Taken by surprise, unexpected turns in the road, peeking at the underbelly.
Jeanie Lee
Orchids Trick Hoverflies (Trick Jug)
ceramics
9” x 7” x 6.5”
This is a trick jug. The tricky part of this vessel is in figuring out how to remove water from the vessel without having the water spill out from the holes in the neck. To remove water from the vessel, simply suck water from one of the knobs while simultaneously covering the other two knobs to create enough pressure to draw water into the handle and rim. The unassuming handle and rim of the jug are both hollow inside. Not unlike this jug, orchids are very tricky. Orchids have adapted to trick pollinating hoverflies. Specifically, Epipactus veratrifolia emit odors that mimic aphid pheromones, misleading female hover flies to lay their eggs close by. The orchids are successfully pollinated, while the hatching larvae are doomed!
Hazel Andrei Gonzales
Unity
colored pencil on paper
19.75” x 18”
These scars might have an ugly past, but they're quite pretty to me. I wanted to create a realistic drawing of the scars that people who suffer from depression might be afraid to show. In my eyes, these are beauty marks that shouldn't be hidden under thick, wool jackets or long sleeves. More importantly, these two beings with scars share similar sentiments with each other as they hold hands in unity.
Jeanie Lee
Z Coil
ceramics
5” x 9.5” x 3.25”
This sculpture represents a shoe, a sandal by Z Coil. Gravity-defying, orthopedic, and aesthetically bizarre, these shoes saved me after a lingering ankle sprain.
Rachel Barrido
Vague
charcoal on canson mi-teintes paper
17” x 11"
Still life abstraction of two very different objects coming together to form one art piece. The two objects I hope will be even more compelling without the viewer truly knowing what they are. I thoroughly enjoyed this project as it is the first time I have ever worked with charcoal. It was a pleasure to learn and experiment with this material.
Bita Zibaeimoghadam
Pretty Ugly
colored pencil
18” x 14”
This project is about ugly, Pretty things, I showed how a rotten Apple can be so beautiful.
Sasha Leslie
untitled
cardboard, clay, newspaper
7” x 6.5” x 5.5”
This body of work is a parody of what we perceive traditional teddy bears to be - soft, cuddly, and loveable. The idea of a trash teddy bear - still loveable, just not conventionally cute - is what inspired me to go for this piece. In place of a fur texture, I tore up pieces of cardboard to resemble more jagged and tussled fur. The newspaper you see before you is supposed to represent the stuffing of the bear. Nothing about this teddy bear is supposed to be soft, loveable or cuddly, but you are still expected to find it cute because compositionally, it represents a teddy bear. It is lopsided to drive home the idea that at the end of the day, it is just as much a teddy bear as the ones we see at the store or have on our bed; why should it be treated any differently?
Hazel Andrei Gonzales
Santa's Workshop
colored pencil and acrylic paint on paper
15.5" x 11.5”
Santa Claus is a role model for children to look up to during the holidays. He is all that is good and jolly. He also brings us gifts! But if Santa Claus is real, why don't we see any images that portray his strange qualities as a person? I created my version of Santa Claus participating in BDSM to showcase his possible interests behind closed doors because he is just like everyone else, a little naughty.
Mason Ladish
Meat
colored pencil on drawing paper
9” x 12”
This project was our final for the class and we were free to do whatever we wanted. Inspired by a passage in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, I made this to show the objectification of women's body parts in the form of cuts of meat. Each woman is meant to represent a certain cut, that being wings, breast, and thigh.
Mason Ladish
5th st. Poison
colored pencil on drawing paper
9” x 12”
The theme of this assignment was "The Strange" and what I found incredibly strange was the concept of alcohol. A substance that is technically poisonous and yet sold and consumed almost everywhere. So I drew a store that advertises what it’s selling.
Bita Atshani
the bump
charcoal on paper
11.5” x 8.5”
This is inspired by an object in our house in a certain angle that can remind you of many other objects all at once. Some may say a heater, some may say reflection of a bowl, some may say it’s just a bump repeating itself.
Rebecca Sculler
A Bus In My Backyard
colored pencil on paper
7” x 10”
This drawing had the prompt of "the strange." Strange is subjective, a label given to things one is not acclimated to. There's a bus in my backyard. This a statement most might consider strange, but to me is normal. My partner and I have bought a bus and are in the process of converting it into a tiny home on wheels. In the community, this is called a "skoolie."Living in our current world means that housing is not guaranteed. In an extreme attempt at creating comfort in that uncertainty, I proudly have a bus parked in the backyard of my childhood home.
Cameron Smith
Faceless Figure
graphite pencil on paper
12" x 12"
Our prompt was to draw a person without their face. I thought it would be fun to combine the previous project (Movement) with this one and make it look like I had multiple arms while also hiding my entire face.
