down on our swords. It’s how recklessness becomes hypocrisy, how it becomes aggression, how it becomes hurt. We acquiesce to the idling engine. We take comfort in its sputtering and aborted churns, for this means that we can finally be done. We’ve tried our best, given our all, but the car simply will not go. And isn’t that fantastic?
It’s not the answer we wanted, no, but it’s an answer, and it’s an order: give up. Try again later.
But the great thing about limbo—and it really is great—is that the unknown has no rules. No expectations. The clammy hand pressed into the middle of our backs draws away, unsure which direction to push us, and so we propel ourselves. We break apart and become something new, something we’ve built ourselves, something we can be proud of. We learn new words, watch new movies, listen to new music, read new books, draw new things, make new discoveries. We learn things about ourselves that we hadn’t had the time to learn in the rigamarole of Life Outside the Home. We were too busy. It’s saccharine, painfully so. But now our car has been stalled on the side of the highway for over a year, and we’ve noticed that, past the guardrails, a field stretches out toward the horizon, and flowers creep onto the pavement, and cows mull over the land lazily, and beyond the sun, behind it, maybe, there is the secret knowledge that life has been going on all along.
Amyra Atheefa amyraatheefa.com
Barbara Batista
Something in the Water Instagram: @_barb_art
Gina Beneduci
Nemophilist
ginabene.myportfolio.com
Instagram: @gina_bene
Lia Bidó Féliz
limomelon.com
Instagram: @limomelon
Allie Budd
Vacant alliebudd.com
Instagram: @allliemations
Ashley Chen
Moth Speak
tinyratlet.com
Instagram: @tinyratlet
Crys Chen
Limbo
snayke.ink
Instagram: @snayke.tattoo
Twitter: @snayke.tattoo
Marvin Cheung
Limbo
eric Cipriaso
The Truth
Instagram: @spaceprinceeric
Serina Clemente
Liminality: The Misrememberings of Locus Amoenus artstation.com/untitled_pixel
Instagram: @untitled.pixel
Jenazia Conway
L I M B O
Instagram: @0dd.Ball.artt
Charlotte Damson
behind within charlottedamson.com
Instagram: @charlottedamsonart
Sehej Dassan
sofa sweetheart
Instagram: @sehejdasan
Jah’china de Leon
Adriana De Paz
Drifting
Instagram: @myhandsonfire
Aquina Dicha
aquinadicha.com
Instagram: @aquinadicha
Hana Dizdarević
Instagram: @frog_gremlin
Nicole Domhoff
Round and Round
nicoledomhoff.myportfolio.com
Instagram: @mississippimilf
Madds Ellis
Maybe Something In Between
maddsellis.com
Instagram: @blodnas
Geng Feng
fengg214.wixsite.com/illustration
Instagram: @gengfenganimation
Hannah Gao
hannahgao.com
Instagram: @hanalita
Liv Garber
In The Middle of Growing Up livgarber.com
Instagram: @giantpenpal
Philippa Gaughan
Weeknights/7:30pm EST
Instagram: @philippagaughan.art
Sebastian Hanlon
LIMBO
sebvio.com
Instagram: @sebastian_vio
Zidie He
Falling
arabellahe.wixsite.com/arbl
Instagram: @arbl_art
Adrianna Helfrich
Revolving, Revolving askingmarks.com
Instagram: @askingmarks
Leah Huang
Unknown
leahcatherinehuang.com
Santo
Your absence surrounds me. santojacobsson.myportfolio.com/santojacobsson.com
Instagram: @santojacobsson
Twitter: @jacobssonsanto
Rosalía Jiménez
Do you know what’s next?
salianez.com
Instagram: @salianez
Divyakshi Kedia
Toward an image of home
divdoes.com
Instagram: @div_does
Twitter: @div_does
Jun Kim
Rise/Fall
Instagram: @jkim_illust
Twitter: @jyeowa
Tiffany Lai
Instagram: @tifflai.tattoos
Hayley Legon
In the basment of an undisclosed location legoh419.wixsite.com/website Instagram: @hayleylegon
Jenny Li
Departure
dewpearlart.com
Instagram: @dewpearl_art
Twitter: @dewpearl_art
Georgia Lim
Mangosteen
georgialim.com
Instagram: @georgiadraws.jpg
On Shun Lo slowness onshunlo.com Instagram: @olosaysello
Ryann Logeais
ribskitch.com
Instagram: @ribskitch
Alyssa Markowski
Zoom Waiting Room
alymarkz.wixsite.com/illustration
Instagram: @weirdlilguys
Twitter: @alymarkzart
Reilly Metz
Ginny Munson
mechanical drift
Instagram: @ginny.munson
low can you go?
@aneggmess
Agnes Ning how
agnesusan.myportfolio.com Instagram:
Rosalie Occhino
borrowed time rosalieocchino.com
Instagram: @rosalieocchino
Instagram: @bugwithnoslug
Alexia Papavasilakis
The Sticky alexiapapavasilakis.com
Instagram: @ale.x.art
Natalia Petrykowska
Oblivion
Instagram: @n6t6li6petrykowska
Twitter: @t6lly
Anirudh Pi
anirudhpi.com
Instagram: @anirudhpi
Twitter/Instagram: @axrudh
Waiting livporter.com
Instagram: @maitlandporter
Twitter: @ohmaitland
Liv Porter
Lily Kim Qian
House of Mirrors
lilykqian.com
Instagram: @lkq.art
Caitlynn Ra
wander
Instagram: @saeheera
Taira Rice
justusgirls.nyc
Instagram: @tigggrrraa
Mckenna Ryan
Waiting For The Rain
mckennna.com
Instagram: @mckennna
Twitter: @mckennadryan
The City That Forever Sleeps
morganfriedman.com
Instagram: @cptcrossroadart
Morgan Saavedra-Friedman
Judgement
Instagram: @sveaterpunk
Sarah Velandria
Karina Liz Velez
Something vaguely cryptic
velezk5.wixsite.com/karinav
Instagram: @Anirak_Zel
Twitter: AnirakZel
Gaby Verdooren
Dualities
gabyverdooren.com
Instagram: @b.ruja
Joshua Washington
What Am I?
Instagram: @Joshua_Wahington_Art
Twitter: @JoshsArt1
Katrina Wasserman Devouring katrinawasserman.com Instagram: @katrinavanalstyne
everything in the world becomes blurred when seen close up kohanawilson.com
Instagram: @floralgunk
Kohana Wilson
Purify
willyanjiadi.wixsite.com/willitao
Instagram: @willitaoo
Willitao
Sung Won Yoon
A question to myself
Cover: Natalia Petrykowska
Title page: Zidie He
Credit page: Lily Qian
Design: Catrin Morgan
Printed by Conveyor, Jersey City, NJ
Special thanks to Hien Dinh, Jasmine Graham and Sam Morrison for your amazing support this year and to Divyakshi Kedia for checking and organizing all of the files for the publication. Finally, we would like to thank Scott Gannis, our wonderful advisor.
Senior Thesis Faculty: James Bascara, Guy Billout, Amanda Bonaiuto, Jordin Isip, Nora Krug, Catrin Morgan, Chang Park, Lauren Redniss, R. Sikoryak.
Senior Thesis Teaching Assistants: Nicole D’alessio, Michael Natriello. Alexa Mauzy
