Project Name
CATEGORY
ROLE
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
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HOW IT STARTED
Before I was a graphic designer, I was a studio artist.
In efforts of "staying with the times," my practice became entirely digital over the years. Although I learned to create anything I wanted very quickly digitally, I inevitably lost all of my patience in the art of making - the reason I loved art to begin with.
As I stepped away from the computer for a while and into my studio, I realized that I no longer wanted to take any opportunities I could just for exposure or to see my designs somewhere in the real world. I wanted to create projects that were meaningful to me.
I also realized that the job title I had as an artist that paid the bills was not all encompassing to my identity as an artist, but merely a part of who I was. I didn’t have to be just one kind of artist with one style that defined me forever. I began to question how I wanted to be remembered; not just as an artist, but as a human being.
If I were going to make an exhibition telling the world "this is me," who was I? What did I care about? How did I want to be remembered?
“The uglier, older, meaner, iller, poorer I get, the more I wish to take my revenge by doing brilliant colour, well arranged, resplendent.”
After graduating high school, I was told that now was my chance to “reinvent myself.” I didn’t understand what that meant at the time.
I had always known I wanted to be an artist, but without art, I had no idea who I was. I hadn’t spent enough time with myself to know the real me, deeper than those reactions of who they saw me to be. I had been living as a version of myself purposefully easy to understand, to love, and to conform.
My biggest fear during the creation of this show was that digging deep into these feelings would hurt me more than help me, but even I was surprised at what I didn’t know I had in me. Moments that once held me back and I wished to forget were displayed so vibrantly, created with such love.
I realized that I could not continue hating the experiences that shaped me as a woman, and that to know, and love, the real me, there was no “new me” to find. I just needed to allow myself to exist without performing.
My honors thesis treated art-making as a form of research, using the creative process to explore how art can help us shape and express our identity. The exhibition is displayed in the order the work was created so the viewer can literally walk through the creative process to the final gallery wall.
MONOCHROME
The first section, Monochrome, includes the earliest pieces: black‑and‑white oil paintings, block prints, cyanotypes, and a large poster of reference sketches used for posing.
TACTILE
The second section, Tactile, moves into color and texture, with brighter oil paintings, cyanotypes with embroidery, oil pastels, and layered acrylic paint.
RESPLENDENT
The final section, RESPLENDENT, is presented as one full body of work instead of separate pieces. The salon‑style layout works like a collage, showing how identity is made of many fragments that connect but still stand apart.
EXHIBITION BROCHURE
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
This promotional design was created to advertise the opening reception of the exhibition on posters and social media.
