MFA Thesis Catalog 2014 by Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Born of a pioneering spirit, Massachusetts College of Art and Design was the nation’s first art school to grant a degree, proudly opening its doors in 1873 to anyone with talent and the will to succeed at a time when public access was uncommon. True to its history, MassArt continues to envision all that is possible and strives to reach it. All accepted graduate students who qualify receive financial assistance which may include teaching assistantships and scholarships. MassArt’s Graduate Programs offer US News & World Report’s #1 rated MFA in the state and one of the top-25 programs in the US. Our campus in downtown Boston offers more than 1,000,000 square feet of studios, workshops and galleries in walking distance of three world-class museums. MassArt’s MFA Thesis Exhibitions showcase the innovative, multidisciplinary work of our internationally diverse artists.

PRESIDENT, DAWN BARRETT The Graduate Programs 621 Huntington Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02115 (P) 617 879 7166 MassArt.edu

CREDITS: Editor and Creative Director: Leah Gadd Photographer: Zachary Allen (MFA ‘15) Photographer for MFAWC Thesis Show: Clint Baclawski (MFA ‘08) Production and Design: Karina Tovar (MFA ‘14)

The college offers graduate degrees in eleven areas. For more information please visit MassArt.edu, email gradprogram@ massart.edu, or call (617) 879-7166.

Cover and end pages: Daniel Schissler Untitled (Rocks), 2014, archival inkjet print from transparency Untitled (Soil, Film, Sunlight), 2014, archival inkjet print from transparency. Previous page: Dylan Nelson, Believe You Me, 2014, archival inkjet pigment print

CONTENTS | MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

MFA THESIS SHOWS

QAZI FAZLI AZEEM

NOAH BOOSHU

CAROLYN BURNS

AJ FARKAS

ANDREW HAMMERAND

YOAHN HAN

LILLIAN HARDEN

SOFIE ELANA HODARA

NICHOLAS HULLIBARGER

MOLLY LAMB

ANDRÉE LEDUC

MICAH R. O. LITANT

KIMBERLY MAROON

FISH MCGILL

ANGELA MITTIGA

DYLAN NELSON

MICHAEL PALLAZOLA

STEPHEN QUINLAN

BEN RADVILLE

SARA ROMANI

ERIC RUBY

DANIEL SCHISSLER

BIYANG SONG

KARINA TOVAR

DWIGHT YOUNG

APRIL 23 – MAY 5, 2014

MAY 12 – MAY 24, 2014

LELE ZHANG

66 MFAWC THESIS SHOW

| 2D LOW-RESIDENCY MFA IN PROVINCETOWN JESSICA COFRIN

JOE DIGGS

KIT DONNELLY

MELISA KEYES

JUDITH LAVENDAR

TOM LEWIS

MICHELLE PODGORSKI

KIM PUTNAM MICHAEL WALDEN

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

88 // Karina Tovar, Public Hearings, 2014, single channel video

// Carolyn T. Burns, Today?, 2014, acrylic on canvas on panel, 10â&#x20AC;? x 8â&#x20AC;?

// Eric Ruby, From Omens to Children, 2014, inkjet prints mounted to dyed canvas, dimensions variable

// Stephen Quinlan, Medium Deck, 2014, 16mm, VHS, digital video, rug, driftwood, reflecive gold cube.

// Lillian Harden, Ascent, 2014, ladder, book, hair, pearls, paper, canvas.

// Andrew Hammerand, Untitled (from The New Town), 2013, archival inkjet print on vinyl, 30â&#x20AC;? x 40â&#x20AC;?

// Ben Radville, Landfish Song, Divider, Unravelling the Scrolls, 2013-2014, mixed media

QAZI AZEEM FAZLI MFA DYNAMIC MEDIA INSTITUTE | www.fazliazeem.com

Information overload is a common symptom on the many media outlets and choices on the internet. As part of my sadvocacy for autistic individuals in South Asia, I wanted to simulate the experience of “sensory overload” among learners on the autism spectrum. The use of technology in educational media has evolved from being a political pool of governments to the click-through rate of search engine optimizers and websites targeting users with advertisements. As freedoms and choices are being challenged in the new frontier, new media’s response is accelerating the distribution and consumption of online content. Increasing internet censorship in developing countries, such as my native Pakistan, continues to distort perceptions of culture and reality, insulating youth from free online educational materials. My role as an educator for design technology overlaps with online activism for educational inclusion and internet freedom. Living and working in a culture of self-censorship, I have been challenged by online proxies and anonymous web browsing tools. Education has become a matter of perception; everything changes depending on who is teaching and who is being taught. This cognitive polymorphism is the subject of my thesis and my art. We adapt and learn through our environmental and personal lens—our biases and stereotypes that we are indoctrinated into. To overcome them is a struggle that is mirrored in biological evolution by adaptation. The desire to survive, thrive and live necessitates a change of perspective, leading to a change in how we learn. My perspective on life changed as I learned from people on the autism spectrum. Through trial and error, I learned how to focus on things which make a difference in the world around me. I want the observer to experience my struggle to make sense of the world. I hope this experience moves the observer towards understanding the other—the person on the autism spectrum and appreciating inclusion through a change in his/her perception. Qazi Fazli Azeem is a Fulbright Scholar from Pakistan, here in the US for his MFA in Communication Design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Dynamic Media Institute. He is a visiting researcher at the MIT Media Lab, a member of MIT’s Think Tank and a global design ambassador for the Interaction Design Foundation. His educational technology research was showcased at the 2014 US Dept. of Education Datapalooza in Washington D.C. Azeem is Pakistan’s first and South Asia’s only International self-advocate for the autism spectrum since 2006. In 2013, I spoke at a panel at the United Nations in New York City on World Autism Awareness Day. His inspiration draws from his interest in technology, education, neurodiversity, futurism and new media. His work discusses stereotypes and limitations, both in technology and in those that try to control it.

// Perspective, 2014, tablet, camera lucida lens, 3D printed lens holder, lamp base, video montage

NOAH BOOSHU MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.noahbooshu.com

// Installation view, Bakalar and Paine Galleries

// Line Ride, 2014, pigment print, 30” x 40”

CAROLYN T BURNS MFA 2D | www.carolyntburns.com

Sometimes, the only thing stranger than how much has changed is how much hasn’t. Most of the time, we don’t bother to notice the spaces most familiar to us. They’re so ingrained in our memory that we forget to look. These everyday spaces are the monuments of our past and the landscape of our present. They are the witness to our tragedies and triumphs, to all the moments that add up to who we are. Practical, functional architecture becomes the gloriously mundane backdrop for the stories that comprise our personal mythologies. It can be overwhelming. But every space has a history of its own and every space is a part of many people’s personal histories. They are not ours exclusively. When I stop to examine and document spaces I know well, I find myself unexpectedly estranged. Some spaces are so familiar that the moment I recognize them as something apart from myself, I’m disoriented. Defamiliarized, I begin to reconstruct an image, sorting through the “facts” that have left me alienated. I construct my paintings like we construct the world around us, to suit our needs. My approach is rooted in a logic that is separate from straightforward documentation. While leaving room for intuition, I employ various systems to further distance the painted world from anything that would read as naturalistic space. These systems include manipulations of color, geometry, and surface. I highlight the strangeness that familiarity often causes us to overlook.

// Returning, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 34” x 50”

// Installation view, 2014, Bakalar and Paine Galleries

AJ FARKAS MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.ajfarkas.com

Every time and place has its own light. The cool, bright light of a lake in summer. The flat, grey light of a city in winter. Purple light after a snowstorm. Warm, soft light on the faces of friends over dinner. The single wavelength yellow light of sodium lamps in a parking lot. Photography is at the intersection of science and art. The technical understanding of its process allows us to communicate in more abstract or in more specific ways. Digitization allows us to combine or remove information in order to focus on a single concept. Art can display the beauty of our scientific knowledge and science enables greater potential for the creation of art.

// 18.42.19, 2014, digital photogram, 3508 x 2546 px (Left page) // A Handmade Portrait of Four Colors, Developed in Light, 2012, chemiphotogram, 20â&#x20AC;? x 24â&#x20AC;? (Right page)

ANDREW HAMMERAND MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.andrewhammerand.com

The photographs in the series The New Town examine a planned community in the suburban midwest. The images were made by accessing a single networked camera mounted atop a church in the center of the town. As in many communities today, cameras such as this one feed information to the internet. A 360 degree view coupled with full control of the camera allows for the continuous observation of this place, its residents, and their public activities. The resulting photographs follow the daily lives of inhabitants of the town, revealing instances of vulnerability and anxiety, which resonate with our heightened awareness of surveillance technologies and increasing loss of privacy that defines America in the early 21st century.

// Untitled (from The New Town), 2013, archival inkjet print on vinyl, 30â&#x20AC;? x 40â&#x20AC;?

// Untitled (from The New Town), 2013, archival inkjet print on vinyl, dimensions variable

YOAHN HAN MFA 2D | www.yoahnhan.com

My work is a visual dialogue between protrusion and inculcation. My interest in forms where concave and convex shapes meet, like a heel and a hole, comes from the duality and symbiosis that these shapes create. This duality speaks of suppression and desire. These two states are related to both my experience of periodic, uncanny, bodily sensations and to the experience of my bifurcated cultural identity. During my childhood I had to overcome the physical challenge of cerebral arteriovenous malformation. This led to my interest in the body’s internal and external beauty in an abject state. Another challenge I have gone through is living between identities. In the strong society of Confucianism that I came from (Korea), it has always been a taboo for me to deal with sexuality. Symbiotic mutuality and an in-between quality are key elements that I explore in my process. Chameleonic transformation, androgyny, and transcendental are terms to which I relate my work. I never completely inhabit a territory of certainty. In my working process, this translates into a fascination with the metamorphosis of a wet surface turning dry and vise versa. I make work that is like a dish that neither contains a meal nor is washed clean, but is between them both—like an image of decay that is also the growth of another form. When you climb a mountaintop, you also want to go deep inside of the water. When you touch someone, you feel their skin while they feel yours. The two sides of the coin meet at this magical moment. They are foreign to each other, but you are a magician who makes them meet by the simple act of touch. I am talking about the membrane in between two or three seemingly different substances, which are, surprisingly, not totally foreign to each other. I have always been drawn to the re-purposing of materials such as paper towels, leftover paint, and other debris. Process plays a major role in my work, allowing my paintings to digest materials and culture. My work has references to bodily shapes that are not quite namable and that can be either male or female. What I find, however, is a certain kind of reaction or interaction between those two different entities. You are invited into the unbearable desire of my universe where nothing is certain.

// Figure in Chaos, 2013, mixed media on Yupo, 60” x 45” (Left image) // Petrified, 2014, paper pulp and ink on wood panel, 40” x 70” (Right image)

// Petrified, 2014, paper pulp and ink on wood panel, 40” x 70”.

LILLIAN HARDEN MFA 3D | www.lillianharden.com

A room in a home is like a theater. The objects in the room speak for usâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they read the script we have written. The script is about ourselves. We and our visitors are the audience. These objects get touched a lot. We record our use in the buildup of finger oils, in the slow erosion of handles. When I knit a stitch I feel connected to other people knitting stitches in other times and places. These things are performing multiple kinds of identities. They perform a gender of sorts, and they perform a social role. The Master and the Apprentice are hard to distinguish from one another when they are not engaged in their trade.

// The Master and The Apprentice, 2014, chairs, beach sand, stoneware, leather, wire, handmade books (drawing by Micah Litant)

// Installation view, 2014, Bakalar and Paine Galleries

// Dalliance, 2014, wood, brass, porcelain, wool, pearls

// The Ivory House On Undone Mountain (installation view), 2014, Bakalar and Paine Galleries

SOFIE ELANA HODARA MFA DYNAMIC MEDIA INSTITUTE | www.ubiqsound.com

A small electronic instrument resembling a theremin, iHear plays cell phone ringtones in order to highlight the pervasiveness of our mobile technologies and the familiar sounds they produce. By interacting with iHear, the user manipulates the frequency of ubiquitous cell phone ringtones in an attempt to hear them anew窶馬o longer as nagging interruptions or alerts, but, perhaps, as musical forms.

// iHear, 2014, mixed electronics and unspecified cell phone ringtones

NICHOLAS HULLIBARGER MFA 3D | www.nicholashullibargerartist.com

The only things which we commonly see are those which we preperceive, and the only things which we preperceive are those which have been labeled for us and the labels stamped into our minds. If we lost our stock of labels we may be intellectually lost in the midst of the world. - William James, The Principles of Psychology Before entering any space, our minds pre-construct a mental image of what we’ll find there based on cultural assumptions —many of which we’re not aware of—and personal experiences to which we compare everything. Therefore, many of us have already labeled the new experience before we have it. When we enter an art gallery, our perceptions of the space and the work in it are influenced not only by the generic assumptions and expectations we bring, but also by the specific forces that shape our experience, such as the architecture of the exhibition space and the decisions made by curators and artists. As we wander through the exhibition, these controlled circumstances funnel our expectations into a heightened state of consciousness that is unlikely to be present as we meander through our ordinary circumstances. By the Laws of the Other offers a juxtaposition between the consciousness we experience in a gallery and the consciousness we experience as we journey through the world. A key aspect of this exhibition entails those moments in time when the expected outcome of a situation is suddenly challenged by unexpected circumstances. This “circumstantial reality” is similar to the state of consciousness or mood that linguists refer to as subjunctive, meaning that it expresses a feeling—a wish, possibility, judgment, or opinion—about something that has not yet occurred. When and if that something does occur, our expectations may be met, partially met, or in some aspects countered, even overturned. It is the last, most extreme possibility that this exhibition addresses in the works Identity and Relations are Ceaselessly Rewritten (2014) and Visible Signs of What Used to Be—For the Near and the Elsewhere (2014). The expectations viewers may have for these works are nullified by processes of either subtraction or addition. Identity and Relations...(aka basketballs) “peels back” the skin—or texture—of the ball to nullify or cancel out the preassociations of the object and the label, “basketball.” The process of “subtractive nullification,” therefore places the viewer on a threshold between a familiar cultural object an unfamiliar art object. Visible Signs... (aka glass and oil work) act as polar partners to the basketballs. Visible Signs... nullify each other by utilizing a special type of glass—borosilicate—which, when added to a vat of vegetable oil, causes the glass to become barely visible. This perceptual phenomenon occurs because borosilicate glass and vegetable oil have nearly the same numerical value on the index of refraction scale, so the two materials almost cancel each other out by a process of “additive nullification.” Perceptually, they teeter between existence and nonexistence.

// Identity and Relations are Ceaselessly Rewritten, 2014, borosilicate glass and vegetable oil (Right page)

MOLLY LAMB MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.mollylamb.com

GHOST STEPPING It probably began with the crepe myrtle tree outside my window. The tangle of branches made sense to me and this became the way I made sense of everything that didn’t. Over the years, I have inherited the belongings of most of my family members. Packing and unpacking them has become an internal conversation about the reach of the past into the present. The belongings they left behind, elusive memories, and contradictory family stories form the precarious bedrock upon which my present reality rests. These photographs are a meditation on the fragments and layers that shape my personal landscape, its erosion, and its transformation.

// Postage Stamps, 2014, archival inkjet print, 20” x 24” (Left page) // The Wolves, 2014, archival inkjet print, 20” x 24” (Right page)

ANDREE LEDUC MFA 2D | www.andreeleduc.ca

// Installation view, 2014, Bakalar and Paine Galleries

// This is Not Utah, 2014, oil on canvas, 34” x 42”

MICAH R. O. LITANT MFA 2D | www.micahrolitant.com

It’s very hard to invent a new monster. People are more comfortable with their fears if they know what the monster is. - George A. Romero, Director (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, etc.) I haven’t always loved monsters. Until I was in my late teens, I was terrified of them. However, when I began working in a video store, that fear quickly turned into curiosity and then obsession. When I began researching monsters for this series, I quickly realized that the majority of them were really just distorted human forms. Although they’re often very animalistic as well, the scariest monsters are always anthropomorphized in some way. I think one of the reasons for this is that there’s nothing scarier than the kind of conscious brutality and apathy that humans seem to be uniquely capable of. The pain that we, as a species, have always inflicted on each other is far scarier than any sort of creature we could ever dream up. So, our enjoyment of horror movies is often really tied to the fantasy of the whole thing; how amusing the idea of monsters is in the face of real-life suffering. For a brief moment, we’re allowed a glance into the darkest recesses of our minds. On some subconscious level, we feel panic and dread sink in. However, as long as we’re still aware of the real world outside the screen, we only laugh.

// Installation view, 2014, Bakalar and Paine Galleries // Land Creature, 2014, cast and sculpted plaster

KIMBERLY MAROON MFA DYNAMIC MEDIA INSTITUTE | www.kmaroon.com

The Mosh Cyclorama combines digital projection and a spatially controlled interface to create an immersive photographic experience. The installation challenges the traditional ways in which we view photography and imagines a new platform on which the viewer can participate in the documented experience. By providing the user with a way to manipulate her photography, the artist hopes to offer the viewer the perspective of being in the crowd at a concert.

// The Mosh Cyclorama, 2014, multimedia installation, dimensions variable

FISH McGILL MFA DYNAMIC MEDIA INSTITUTE | www.fishmcgill.com

// Germ’d, 2014, mixed media, 2’ x 2’ x 3’.

// Installation view, 2014, Bakalar and Paine Galleries

ANGELA MITTIGA MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.angelamittiga.com

The idea of escaping or subverting reality inspires much of the work that I make. More than anything else, I am interested in induced states of solitude, silence, and inwardness through the use of screens and moving images. In Deep is the darkness and long is the night and Internal Scene (No. 2), I have created durational studies of objects and atmospheres that I feel convey the stillness of mind that is embedded in experiences that are partly remembered and partly fantasy. I use a number of physical lenses, including windows, water, and glass, as well as atmospheric elements, including water, smoke, and dust. Textures, marks, and seeming bits of evidence are embedded in the visual imagery, all virtual symptoms of time stilled, time passing, or time past. The darkened space of the installation creates a viewing environment that induces an intimate and reflective engagement with the moving image. My aim is to link the durational studies and the screens together to form chains of experience and sculptural objects that speak to the disorienting, fleeting, and intangible qualities of our inner lives.

// Deep is the darkness and long is the night, 2014, Two-channel video, (03:30 minute loop, silent), 17” x 40.5” (Left page) // Internal Scene (No. 2), 2014, Single-channel video, (06:25 minute loop, silent), 26”x 47”x 8” (Right page)

DYLAN NELSON MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.dylanjamesnelson.com

These photographs are primarily about artifice mediated through the mechanics of photography. The work stems from a practice of photographing in the real world, as I encounter it, and making constructions, which respond to my encounters, in a studio setting. At times the work includes art historical, cultural and autobiographical elements; re-enactments of something I have seen or photographed, continuing where another artist â&#x20AC;&#x153;finished,â&#x20AC;? or some other conflation of these sources of material. Oscillating between being blatantly constructed and found, the images aim to prod viewers to ask questions and form their own visual relationships.

// Installation view, 2014, Bakalar and Paine Galleries (Left page) // Believe You Me, 2014, archival inkjet print (Right page)

MICHAEL PALLAZOLA MFA FILM | www.pallazola.com

// Stereoscopism, 2014, video, 7 minutes

STEPHEN QUINLANN MFA FILM | stephenpquinlan@gmail.com

// Medium Deck, 2014, 16mm, VHS, digital video, rug, driftwood, reflecive gold cube

BEN RADVILLE MFA 3D | bmradville@massart.edu

360 million years ago, our common ancestor crawled out of the shallow waters and craned its neck. In the long relay race of evolution, what perennial seed was riding with this land fish? How many generations until our common ancestor is matter? Ejected from the brilliant furnace of some great explosion, the first reckless seeds were sown. 14 billion years and a single directive, go ahead. Exploding outwards and accelerating. I can trace the present for as long as a fish can stay out of water. But an air sack gradually turned into a lung. Thanks to my family: down to the cryptic, unspeaking germ or bit of dust. Delirious ego of a sun inflated with hydrogen and helium.

// Landfish Song, Divider, Unravelling the Scrolls (detail shots), 2013-2014, mixed media // Landfish Song, Divider, Unravelling the Scrolls, 2013-2014, mixed media

SARA ROMANI MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.sararomani.com

Doubt is the origin of wisdom. - Descartes

FROM WITHIN AND WITHOUT This body of work flows from my fascination with the myriad ways that photographs translate reality and how they invite us to question our knowledge of what is actual. I am interested in exploring the paradoxical ability of the camera: it both renders faithfully lived experience and yet transforms what I see into unexpected moments of surprise. The series began when I first took a picture of a scale model of an empty stage. My training in set design and my education in theater influences my way of looking through the camera. My photographs represent unstable stages made of layered sheets of paper. Shapes and light are assembled, sometimes with figurative references, sometimes with atmospheric plays of light. Positioning the viewer on the fine line between abstraction and figurative representation, awareness of represented reality and pure aesthetic pleasure, my photographs seek to awaken the natural inclination of human beings to create meaning, drawing on even the most minimal amount of information. When we look at a picture, the search for significance and unity involves a continuous fluctuation from within and without, from the mind to the physical realm and back. (2014-ongoing project)

// Door, archival injket print, 2014, 20” x 20”

// The Veil, archival inkjet print, 2014, 20” x 24”

ERIC RUBY MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.ericruby.com

// Omens to Children (installation view), 2014, Bakalar and Paine Galleries (Left page) // Omens to Children, 2014, inkjet prints mounted to dyed canvas, dimensions variable (Right page)

DANIEL SCHISSLER MFA PHOTOGRAPHY | www.dschissler.com

// Outlands, 2014, archival inkjet prints from transparencies and handmade walnut frames (Left page) // Untitled (Sumac), 2014, archival inkjet print (Right page)

BIYANG SONG MFA STUDIO FOR INTERRELATED MEDIA

Anomia: noun. 1. Inability to name objects 2.Inability to recognize written or spoken names of objects All of my experiences in the U.S have become the material of self-expression. I keep discussing this with my Chinese friend, who is also a student here in MassAr: why are we struggling so hard to integrate into this education world? The problem with language is one that is only representattional. What if we dig deeper? Could we find a solution? We may need years to come up with an answer. However, I gain a lot through this consciousness-raising. The longer I stay in here, the more I resist. The connotation of the red fabric I use in Anomia has been changing over the time. One day, I was awaken by a phone call from my old friend in China and I realized that it had been a long time since anyone had called me by my Chinese name. I even wondered what she said when she called me “SongBiYang. This fear became the thesis of my show. Anomia is a condition in which one can not remember a name of an object. In the beginning, it was hard for me to come up with the definition of a Chinese charecter. Now, there are some word which I can not recall in Chinese as easily as I can in English. I don’t think it is simply anomia between two languages. What would happen if I were to drown in this cultural conflict forever. Am I going to lose the ability to name myself? What would I become if I killed the cultural politics in my body? I don’t have the answer right now, but it’s necessary that I maintain awareness of this issue. This awareness prevents me from having the disease of anomia.

// Anomia, 2014, video installation

KARINA TOVAR MFA STUDIO FOR INTERRELATED MEDIA | www.karinatovar.com

Live [liv] is a project that utilizes aesthetic interruptions with the purpose of reinterpreting what it means to be connected to life, others and ourselves. I traveled across the U.S. creating events that occurred between strangers and myself, in an attempt to create connected awareness through the stylization of common actions such as dancing, touch, whispering, listening, etc. These actions were streamed online with the intent to share and create a shared experience of open connectivity, regardless of distance, place and time. The project was also set as an installation at the Bakalar and Paine Galleries at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The installation consisted of a television screen, which showcased videos that visually interpret the concepts behind these aesthetic interruptions. In addition, to make up for my absence at this location (/â&#x20AC;&#x2122;dis-location/), I set up a telephone which acted as my surrogate, connecting me with those inside the gallery space. You and I, live.

// Live, 2014, performance and installation

www.karinatovar.com/onview www.karinatovar.com/oncall

DWIGHT YOUNG MFA FILM | www.dwightevanyoung.com

// God Complex , 2014, mirror, fabric

LELE ZHANG MFA 3D | www.lelezhang.com

// Leave it Alone, 2014, stoneware, 13” x 13” 7” (Left page // Top image) // What Circle?, 2014, stoneware, various sizes (Left page // Bottom image) // Too Many Circles, 2014, stoneware, 13” x 13” x 7” (Right page)

// Melisa Keyes, Pure Imagination, 2014, spray paint and oil on mylar, 42” x 84”

LOW-RESIDENCY

// Judith Lavendar, Mystic and Faith, 2014, oil on canvas, 20” x 24”

JESSICA COFRIN MFAWC | www.jessicacofrin.com

// Head, 2014, lithograph, 12 3/4” x 9” // Pink Sweatshirt, 2014, oil on canvas, 24” X 18”

JOE DIGGS MFAWC | www.joediggsart.com

I enjoy making paintings that engage the human appetite for vision, beauty, and emotions. Balancing the layers of paint with the perfect amount of imagery to simultaneously represent fact and fiction past with present while projecting towards the future.

// Bad Canvas, 2014, oil on canvas, 34” x 52” (Left page) // Turned Down for What, 2014, oil on canvas, 60” x 40” (Right page)

KIT DONNELLY MFAWC | www.kitdonnelly.com

The act of painting is important to my understanding of how the world works in its simplest physical form. It is a visual exercise in integrity and articulation. Each painting provides a more distinct visual logic to my world—a map to seeing and establishing my presence as an artist within my surroundings. I am always finding ways to invent a logic in what is a constantly unhinged world. My painting is definitely rooted in the sensual realm, but it contains a complex interiority gained from years of studying relationships of rhythm, movement, space, perspective, and form. I work with color, gesture, and shape to orchestrate each painting so that it speaks more about itself than any original intention or socio-political meaning. When all the elements of my painting coincide, I can transcend the experience I have had with the physical world and the painting tells a story of its own. This is the most honest communication I know.

// Bird Calls I & II, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 14” each (Left page) // Sky Meets Land, 2014, monotype, 22” x 30” (Right page // Top image) // Ritual, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 24” x 38” (Right page // Bottom image)

MELISA KEYES MFAWC | keyesmel@gmail.com

My process and my life have merged. The two are inseparable. Now, when I work, I am mining and searching for the limits of my visual vocabulary… The thrill, and my motivation, is that those limits are nowhere in sight as I build a world of dreams and memory with paint. This work is a manifestation of both natural and artificial light shows. Combinations of spray, oil, and enamel paints. Layers of rainbows, explosions, sunsets, lasers, and LED’s. Vast chaotic spaces punctuated by light surrounded by atmosphere.

// Rusty Ocean, 2014, ename, and oil on canvas, 12” x 12” (Left page) // Lime Beams, 2014, enamel, spray paint and oil on panel, 12” x 12” (Right page)

JUDITH LAVENDAR MFAWC | jslavendar@massart.edu

// Rocking Horse #6, 2014, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”

// Bulldog #2, 2014, oil on paper, 24” x 30”

TOM H. LEWIS MFAWC | tom.lewis@comcast.net

I paint from what I perceive, attempting to make the ambiguity of perception clear.

// Boombox 2, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 11” x 14” (Left page) // Trees 2, 2014, acrylic and pastel on canvas, 24” 18” (Right page)

MICHELLE PODGORSKI MFAWC | mpodgorski@massart.edu

Every day, I drive past a tree that has been carved and sliced to make way for a power line. Its branches no longer grow on its left side. And every day, I slow down and stare out my car window, fascinated that the tree continues to grow as if it only ever had a right side. There is a negativity surrounding talk of overpopulation, global warming, and interference with forests and the natural landscape. There is no doubt that humankind has altered the world outside of our four walls, but, my interest is in the ability of plants to survive, rather than in our destructive behaviors. My paintings focus on the natural cycle of death and growth and on the adaptation and sustainability that is constantly occurring in the natural world, despite our interference and sometimes because of it. The works in this series always begins outdoors. The face-to-face interaction of nature and myself is very important to the creation of my work. In some cases, the research I have been doing on the species in the environment surrounding my home inspires me to hunt for my subject, so I can see it firsthand. This is especially true in my newest work, which focuses primarily on the floodplain of the South Fork River—near my home in North Carolina—one of the most polluted rivers in the country. I am interested in the damage that occurs as the river floods and the pollutants enter into the scars of trees. In many of my paintings, I use negative space to represent a part of a tree or plant that no longer exists or that have succumbed to its host. In those negative spaces, I have begun to include real bark, which involves a delicate process process of soaking and peeling. This added layer is a literal interaction of nature and myself, which alludes to the destruction we cause. My intention has always been to represent the outside world in a positive and powerful manner.

// South Fork Inversion, 2014, watercolor and bark on paper, 75” x 41.”

// Mile Marker II (detail), 2014, watercolor and bark on paper, 85” x 44.”

// Mile Marker II, 2014, watercolor and bark on paper, 85” x 44.”

KIM PUTNAM MFAWC | www.kimputnam.blogspot.com

In Pursuit of Non-Objectification Women learn to view themselves through their male counterpart’s gaze; we objectify ourselves based on the male standards

within the portraiture deals with objectification and non-objectification of the female form. My work shows the removal of the

of beauty. In hindsight, I believe my interest in this subject stems from my youth and from having a mother who was always

female form literally and/or metaphorically by obscuring the figure. While the gender of the figure is ambiguous and becomes

conscious of her appearance. The content of my work is portraiture, specifically portraiture of women. I often use myself as the

secondary, what remains within each piece is the presence of femininity. For example, in the expressive lips or the contour of

model. As both the creator and the muse, I control the gaze—male or female—as I am the object and the creator. The concept

a hip. Each of these characteristics act as an agency for femininity that is representative of the female form.

// Voices (part of series) , 2014, oil on canvas, 16” x 16” each

MICHAEL WALDEN MFAWC | www. michaelwalden.net

A voice not so clearly heard until now, I bring a quiet rebellion to the normalcy of what art is presumed to be. When painting the figure, men are expected to paint women. I am immersed in the process of redefining that conventional idea, so that acceptance is the new standard. Something that seems foreign becomes familiar once given the space to be.

// Andrew, trace monotype, 2014, 22” x 17 1/2 ”

// Shower Figure I, oil on linen, 2014, 36” x 24”

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