2021 Department of Art
Undergraduate Scholarships Exhibition
Each year, the Undergraduate Art Scholarships Exhibition features work by selected undergraduate scholarship recipients in the Department of Art.
The Undergraduate Art Scholarship Exhibition is sponsored by the following endowments, funds and scholarships:
Arthur E. Baggs Memorial Fund
Daniel J. L. Firestone Photography Fund
Department of Art Scholarship Fund
Department of Art Faculty and Staff Scholarship Fund
The Susie Gehring Gundenkauf Art Scholarship Fund in Painting & Drawing
Charles W. Massey and Ola Belle Massey Printmaking Endowment Fund
Mary Martin Picarillo Endowment Scholarship Fund
The Robert & Marion Gatrell Undergraduate Student Art Award
Jerald J. and Terry Katz Kasimov Scholarship Fund in Dentistry and Art
Aida Cannarsa Snow Endowment Scholarship Fund
Hoyt L. Sherman Memorial Fund
Yana Artemov
Untitled
digital collages
variable dimensions
2020
My experience as a daughter of two immigrants from the Soviet socialist state and now living in the Western world is the current focus of my work. This unique experience of synthesizing two cultural worlds has also been infected by a history of abuse, leaving me to confront my past through what I make. I want to expose the ways that converging identities and childhood trauma can manifest in adulthood in today’s world. Working through these intense themes has resulted in products that may be unnerving, that may not be easy to confront or look at. My hope is that people will not look away.
The central image in the digital collage is a space completely reconstructed from memory using only found images. On either side are two figures, familiar only at first glance. Different parts of the adult and child’s bodies are overlaid on each other, suggesting a relationship between the two, a reminder that only difference between them is the age; they have the same soul, same name, same life. The presentation introduces a relationship between the three images and adds new significance to an otherwise ambiguous space in the center.
Robin Blank
Neon Nostalgia
3D renders
1920x1080
2020
Neon Nostalgia was created in response to the prompt of creating a 3D model that considered a virtual space. Instead of creating one single object to be placed in another space, I decided to create my own little space that could exist both within the virtual gallery we were creating for, and independently. I was greatly inspired by the vast emptiness and bittersweet nostalgic feelings images of empty malls generate within me. Trying to capture that emptiness was just another way that I utilized the "space" prompt into the piece. The words of the sign are inspired both by the names of two real life shopping centers (The Mall of America and the American Dreams Mall), as well as the often-repeated commentary of the classic "American dream" being dead combined with the imagery of spaces often referred to as "dead malls."
Aaron Burleson
Maniacs
acrylic on unstretched canvas
56” x 36”
2020
Through the language of painting I am able to create a personal iconography that exists just beyond mundane reality. The images oscillate between the concrete and the emotional, detailing scenes of reciprocity, violence, spirituality, or romance. In a world increasingly dependent on insular digital spaces and neoliberal social networks, I often feel a disconnect to a coherent, communal value system. I am concerned for our capacity for contact - both with each other and with the macrocosmic. My work, in an effort to bring these fears to light while imagining an alternative, exists as its own pagan universe, continually in conversation with itself. This world feeds upon inspiration from Western folklore, pop culture, the natural world and my Catholic upbringing. Figures are often rendered in a crude but direct manner to emphasize their imperfect universality. The individual motivations for each work may be psychological or political, but ultimately rely on one’s gestalt experience of the image, the initial sensations of drama, tenderness, or aversion.
Gregory Costa
My Friend is a Ghost
digital photograph
8” x 12”
2020
My work for the past 3 years has focused on photography, mostly tableau. My Friend is a Ghost, my most recent project, is a tableau series of 10+ images where I explore the definition of friendship by representing monotonous ways people socialize. Also, having Halloween around the corner, when I started the project, helped me characterize and pose my models.
Judith Diehl
Untitled
digital video and clay
00:03:00
2020
Art is my lifeline, a process of building and finding myself, a way of coping with the brain and body with which I was born. Every piece I make allows me to search for more of me that I have not yet met. I use materials to explore my thoughts and emotions, rejections and successes. The material allows me to feel my body, be in my body and reminds me that I am in control of my body. When I am able to touch clay, feel it on my skin as I form it into something new, I am reminded of the control I have over my own physical form. My hands are tools used to make something, feel something, be something. When I create, I can see what's in front of me again, I am able to slow my stream of thought and not lose myself within my own chaos. This work is a result of an effort to find vitality inside my own skeleton of courage and taped up wounds that have made me who I am today. I often find myself lost in memories or stuck in moments where I feel outside of my body. Through the process of creating, I am pulled back inside of myself, whether it be through the process of wiping clay on my skin, combining materials to make something beautiful, or reworking a previous piece, my art provides the viewer with a miniature window that looks into my process of coping. This work is its own plate of one-way glass that allows the viewer to choose whether they want to see through it or see themselves reflected in it.
Reid Donato
Untitled (Pompeii Flowers)
paper and acrylic ink dyed paper collage on paper
8” x 10”
2021
Many of the pieces that I make are abstract or non-representational. When approaching recognizable subject matter I like to morph forms and areas of color into fragmented or hazy geometry. I have also made pieces non-representation pieces that employ process-based and material driven ways of making.
Kaily Drake
Please
relief print with graphite and marker
7” x 11.5”
2020
For this work, I explored the duality and nuance of sexuality and fate through the lens of traditional tarot cards. Tarot became a form of reading fortune in the late 18th century and is still popular within occult circles today, with each card having specific energy and meaning. This diptych seeks to help me understand my own relationship with my future, what I want from it, and how my relationships with others will affect my path. By using two figures who are equally bound, I worked to capture the vulnerability of opening up to someone else about your hopes and the reward of finding a person who understands you and balances your energy. The Empress and The Emperor cards, the divine feminine and masculine respectively, are used in this work to represent how harmony between the two energies becomes a personal necessity for me as I move forward in life.
Trevor Haaker
HEAT FLASHES
3D animation
00:01:47, 2020
As a person and an artist, my life goal has always been to bring a smile and laughter to those around me. This wonderful world we live in for a short period of time should be explored in every way possible, but to me it's best gone through laughing.
Gabrielle Holt
THE CHURCH GIRLS ARE DEAD
photography (self-portrait)
2021
Each photo in this mini-series has a commonality with another; the death of an identity. The identity of Black women are often monolithic and rooted in systemic racism. The first photograph, THE CHURCH GIRLS ARE DEAD (I am in the photograph on the left), speaks to the new wave of young Black women stripping their Christian identity to that of a more Black focused religion like many African spiritual religions. THEIR SOULS REPENT is the deconstruction of what death means to Black Americans. Death is so common to us that sometimes it is hard to truly feel the pain that comes with death almost making us numb to the topic. The blood coming from NOT 444 SALE is a metaphor for the bloodshed horrors that Black people went through in Amerikkka. Not for sale is a powerful statement protesting that the Black body is not one for exploitation. WE OWN OUR BODIES. WE OWN OUR IDENTITY. WE OWN OUR LEGACY. AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH FORWARD AS A COMMUNITY OF BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE.
Alice Jiang
Insecurity
3D animation
00:02:33
2020
The root of insecurities come from within oneself. They grow and fester deep inside your thoughts and feelings. These complex feelings reveal vulnerabilities and leave you feeling exposed.
How do these insecurities appear and what does it take to make these insecurities disappear? To hide the insecurities, what lengths will you go? What will you lose along the way?
Anna Kovach
Come Again
screenprint
3.5” x 2”, 2020
Examining the relationship between objects and identity is central to my work. What can quotidian objects offer us when examining self-conception? Whether it be windowpanes, lingerie, or loyalty cards, I believe they offer a vocabulary for ideas that are not concrete as well as an entry point for the viewer through familiarity. For me, the familiar serve as a springboard for synthesizing questions and responses about the individual and the structure in which she exists. Recently, this has directed me toward the themes of mental and behavioral health interventions and racial justice initiatives.
I believe it is critical that I use my position as an artist to challenge the society in which bodies are policed. Through language, these works, which are fabricated yet model found objects, control the narrative around which speculative realities are built. This exploration of language reflects the ways in which institutions emanate messages that benefit their own missions yet rejects their position within a colonialist, capital driven culture. In doing so, I affirm my own autonomy from oppressive bodies as well as the autonomy of others.
Madison Larocque
tied up
oil on canvas
43” x 32”, 2020
The subjects in my paintings are usually myself and/or my partner, or another woman’s body. The graphic yet gestural figure can become a landscape and is further pushed with the addition of an ambiguous rolling blanket or clouds. I like to paint right on the wall or on raw canvas, where I explore the use of negative space. The gritty naked canvas becomes something so real and grounded. My work also tends to be large. These choices together, cause the figure to become even more abstracted and ambiguous, during its consumption.
The use of photography allows me to be deliberate with every decision I make, even in the early stages of my process. I am the one that gets to decide how intimate each work becomes and what parts of my personal life are revealed. There comes a sense of power in knowing I have control of that. It feels impossible to ignore the connection between my work and the trauma I endured as an adolescent. Ideas like figure, consent, intimacy, censorship, landscape, trauma, reflection and growth are all things I would use to describe my work.
Joshua Lee
Cooking
animation
00:02:00
2020
My name is Joshua Lee and I am a fourth year Art and Tech student. I am a 2D animator and character designer who is interested in creating animations that explore the human condition. My works use animation to create dynamic and flowing movement that tackles issues such as finding a community, race, love, and violence. I also create illustrations and concept art that explore world building and speculative futures. I want to eventually go into the animation industry and continue to grow as a 2D illustrator and animator.
Shiwen Li
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
animation
00:00:18
2020
My subject matter is fantasy, but also nature. Whether it is an unrealistic landscape or relaxing animation, when my imagination starts to grow in my mind, I would draw them down and recreate them digitally. They are my fantasies but also life related. Each of the artworks has been tempered. My goal is to inspire those who see my work to have a new understanding of the surrounding environment and feel relaxed.
Jessica Lieber
The Archive, Repurposed, Chomo003, Chromo 005, Chromo006
Chromskedasic-Sabatier combined with the Lumen-Print process of archival negatives acquired by chance
5” x 7”
2020
I explore alternative photographic processes while using archival negatives, creating a unique narrative about the subjects and rethinking the purpose of such imagery. By using these found archival negatives in such a manner, these portraits of 1930's men and women are repurposed into works of art that are both modern and antique in aesthetic.
Printed on expired Luminos double-weight fiber paper. The image was exposed in the darkroom and developed just until a faint image appeared. Then it was dunked in a bath of cold water, taken into ambient light, where Chromoskedasic activator and stabilizer chemicals were applied to the print as it continued to expose. The purple and pink hues you see are a result from the photographic paper not being completely fixed, therefore it continues to change when exposed to light.
Olivia Malloy
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
watercolor, marker, ink and found plastic on Bristol board
5” x 7” artist book
2019
This book called Thank you, Thank you, Thank you is an illustrated accordion book. I used mostly pen, marker, and watercolor for the illustrations, and there are a lot of plastic details. I see a lot of these environmental changes happening near where I grew up on the coast of Massachusetts. In the summer, I work on the docks of a boatyard in a harbor, I see the pollution happening in our oceans first hand. While I was creating this piece I saved up wrappers and bags that I was using. I have always thought that the “thank you” phrase written on plastic bags is quite ironic when a bag like this is tangled in a tree or floating in the ocean. The dimensions of this book are 5x7 inches and there are ten pages including the front and back. This book was created for a class alongside a research paper about René Magritte, I used some of his iconography (mostly birds), and I used plastic instead of his draped fabric. I made a few similar compositions to some of his work, but created it with my own theme and style.
Anya Parsons
The Best Burger
paper towel
4” x 4” x 5”
digital video
00:00:22
2020
This artwork is representative of the relationship between our reality and the media we consume. Even when meant to represent our experiences, media fails to ever be true to our lives. There is too much behind the scenes, too much scripting, and the final product is held an arm's length away to prevent us from looking closer. To encapsulate this broad concept, I focused in on advertisement specifically. In the video, the paper towel burger is delicately placed and adjusted piece by piece, made from inedible material. It matches the level of staging and falsehood seen in commercials for food produced every day, where milk is glue, and whipped cream is foam, and the springy burger in the picture will never look like the flat one you receive with your order.
Kelly Patrick
Observers Observed
acrylic paint
charcoal and marker on canvas drop cloth
72” x 96”
2020
I have one physical form. One pair each of eyes and hands. Memories in colors and textures and words that can only be read from a distance. I live within rooms full of objects made, given, purchased, and screens full of images shared, lost, found, and trash bags reluctantly lugged outside, only to be followed by more. Images, and the stories they convey are the ultimate expansion of the self. Painting is a way to the handle difficulties of living in a human body and allows for a form of communication far more intimate and honest than conversation. Where a voice falters, a line speaks firmly in its place.
While we rapidly perceive one another, fragmented versions of our minds and bodies become regenerated in an attempt to understand who and what we are. There is comfort in the process of rearranging limbs, letters, and layers until a resolution arises; addressing the nature of complete chaos, both internal and external. When my hands and eyes work towards something tactile, messages which were otherwise clouded become clear, frustrations are resolved for just a moment until something else begs to be asked, answered, and asked again.
Lucia Perfumo
What’s Next
animation
00:02:37
2020
What's Next is an animation of a photo album I was gifted by my best friend of 15 years. We spent most of our childhood together and most of my memories have her in them. The photo album is a bound physical manifestation of my childhood. When I need an escape, these images become a sanctuary.
Simone Robinson
Mountains
wood, Styrofoam, moss and paint
24” x 29” x 20”
2020
This piece is something I have created in my beginning sculpture class at The Ohio State University. This was my first sculpture piece I have ever created in my artistic career, and the objective of this piece was to create an imaginative structure which anyone would love to play miniature golf on. The inspiration for this piece stemmed from the beauty of the Jamiacan Blue Mountains. These mountains are known for their luxurious coffee beans and I wanted to recreate the atmosphere of how grand the scenery is. The materials that I used were styrofoam, wood, spray paint and artificial moss to design this scene.
Gideon Smiley
Becoming Digital
performance video
00:14:56
2020
My work stems from the changing everyday inputs and interactions that I have with contemporary culture, and the observations that I make as a result. Though diverse in medium, I work from a conceptual start and expand outward to the best representation of an idea. Often focusing on technology and mental processes, I use my work to bring the unseen into reality. In Becoming Digital I use performance to realize the actions of the digital hand and call attention to the number of activities and sectors of life that have transferred over to the technological plane. By using recognizable icons and imagery I am able to comment on their connection to contemporary society, and explore the personal connotations that people have with each image while building new associations and meaning. Inserting my body into the work creates a direct way for viewers to relate to the space and thus the idea, and brings a level of relevance that contrasts with the less tangible concepts surrounding technology. In this way I try to utilize performance to bring that tactility to the audience through a time-based visual medium as mass consumed as video and yet steeped in a conceptual idea relevant to the current time.
Gabriella Stauffer
Thoughtless
digital animation gif
2020
Thoughtless works to express the refusal of negative mental imagery. Looping, it is a never ending throwing away of negative thoughts and feelings, a continual struggle to focus on the positive.
Sydney Summey
Women’s March / Untitled 1
photography
16” x 20”
2020
The summer of 2020 itself was enough to grieve my spirit. It seemed like it was a time where compassion was nowhere to be found and people who looked like me, who looked like people close to me, were being seen and killed without remorse. As an African American woman, it made me fearful of the everyday activities that individuals like my father set out to do. As if suddenly it occurred to me that going for a walk didn't just mean going for a walk anymore. It meant him going out for a walk and thanking God he came back safely. To me, it is the everyday. Everyday having the right to peace, the right of security and just simply the right to be while black. This is the hope that I, like many other women, have and will continue to march for.
And I say continue because it is the daily stride for our people. The continuation of the movement with the accompaniment of song on our lips. But unlike that day, as we danced to melodies of heaven, everyday’s tune for tomorrow will have no end.
Madeline Vogelmeier
An Alternate Space (My Views From School)
pencil on paper
18” x 24”
2020
An Alternate Space (My Views from School) moves in a completely new direction for me as an artist. I wanted to create something which captured the idea of being abstract, where the viewer recognized components of the drawing while simultaneously not really knowing what they were looking at. To do this, I combined two architectural pieces, one inside and one out, in such a way that they became one jumbled space. One can look into the side of a building as if it were a window to a separate space or look through a doorway expecting to see the inside of a bedroom but instead being confronted with another outdoor structure, all while being surrounded by carpet and wall decorations.
Serena Yoakum
Was It Me?
digital video
00:02:57
2020
Was It Me? is an autobiographical video diary that depicts the manifestations of inner conflicts within an isolated environment. A single bedroom apartment houses the subject, alone with resounding thoughts that cannot be heard by the viewer. The film offers a look into the subject’s world, reminiscent of “Man vs. Self” and “Man vs. Society.” The subject repeats symbolic actions that create cycles of building dissatisfaction and excessive tendencies. Existence is reduced to a desaturated pulp due to all colors being wrung out of corporeality—except for bright splashes of red.
Zi Yuan
Destination
digital video
00:02:27
2020
My name is William(Zi) Yuan. I am a multimedia digital artist. My works include 3D renders, animations, short films, and video games.
My goal as a photographer is to capture all the interesting people and cultures that I encounter as I travel around the world. As an animator/game designer, I strive to use my skills to create realistic and futuristic worlds that would not only make the audience feel visually immersed and engaged but also conceptually challenge the audience to think about the good, the bad, and the ugly in a realistically futuristic world. One of "the ugly" aspects I specifically emphasize is pollutions and other environmental issues followed by technological advancements in our world. Through my works, I wish to raise awareness of environmental protection and remind people that we as humans will always be a reflection of the environment...we are the environment.
At the beginning of the 22nd century, humans are capable of the technologies required for space travel. A group of astronauts and scientists are sent to a "nearby" migratable planet to study its habitability. After a 14 year-long fruitless trip, the astronauts have finally found their way home...