Visual Art Session I: 1:00PM-2:00PM
Abstract Volume and Quick Reference Guide
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Artists listed in order of presentation.
AF 209A
Art
The Half-Life of Los Angeles
Artist(s): Morgan Grimes
Advisor(s): Julie Shafer
There are currently 96 commercial nuclear reactors spread across the United States, located in 30 different states. The first nuclear reactor built in the US was constructed in 1954 in Simi Valley California. Nearly all the nuclear reactors in the US were either built or proposed in the following two and a half decades. During the 1950s and 1960s nuclear power was still in its infancy and the general public was mesmerized by the wonders of this new form of energy. Throughout the 1970s, only about 20-30% of the general public opposed nuclear power. After the Three-Mile Island partial core meltdown, which occurred in 1979, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which occurred in 1986, there was an increase in the public opposition to nuclear power to over 50%. During the 1980s nearly 60% of the planned nuclear reactors in the US were cancelled before construction had even begun.My intention with this body of work is to explore and highlight the history of public opinion of nuclear power in the United States. I strive to dig into the history of nuclear power in the United States and its intimate relationship with the general public. The visual photographs show the locations of 7 of Los Angeles’ current, decommissioned, and cancelled nuclear reactors, only one of which continues to supply Los Angeles with power today. Each imposed nuclear reactor is made of infrared imagery of the same location, representing what cannot be seen but what could have been.
The One Who Won
Artist(s): Jeanna Polisini
Advisor(s): Julie Shafer
I am an adopted Asian American with an Italian last name who was raised in the Jewish faith. While I am one of the lucky ones, the One-Child Policy is responsible for how my life turned out. My intention is to confront the inhumanity of this horrific policy with my adoption story. Until policies personally affect someone’s life, many people do not think twice about the other country’s problems and their repercussions on a global level. For my senior exhibition, I created an autobiographical installation to explore my adoption story and how China’s inhumane dictatorship. The full immersive installation will be in the Guggenheim Gallery from April 18-22, 2022. The walls will be covered with yellow, medical waste plastic bags to symbolize the discarded lives of millions of Chinese girls, all abandoned or sometimes killed. Juxtaposing the bags, there will be a large structure in the middle of the room to house a timeline of photographs to create a visual timeline of my life. These photographs include memories from the orphanage, adoption group, my caretaker, and meaningful milestones in my life. Despite China’s goal of curbing their population of over a billion people, the policy stripped women of their rights as they were forced to sterilization and abortion. Baby girls were primarily aborted or put up for adoption since China’s traditional culture has influenced its citizens to value sons over daughters. Unfortunately, this created an age and gender disparity as China’s older generations are shrinking and the younger generation is increasing. This is not only a project about being able to confront my past, but merges the environmental issues through the visual arts to advocate the detrimental effects of overpopulation.
I AM
Artist(s): Kaydance Osborne
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
Using photoshop I created a poster relating to significant events in my life that represent three distinct chapters. This collage to me represents my journey of self discovery and how I continue to work on embracing who I am as a person. Throughout my whole life I struggled with who I was as an individual and being okay with standing on my own. I chose to organize my images of me in a scattered stair step pattern to represent the steps I took in my life to get to where I am now and the steps being scattered to represent how difficult it was to take each step. The image at the bottom left has part of my head missing and a tree branching from my brain. The tree represents my childhood because my childhood home had a tree in the front yard that I used to climb. I am also actively walking out of the poster representing the letting go of my childhood after my family moved. The second image of me that is in the rule of thirds position depicts me riding a flying mask in the sky while I am reaching out to my childhood. This symbolizes the pandemic and the idea that I had to grow up quickly. I lost a little of who I was and I continued to try and get back to my childhood self to compensate for struggling during the pandemic. Finally, the transparent version of me sprouting from the clouds represents me figuring out who I am and accepting who I am. I also have the Chapman panther paw on my cheek because I feel that I really learned who I was once I came to Chapman.
Time is going too fast
Artist(s): Hoda Mostafa
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
Sagittarius for the centaurs, bunnies are my favorite animal. I wanted a more fantastical/renaissance theme. My story is about how I no longer am friends with that I thought I would be friends with forever- using a very simplistic narration format of begin --> middle --> end in thirds. Hence, the clock formats-- I wanted the person to feel smaller and smaller until you could almost not see them as to represent the grief of loss and the slow passage of time and events.
conscious shockness
Artist(s): Caleb Lachelt
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
This collage is meant to tell a story about a few major events in my life in the past few years in an artistic and visually stimulating way. To begin, I used two of my favorite landscape photographs I’ve taken as the background and foreground for the collage, which created a surrealistic yet coherent base. Then, I used clouds from another photograph I’ve taken as well as a freeze frame from one of my skateboard tricks and added them into the top left. This is the first event of my life I wanted to convey, and it describes how I feel like I’m in the clouds when I skateboard. Next, I wanted to include perhaps the biggest event of my life, which was studying abroad in Hawaii during my first semester of college. To do so, I paired a picture of me in Hawaii with a png of the Hawaii islands. Then, I added my most recent big life event, which was purchasing my own first car. I found a picture of a car from the internet and inverted its colors, as well as cutting a hole in the background and putting the car in it to make it look like it was breaking through the background. I took a selfie of myself to add to the car to make it look like I was driving. I also used the sunset from another photograph I’ve taken to place onto the windshield of the car. Finally, I included some funny pictures of my dogs in the foreground, orienting one so it looks like he is eating the car coming out from behind the background. Lastly, I added some extra flowers, leaves, and a drawing which balanced the image and made it more interesting.
Placidity Under The Stars
Artist(s): Hailey Ramos
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
My collage is about the different stages of my life that I’ve lived through. It starts with my gradual transition into self-acceptance, growing from my trauma letting it be known instead, and reminding myself that I am a survivor of Sexual Abuse. I added a garden because it has been a dream space for me, a safe space in my mind whenever I’m in distress or need an escape from the real world. I tend to like the night sky better than the day, so I added the stars above and a comet, specifically Halley’s comet since I have always felt drawn to it. I also wanted to add a symbol of my culture and family traditions starting with the sage and what our smoke represents from it. My family uses the sage to cleanse themselves from negative energy, purifying us and letting us start fresh, something that has recently been very important for me. I made my smoke a rainbow color because I like to think of it as a symbol of queerness as well, so in a way, it’s me releasing my queer identity into the world to make it known, and also of obtaining good energy in the same time. The fox represents my spirit animal, protecting me and watching over me as it walks the garden arches. That’s why I also decided to put one over me in one of my poses, as a way of showing it is guarding me in a sense. Overall, I wanted it to be a night theme dream that I would like to look back on as a comfort place, making it feel like a safe haven with the stars and comet protecting me in the sky and the fox and flower fields embracing me in the quiet earth.
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Artists listed in order of presentation.
AF 209C
Art
to the moon
Artist(s): Sophia Mac Arthur
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
My collage was inspired by the fantasy genre, and the idea of magic. I am a fan of the moon as a symbol. Until humankind was able to study it, the moon had a very mysterious aura surrounding it. I enjoy the mystical qualities of this natural phenomenon. I included the moon multiple times to invoke a surreal feeling. One of my biggest inspirations was the photographic work of what planets would look like if they were the same distance away from the planet as the moon was. Specifically, the image of Saturn is what inspired the large, ominous moon overlooking my collage. Another element that I had added in were the animals. The owl is a classic real-life creature that is associated with the fantasy genre. The idea of butterfly was inspired by the vast amount of monarch butterflies that I have seen around campus recently. I thought a butterfly with a shadow across the moon would be an interesting visual. The three photos of me are from moments of moving into my dorm, deciding to become a photographer, and visiting a farm. I placed them in the various treehouses that my collage features. I have always had a love of treehouses, and have been fascinated by the idea of a city where the population lived in the trees. They are such a unique form of architecture, and fit well into the fantasy world I imagined. The scene that I created has the setting of a forest, which is once again a part of the fantasy genre.
Everything Happens for a Reason
Artist(s): Ava Arteaga
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
For my collage I included some of my interests and events that have happened in my life that have made a big impact in my life. At the top, I have a line of polaroids because I enjoy taking pictures on my polaroid camera my boyfriend got for me, and in those polaroids are a couple big events of my life and little memories that make me happy. The other photos I have altered/photoshopped and these photos represent me, what makes me happy, and what events happened in my life that led me to where I am now. These events also have made me who I am today and how proud I am to have accomplished some of these things. The people in my collage are all people who are very important to me and have made a great impact on my life and my decisions. Overall, this collage represents who I am as a person and what brought me to where I am today.
Trip Down Memory Lane
Artist(s): Gee Trevena
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
While making my composition I wanted to work with themes of external and internal, with my main interests featured more prominently at the top of the collage with my love of music at the bottom. The lower portion of the composition has the same background with the same sky overlaid on top to show that it’s just as important to me as the elements shown above. It features my first amplifier (Fender), my Electric Fender Stratocaster, and my Acoustic Electric Martin guitar. On the road I chose three photos of myself when I was going through major changes; me during middle school when I started a band with my friends in middle school, me wearing my plague doctor costume due to how the pandemic affected me, and me during my high school graduation. I had my dog represent the teletubby baby from that children’s show the Teletubbies because I used to watch it with my grandmother when I was young, and when I got my dog it had a huge impact on my life, hence why she takes up a large part of the composition. I thought making her speak would be too cartoonish compared to the rest of collage so I had her favorite things on her mind such as food and play time. The Slide warning path that’s featured is actually a road I used to frequent that's near my home so I wanted to incorporate that as my bike rides used to be my escape whenever I felt stressed or overwhelmed. I love halloween so I also added bits and pieces of candy on the ground as well, so overall the collage is a perfect representation of things that embody me as a whole.
The Kollection of Kris
Artist(s): Kristiana Cruse
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
This is a continuous narrative collage about major events in my life that have shaped me into the individual I am today. I made this collage with three specific key moments in mind - being able to attend Orange County School of the Arts for Visual Arts, graduation, and then meeting my significant other. In creating this, I especially made sure to create a composition that expresses playfulness, as well as my artistic background. I did this by drawing sketchy doodles all over my composition, with more emphasis on the sketches around the main tower of my high school campus. The artwork has bright colors and “childish” aspects in order to shape the theme of comfort, warmth, happiness, and overall feelings of joy. All images and objects that are being presented in this artwork have deep-rooted memories, which began during my middle school years, which was also the beginning of my art schooling journey. I chose my specific layout based on how I wished to portray these major events in my life. For the image of myself in the foreground, I wanted to put emphasis on this dreamlike fairytale love, therefore I placed myself and my partner in a playful manner looking up and down at one another. Similar to the other images of myself, I made sure to have energy and excitement for my art journey at OCSA and a happy yet maturing experience represented in my graduation photo. I also created a sense of balance in the overall composition by my favorite food, sushi, being on opposite corners of the piece - which was the final touch to add balance. The entire piece follows the rule of thirds in order to also create a balanced artwork.
Digital Arts
There to Here
Artist(s): Curren Taber
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
This collage represents a continuous narrative of my life, emphasizing three stages: elementary school, high school, and college. The composition follows the rule of thirds, containing horizontal divisions to convey time (left-to-right) and vertical divisions to establish atmosphere (foreground to background). Using my age as the percentage basis for the frame’s width, I allocated elements along the x-axis according to their relevance to that life stage. Thinking of the composition as a linear progression, the left edge of the frame represents age 6, and the right edge represents my current age of 22. The separation of the foreground most clearly illustrates this idea with the schools of my academic career. Left-to-right, the foreground includes Stoneybrooke Christian School, JSerra Catholic High School, and Chapman University. A relevant photo of myself exists in these three time-based regions, along with symbolism for my life at that moment. For example, the left-hand side of the composition includes a portrait from kindergarten, partially covered by a pile of Lego bricks. Faded logos that shaped my childhood occupy the background, and a Bible verse blends with my hometown. Penned grades span across multiple composition divisions to represent my perfectionist personality. The center of the frame shows a shift in my interests and the impact that running made on my life during high school. A camera sits above the track and field, symbolizing my passion for filmmaking and photography. Moving toward the right side, I included a photo of myself with friends met through Chapman. This photo “stands” atop the Bible, representing God as a firm foundation for life. Additionally, the right-side includes a meditation app logo, a pixelated mask, an overlay of code from my studies, and a distorted jumbotron from the last pre-COVID-19 event I attended.
Vitruvian Me!
Artist(s): Lydia Wharton
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
My collage is compiled of elements that have been important to me within my life and especially my childhood. I am definitely a kid at heart, which is why I incorporated two child-age versions of me, representing two significant elements of my interests. On the right hand side of the collage, little Lydia represents her connection to nature and naturally occurring things. I incorporated many natural elements which are nostalgic to me and relate to my childhood. For example, I included my childhood dog Cleo, my favorite planet Saturn, and my favorite flowers (which my mom always called “Freeway Daisies”). The little Lydia is shown holding a macaw, one of her favorite birds, and the Vitruvian Lydia in the middle holds a tiny little earth. These elements of nature have always been My collage is compiled of elements that have been important to me within my life and especially my childhood. I am definitely a kid at heart, which is why I incorporated two child-age versions of me, representing two significant elements of my interests. On the right hand side of the collage, little Lydia represents her connection to nature and naturally occurring things. I incorporated many natural elements which are nostalgic to me and relate to my childhood. For example, I included my childhood dog Cleo, my favorite planet Saturn, and my favorite flowers (which my mom always called “Freeway Daisies”). The little Lydia is shown holding a macaw, one of her favorite birds, and the Vitruvian Lydia in the middle holds a tiny little earth. These elements of nature have always been important to me, and signify my own connection to life and the naturally occurring. On the lefthand side, I incorporated another aspect of my interests: Art. As a kid, many of my hobbies were creative ones. This included playing piano and drawing (lots, and lots of drawing!) Many of the cartoons and movies I saw as a kid served as inspiration for these drawings, so I made sure to incorporate many of the characters I loved and drew influence from as a kid. The inclusion of the “Big Dipper” constellation is extremely significant as well. This constellation is an example of how humans find the art in naturally occurring things, how the human imagination perceives nature and makes sense of it. Lydia in the middle is also shown holding a Wacom tablet pen, representing my innate artistic nature and inclination to draw and create. The “Vitruvian Man” type of pose is also significant in terms of symbolism. Leonardo DaVinci created the Vitruvian man in order to interconnect man and nature. Humans, and by extension human’s creations, are intertwined within nature and the universe. This symbolism is essentially what my collage is all about; my own connection between myself, nature, and my own perception of nature and creation inspired by nature.
