51³Ô¹ÏÍø

PLASTI-CITY I & IIII, Rayna Miller

Escape, Francesca Van Sant

Digital Witness, Jack Schutz

Tuesday, Shannen Smiley

Nene Sevgisi, Amanda Dilara Miller

Cars of the Future, Thomas Young

Creature of the Earth, Allison Murphy

Hewn, Jack Schutz

Stop No 17943 & Rawlins, Heather Hanson

Withering Crown, Luke Desmond

Ìý

PLASTI-CITY I & IIII
Rayna Miller
Photography -- 5572 x 3675 px (I) and 6016 x 4000 px (IIII)

(back to top)

Escape
Francesca Van Sant
11.5" x 9.45"

This is a girl who escapes her life by reading. Her mind is a crazy rainforest: beautiful, but also dark and full of secrets. I was inspired by Henri Rousseau. I have always been drawn to the detail, mystery, but also magic of his rainforests. The girl knows that it will be a long road, wherever she is going, that is why she is taking as many books as she can with her.

(back to top)

Digital Wellness
Jack Schutz
Digital Image

This installation is an exploration of what identity and the concept of self have come to mean in an era when so much of who we are is expressed via digital means; through social media, texting friends, documenting life experiences. Specifically, how these things impact our own self-perceptions and understandings of who we are. These works are intended not to provide a critque of social media or offer a statement on body image issues but is instead a way to pose fundamental questions about our human experience in relation to identity: What does it mean to be in a contemporary society?; How do the lives of peole we don't personally know impact our own? Does idolatry manifest too much in our lives?; What is the essence of individuality in an era when experiences are collectivised? These photographs don't attempt to answer these questions, they merely bring them to the surface for the viewer to consider. I hope these images encourage you to evaluate your relationship with yourself, to gauge your own self worth and see if it is in line with the imagery you project out to the world.

(back to top)

Tuesday
Shannen Smiley
Digital Art -- 2.516" x 2.532"

I believe that myself and many others have a fear of being alone. Especially in college, there is a drive to constatnly surround yourself with people. When we are alone, that's when we truly experience the reality of life...the reality that we are always alone regardless of how many people are around us.

This piece focuses on the activities that happen while we're by ourselves and behind closed doors. The mindless activities that we partake in when no one is watching are where we ultimately discover the beauty of solitude.

(back to top)

Nene Sevgisi
Amanda Dilara Miller

For my multi-color relief print, I decided to dedicate it to aÌý memory of when I used to live withÌý my Grandmother back in Turkey. After a call with my family, I realized through hearing their voices and tongues that I had taken for granted small, sweet moments. During the call, my family was all having tea and my Grandmother was in the kitchen making sarma (a Turkish dish with rice and grape leaves). It was in the morning so the sunlight was hitting the kitchen just how I remembered it to be when I used to live with her. I dedicated this print to her, knowing it would bring her joy that I thought of her even with all this distance. A simple occurrence I know I won't be able to have again. Maybe that's why I was conflicted on what to write for my statement here. It feels bizarre looking at my print and seeing my grandmother and being welled up with such emotion. IT's the first time I've ever drawn her and it feels liek I've done something good. I named it "Nene Sevgisi" which means "A Grandmother's Love."

(back to top)

Cars of the Future
Thomas Young
Digital Art --Ìý3840 px x 2160 px

The future is such aÌýfascinating subject. Whether people envision it as a dystopia where Yellow Cab is fighting back against Uber or a time where you can visit grandma halfway across the milky way in a matter of hours. Almost every aspect of what the future may hold is argued about. Whether it'll be good or bad, whether we will live underwater or in space, or even if we could possibly live forever. The one thing everyone seems to agree upon though, is that whatever might happen, it's going to be big. These changes are going to influence our everyday lives and what would be a better way to represent these changes than through cars. The automobile has become a staple of everyday life for so many people and the are constatnly evolving to fit the needs of the average Joe. Keeping in mind the changes that might happen in the future and seeing how they might affect our everyday lives has created the Cars of the Future collection you see before you.

The rebel front moves forward due to the introduction of the new H-Wing figher jet. Go get 'em boys!

It's the year 3030 and the battle between Yellow Cab and Uber continues. Slowly, Yellow Cab is taking back dominance in transportation.

The new Volkswagen Beetle has been changed to have 6 legs just like the common garden beetle. This will allow for it to move across large rocks and rough terrain with ease. This is the start of hte next generation of all-terrain vehicles.

(back to top)

Creature of the Earth
Allison Murphy
Photography -- 6000 px x 4000 px

Wet, covered in ash
Product of flame.Ìý
Emerge from the dirt.
Look.

(back to top)

Hewn
Jack Schutz
Silver Gelatin Print -- 8" x 10"

This piece serves an an exploration of the ways that physical and emotional trauma can over-lap and integrate within our lives. After breaking my hand and needing surgery to repair the fracture, my abilities and life changed for a number of weeks, and while recovery went well, it was still a difficult and emotionally trying time for me. I created this piece as a way to express and manifest that energy and to coalesce my thoughts on my experience into something physical; taking a physical trauma that became emotional and giving physicality to those experiences again. I photographed my now scarred hand using a digital camera and printed paper negatives which I worked with to print using darkroom techniques and painted the developer onto the paper. I then proceeded to cut up the piece and stitch it back together, evoking the trauma and healing of my own surgery.Ìý

(back to top)

Stop No 17943 & Rawlins
Heather Hanson
Lithograph -- 15" x 18" (Stop No 17943) and 10.5" x 11" (Rawlins)

Stop No 17943 is a lonely bus stop, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by open land, with majestic mountains in the background. Stop No 17943 is at the brink of hte sprawling Denver metropolis. Standing beteen Denver and 51³Ô¹ÏÍø on Highway 93, the stop is a last gasp of untouched scenery before the land gives way to suburbia. Stop No 17943 lies out against a vast swath of open land. Open land not far from plutonium waste. Recently developed residential, right up to the now defunct Rocky Flats, it is surreal to imagine anyone takes this route.

Twentysix Gasoline Stations is considered the first artist's book. Created in 1963 by Edard Ruscha, the book contained no text and would be rejected by the Library of congress citing its "unorthodox form of supposed lack of information." Ruscha's intent with this series was to approach his subjects without emotion or explanation. Precluded by Edward Hopper, Gas from 1940, also does not possess the objective to put forth any narrative or emotion, rather, it is a "intimate transcription' of the American landscape. The station represented in Rawlins, embodies the spirit of this wind-blown Wyoming town. Just off of the 80 interstate, the station is a whisper of a more industrial petroleum fueled era, having just past.

(back to top)

Withering Crown
Luke Desmond
Photography

This picture started off as a sentence I wrote down in my journal. IN black ink I wrote, "We are blinded by a crown that will wither away." This idea came to me when I was looking around at others and myself seeing how hard everyone works to make a name for themselves. I see all this energy being put into obtaining a higher status and I wonder what is it for. Is it to be remembered forever? I answer that question with another question; what name can last for eternity? To those who wish their names to be written in stone, I ask you what stone won't crumble back donw to dust? There may be a day in the sun but all flowers must return to the ground that birthed them.

(back to top)