Senior Exhibits 2019

Growing up I wasn’t introduced to art until I was in high school, and even then it was made out as a joke. My family was not one to go to art museums, because they did not know anything about art. Once I got into college, I found my love for art. Ever since then art has become my escape. It helps me deal with my anxiety.
Ever since my dad came into my life at the age of five, I have not had much of a relationship with him. This is because he allowed his wife and mother-in-law to mentally, emotionally, and verbally abuse me. Because of them I have had many issues with my self-worth. This is the premise of my show. I want to show how words said to a person effects them on the inside even if their outside does not show the effect.
My wheel thrown pieces are aesthetically pleasing and look functional, but they are all, in fact, non-functional on the inside. They either have a hole or a non-food safe texture glaze. These pieces each have a word of hate on the outside that has been said to me at some point in my life. To contrast those pieces, I have hand-built pieces that mirror the wheel thrown. The difference is that the hand-built pieces have words of love or encouragement that have been said to me at some point in my life. These pieces have a raw and organic look on the outside and a beautiful blue glaze on the inside.
Through my work I am hoping to show people what has made me into the person I am today, and why I continue to work on myself daily. I hope my show “Love Me or Hate Me” can give insight into what words can do to someone’s mental health, and how it can affect them in the long run.

Love Me or Hate Me

To me, the word “good” means selflessness, honesty, hope, kindness, honor, and humility. As I’ve grown, I’ve integrated this concept of good into my digital photography as my way of serving others, and as a means to appreciate the life I’ve been given. Broadly speaking, I hope that my artistic journey captures the beauty of those I photograph and gives others a sense of overwhelming love for who they are and the life they live. More broadly, this work is about expressing every human being’s struggle with morality and the choices they make.
There is a war being waged within us all. Every day we choose to fall into darkness, or take joy in the light. Darkness feels cold, desperate, lost, void, and hopeless. Light feels warm, spirited, passionate, and lively. I aim to draw attention to this internal war. Some of those whom I photograph are comfortable in the dark, hiding away from the light. Some crave the sweetness of hope and the warmth of the light, as they try to break free from the shackles of darkness. Some are basking in the light and only desire to share this light with others. I’m creating art that expressing my every-present search for the light. I believe the nature of warmth, spirit, and passion take their root in Jesus. This art revolves around the experiences of Christians who fight for the truth, and fall short. But because they can experience grace, and redemption through Jesus, the battle is not lost when they fall.
Photography is the study of light. I feel there is no better medium than photography to explore not only the physical quality of light, but also the concept of light as a social, emotional, and spiritual experience. In this series of photographs I am using the progression of darkness to light like a grey scale to show the physical change that happens in a person when on this inward journey for light. I use natural light predominantly, but occasionally utilize studio light to create thought provoking scenes that accentuate the individual’s state of mind. The photograph explores how the subject is interacting with the amount of light they have in the frame. The physical representation of how the person is interacting with the light is a metaphor for how the person is dealing with the light inwardly. 
Seek Light, Be light is a show about the relentless search for light within those who believe in Jesus Christ. It is about the reality of living in a world of sin and choosing to believe in truth instead. My hope is that anyone who sees this show will be able to resonate with some part of it regardless of personal beliefs. Because, after all, there is a war waging within us all, and it should be known that none of us need to feel alone in this battle.

I knew from the beginning that I was meant to take charge. I have always been comfortable with stepping up, standing out, and even being misunderstood because of my assertive personality. My parents watched me turn from a bossy young girl into a woman with strong leadership skills and a highly creative mind. While I am very outgoing, I am surprisingly a proud introvert. I find satisfaction in art because it is a way of communicating that takes place in a solitary process that is protective and refreshing. I want my art to be refreshing and inspiring for the viewer. My artworks aren’t weighed down with heavy meaning, but are meant for taking delight in. 
I am inspired by women who work, lead, and influence. My show is a celebration of women who do so in society. Amongst my digital paintings are women who have inspired me to step onto the field, run for that position, and take the reins of my career as a graphic designer. People like Jackie Kennedy who are strong yet elegant and chic, and people like Serena Williams who are bold yet graceful. All the women I chose turn the clichéd phrase “Like a Girl” into an empowering message for young women. 
I am influenced particularly by American painter Alex Katz, who simplifies his portraits by using large blocks of color. I aim to also formally simplify my work without loading my images with politics, race, or debate. Teil Duncan, an American painter has also influenced me to explore the subject matter of women and their style, while painting both with sparing detail. 
My four years in college have been a defining time of who I am as a woman and a leader. Between being an athlete, serving on campus, and holding multiple leadership positions, I revealed a Macy that I didn’t know existed. I have developed a confidence that is through the roof, a competitive edge like no other, and a desire to live my life as far away from my comfort zone as possible. I hope that my paintings will spark a flame in you to become the best version of yourself. I also hope to make you feel motivated to work towards your personal goals, even the ones that seem bold, crazy, and out of reach.

Serena

Biology is one of my most intense fascinations, and it has been since I was a child. As I got older, my passion for art grew and overlapped with my love for biology. Biology, however, is unforgiving, unknowing, and does not care about the lives it describes through its clinical methodologies. I learned this fact through personal experience. My mother, my best friend, my mentor, and my inspiration was diagnosed with Stage III brain cancer. The day I discovered this was the way that I declared an internal war with the unfeeling calculations of science.
Doctors dedicate their life to studying this emotionless science. They must look at cases from a stoic, guarded standpoint. They can talk to us like we’re ignorant of any fancy terms or the true meanings of the terms that describe her situation. Art is inherently emotional. As a practice, it is made to make the viewer feel something. It communicates in a way that sometimes the most terrifying or meaningful of words cannot. There has always been an interesting relationship between the two disciplines, and many believe they cannot interact since they are so inherently different. Together, though, they can communicate a message not easily described with fancy terms. Together they create a new understanding of the analytical and creative.
I use Plexiglass in this series to tie into my title: Did You See It Coming? The viewer sees through the glass but is obstructed by the body parts. The pieces spin independent of each other, so the viewer can have some semblance of control over the human body. I depict each image representationally with narratives written on the back. These narratives are to show my personal connection with the pieces as well as some of the scientific jargon used to describe the medical condition my mother is battling. I use colored pencil and graphite for the simple reason that it creates a gorgeous representation of reality. My goal is to show the viewer parts of their own body they might not often think of and to force them to think about their bodies in different ways. I choose body parts that are affected by various diseases, and I show them in different states of healthiness or decay.
Through drawing different body parts, their medical properties, and their stages of deterioration, I have found some semblance of control and understanding. Through the stories I have written on the backs of these artworks, I have found a way to communicate my thoughts and feelings while refraining from breaking down every time I think about her. If I can control how the body is shown on paper, then maybe I can find a way to control my strength and composure towards my mother. Maybe I can find a way to honor what she is going through. Maybe, just maybe, I can find a way to stop it.

Right Leg

Gigi

Kacey

Left Leg

Jackie

Spine

I want my work to encourage others to start a healthy conversation about the impacts of mental illness on our society today. By illustrating my personal experience with anxiety and depression in “Faced with Anxiety,” I show others that they are not alone in this battle with mental illness. As an artist, my anxiety has been heightened at times, but it has also given me the opportunity to use my art to speak to others who are also impacted by mental illness.
I work with materials that could be deemed atypical in parts of the fine art world. I choose to do this in my artwork because my concepts and imagery could also be deemed atypical. The found materials I use in my paintings have a story of their own which adds to the importance of their presence in the artwork. My artwork can portray a sense of familiarity in the imagery I have painted as well as in the commonly found materials incorporated in my art.
“Faced with Anxiety,” is one of my more personal works where I illustrate an issue I battle with every day. In my other artwork I choose to explore topics that society often forgets about and neglects to talk about. My previous work is often inspired by science where I represent the beauty found and forgotten within this world. I also enjoy the exploration in the world of portraiture where I can capture a person’s story or emotion in my artwork. This show is the combination of both, the exploration of portraits as well as my determination to create conversation be introducing important scientific information. I have challenged myself with this series as it is my first time painting myself into the work.
This show is very important to me; however, I hope it is just as impactful on my viewer. I encourage others to have the confidence to speak out and talk about their personal struggles with mental health. “Faced with Anxiety,” has pushed me mentally as well as artistically. I truly get to showcase the skills I have gained as a student at the University of North Georgia. Many are facing a battle with mental illness. I choose to remember the bad moments as I represent these emotions in this series. For these low moments are the reason I have to keep going as an artist, student, young adult, and human.

Isolation

Frida

Fear

Frustration

Mouth

As a graphic designer, I strive to generate the most unique and thought-provoking designs. When I see marketing designs in my daily routine, I am inspired to create my own version of them with a hidden, deeper message. My art needs to have more than just the visual aspect for me to be satisfied with it. From logos to entire marketing campaigns, I create depth by using subtle clues to allude to the deeper message I communicate to my viewers. In my senior exhibition, I created a graphic design campaign to inform the public on how major corporations can influence their consumers through branding and marketing. I showed this by creating a mock company called One-Self, which is a company that offers to make a clone of yourself. My graphic design campaign consisted of a website and posters that had typical brand manipulation aspects. As a conclusion to my show, I created a manual on how to avoid brand manipulation in a real-life setting. With combining these two works, I hope to encourage my viewers to pay attention to their consumer habits in my series One-Self. I am hyper-aware of the marketing around me and how it is presented. This ability helps me create more effective designs for the public because I imitate influential design techniques in my own work. I am a keen observer of the art world and communicative objects. These observations help me with my creative process by giving me a foundation for my designs. For example, when creating a logo, I start with the overall message the company is trying to convey. Then I will do extensive research to gather ideas about how the logo will be formatted. I create my logos with subconscious themes or imagery (for example, I used two identical “O’s” in my One-Self company logo to represent my theme of cloning). Research is key in every project because my work is, figuratively, two-layered. On the first layer, there is the design itself with key visual elements that link to the overall idea of the company. On the second layer, I have subtle subliminal hints of a deeper meaning to the company. I hope to broaden my viewer's minds by using this influential technique.
One-Self is my way of expressing my interpretation of how graphic design is used to influence its consumer. My concept is achieved by creating an intriguing company concept and informative manual. With my subliminal techniques, I hope by my exhibit empowers the viewer to look at marketing and branding with a more conscientious mindset.

One-Self Website

One-Self Poster #2

One-Self Poster #1

Eyes

This world is overwhelmingly beautiful. The Earth is full of charm and adventure that bring out this child-like wonder in each of us. Think back to a moment in your life where the beauty of this world brought you to tears. In those moments, you tend to feel like a smaller piece in a grand design. Painting landscapes renews this experience in me, and allows me to see my own life in a larger perspective. Each piece in my show, Journey, intends to recreate that occurrence in my audience using three distinct locations that display creation in different lights.
Every animation was constructed together through the use of Photoshop and After Effects. Just as life takes on a long means of shaping who we are, the creation process took months of building. The original concepts for each landscape began as simple sketches in a notebook. When the ideas were solidified, I painted the scenes in Photoshop to begin. In order to animate, I had to create each piece as its own layer. This allows me to design the illusion that my pieces are in a 3D environment. I worked on the base paintings until the details became life-like. Then, I spent the rest of my time importing the layers into After Effects to bring these simple images to life with animation. This process symbolizes a fragment of the underlying theme in Journey.
I compare Journey often to the phrase “stop and smell the roses”. What does this mean? To truly enjoy the rose, you have to focus on it, and bring the rose to the front of our awareness. To smell the rose, you have to get close and linger around. When we do this, we find ourselves not only delighting in the rose, but loving it. This simple act leaves behind an impression that, if done right, can significantly change the quality of our entire life. When this idea is applied to creation, we start to see life as this long journey full of deeper, richer joy and love. Yet, even the most beautiful place cannot satisfy this deep desire in the core of our beings. Even though there is so much wonder and beauty, it almost seems to be pointing at some deeper truth.
Journey’s purpose is to explore this idea. It aims to awaken those common feelings of how wonderful this world is. Yet, with all the sunsets, all the art, and all of creation, I find that these cannot satisfy as the meaning of life. As a Christian, I see creation playing its intended part in the grand design. God means for us to be stunned and awed by his handiwork, but not for its own sake. He means for us to look at His creation and ask, if the mere work of His fingers is so full of wisdom, power, grandeur, majesty, and beauty, what must this God be like in Himself? He alone is the soul’s end. In one large act of symbolism, my piece did exactly what it was intended to do. Art and creation are meant to point to its creator. As scattered solar beams tell us that there is a sun, this journey of life shows us that deeper meaning behind the beauty.
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
C.S. Lewis

Forest

Ocean

Meghan

City

As a child, when I visited my grandparents, I remember walking through their front door and being welcomed by the array of family photographs. They were mementos that spanned decades on display to be admired, eventually leading my eye to the sight of my grandfather sitting in his recliner by the window. He was always observing the world and taking note of everything happening around him, whether it was with his own eyes, by taking photographs, or recording home videos with his VHS camera. At the time, I was too young to understand why he was so focused on documenting life, but I learned later on that he was collecting memories to help him recall later. 
As an artist, my work often reflects upon the idea of collecting. I do this through the mediums graphic design and photography, with the intention of visually telling a story. I am interested in exploring personal history, struggles, emotions, and relationships. I strive to develop bodies of work that create a perspective and a voice of their own. In my senior show I’m Still Here, I created a series of five digital collages and three bound books that both aim to express the themes of dementia, memory, and loss. This work is expressing these themes from the perspective of my grandfather and how that has affected not only him but my family as well. My intention is that these works can give the viewer insight on the afflictions of dementia through his voice – like him, my collages show the selflessness he exhibited his entire life by focusing on the service to his country and the raising of his family. Due to this disease, he lost his voice and self-expression, thus re-living these memories through my work is an eye-opener. 
I enjoy the process of developing collages, as it is both very complex and satisfying in manipulating imagery to convey a specific message. My grandfather was a carpenter for over fifty years, so I constructed each collage by using wood grain textures as a base. I began taking found imagery like photographs, postcards, and medical illustrations and assembled them in a way that evoked how our cells make up the basic structure in our brain. I digitally altered the images with pixilation, blur, and abstract brushstrokes to emulate the loss of memory. I overlaid handwritten quotes to reveal relationships my grandfather established with each of his children; these quotes invite viewers to witness how this disease impacts families. Through my bound books, I invite the viewers to briefly learn more about dementia and my own family’s story that goes along with the diagnosis of dementia. 
There needs to be a better understanding of this disease. Individuals suffering from dementia should not be ignored. I created this series to celebrate my grandfather’s life, but also provide a coping mechanism for my family, myself. And I also hope to raise awareness and to encourage the viewers to cherish their memories and the people they love while they still have the chance.

Bonded

Keri

Francis II

Francis I

James

Cynthia

Earth Chakra: Deals with Survival. Blocked by Fear
I enjoy the process of drawing. It has become a form of meditation for me. Each stroke I make is like a breath of fresh air. When I am producing a piece, there is a raw connection between my mind and the lines that I choose to put down. My personal meditation practice connects directly to my work. By focusing on one’s mental state through meditation, I believe personal well-being improves. As a result, spirituality is a prominent theme in this series. I aim to intrigue the individual by evoking a unique feeling or broadening their mind through abstract thought.
The chakra structure is a concept in which there are seven spiritual and emotional points within the body. Every point is opened through mental focus and self-reflection.I have abstracted my approach to the chakra structure, evoking a unique response from each viewer. The release of negative emotions is achieved through the development of each chakra and culminates with reaching one’s spiritual enlightenment. The complexity of the themes complements the intricate nature of my drawings. Digital painting is my preferred medium because of the ability to layer and incorporate effects. I use bright and intense colors, through overlap of the lines, to represent beams of light. This enhances the connection between the figure and the background within every composition. The singular color of the backgrounds, along with the line work, are what develop the emotional energy of each piece.
The technique and style of my recent work is a combination of realism and abstract drawing. I would say that I developed my technique by contemplating the feelings which relax me the most. I populate my drawings with patterns that drag the viewer’s eye across the page to view the intricate detail. I also use a combination of overlap, shading, and contour lines to display dimensionality. With this body of work, I aim to blur the line between the human spirit and the body. I demonstrate that life surrounds us in different forms of emotional energy.
Mental contemplation and meditation are the overall themes in my current artistic work. By using my drawing skills in combination with digital art, I aim to share a contemporary interpretation of the human chakra structure. I want others to view spiritual connectivity in a visually intricate manner. Life surrounds us with energy in different forms and we can make changes to improve our individual well-being.

Earth Chakra

My work has, as its core, the formal philosophy of reducing nature to its purest form. Each work emerges from exploring the theme of Arizona and its natural beauty. I have always been inspired by adventure and the world around me. I was once confined by the small, rural, one red light town that I was raised in, but now I can live out the poster that I hung on my wall when I was young— “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” 
This current body of work is a distillation of forms that have been repeated and geometrically simplified through a process of digital manipulation. To express the environments that I was captivated by, the Saguaro National Forest, Monument Valley, and Antelope Canyon, I dug deep into how I felt when I was in Arizona. I was surrounded by different textures and landscapes and the way hot, red dirt would seep into my sandals. I remember traveling underground and sensing smoothness of the wave-like canyon walls, while the sun was beaming into the openings. The use of pattern gives each work a sense of movement and the surprise of new visual stimulus. The carefully chosen color palettes influenced by the Arizona skyline, and the layering of linear textures are added to influence a cohesive body of work. 
I have always been an artist that dabbles into different media. I enjoy all types of art: drawing, painting, weaving, and illustrating. I chose to form pattern designs because I could use all different media to create my final work of art. I start by sketching my motifs, converting it into vectors digitally to create the pattern, and then painting them to bring them to life. By having my patterns printed on everyday objects, such as socks, bags, notebooks, and home décor, I hope to inspire the everyday user and bring nature’s beauty into their everyday life. 
 Adventure and Place are the overall themes of my current body of work. I hope to inspire someone to reach outside of their comfort zone to find somewhere they finally feel at home and to look up and see the beauty that God has created around them.

Monument Valley

Oprah

I believe that in this life we can all agree on one thing: we all go through struggles and pain, such as heartbreak, loss, and rejection, that leave us hoping for peace in our life. As a photographer, I am highly influenced by my own experiences and my faith. Due to circumstances in my life, I’ve wrestled with depression and anxiety and it left me feeling empty and alone. Then, I discovered Christ and my faith in him gave me peace and allowed me to be joyful in those circumstances. I have found photography to be a creative tool to share about the incomparable hope I have.
Incomparable Hopeis a film photography series that describes the lives of three individuals and how they each discovered hope. I created three photographs per person to describe their journey in life from going through trials to being free from them. Light is a key component within my work and I applied it to this series to symbolize the progression of hope within each person’s life. The darkest image is symbolic of their struggles and the lightest is symbolic of the freedom they experience. The middle image shares the moment they discovered their hope. Finally, I asked each person to write a short testimony of their story so that the viewer can first reflect on the images and then read directly from the individual. My goal is to share each person’s story as truthfully as possible using my tool as a photographer.
My decision to create my senior show with film photography became apparent after my first film class. Today, digital photography is widespread and an effective tool, but I have found film to have an intimacy that can’t be obtained through a digital lens. It intrigues me to watch a blank piece of paper come to life with an image I made in the darkroom. I love getting to use my hands to make edits on my image. I take pleasure knowing that a part of me is actually viewable in my work. The hours in the quiet darkroom also give me time to reflect and enjoy a peaceful moment while creating my work.
My desire with this series is to share the hope these few individuals have found through the struggles they experienced. In return, I ask the viewer not to look at these experiences as unique, but to reflect on their own and to question, “Have I found hope in my life?” I advise them not to leave without thinking deeply about the trials in their life. Each of these people have a story to tell and they all end in this hope they have put their trust in. With this series, I want to encourage the viewer to know that they are not alone in their suffering and hope is there to be found.

Worthless Thoughts

Hedgehog Cactus

“Sight for the Sightless” focuses on my brother, Gabe, who has been blind since birth. Everyday, I grew up witnessing how he interacts differently with the world due to the loss of such an important sense. Without this sense, his other senses have been magnified and that is evident in everything he does. I believe that his loss of sight should not limit him or others to interact with art. Instead, it should propel the artist to push boundaries and create art for more than one audience.
I have always used photography to express my feelings and it has occurred to me that Gabe cannot see and experience the feelings or emotions I have captured. In this exhibition, the images are captured in a way that visually represents Gabe and his everyday environment. While growing up with Gabe, I have seen how his everyday environment is different because he has had to adapt to aspects of life in alternative ways. Braille is a language that I do not need, but for Gabe, it has allowed him to understand what he cannot see. The braille is a description made by Gabe of what he was feeling or experiencing in the image. I chose to incorporate the application of braille to the photographs so he could understand the emotions that the image is portraying. The decision to photograph with a 35mm film camera was because of the aesthetic that the photos capture. There is no English description of the braille because I wanted to create an even playing field for the viewers who cannot see and the viewers who can see the feeling. This gives the viewers who can see an idea of what it is like to not to understand a photograph just like someone who can not see a photograph. This exhibition gives a fair chance to viewers with sight or without sight to understand the same image even though they are experiencing it differently.
As humans, I strongly believe that we take for granted the sense of sight, and I wish to examine the idea that maybe we do not need sight to see or feel. Gabe can not see these photographs but, by reading the braille, he can remember the feeling in the moment, therefore he is understanding the photograph like those with sight do. Artist have the ability to create and express emotions through alternative methods and the absence of any sense should not limit what can be experienced.

Wolfie

Beacons of Light is a body of work that focuses on the city of Atlanta. This includes expressing the dynamism of the urban environment, its celebratory settings and the eye-candy of its colors, textures and overall aesthetic. It is a series of nine large-scale double exposure color prints representing my home city through my eyes. I chose to photograph Atlanta to show the beauty of its nightlife as well as the memories that I hold of each place that is documented.
I have always been inspired to do film photography. My father did a series on Las Vegas neon signs, and this has always inspired me to photograph many of the neon signs back home. I used my father’s Hasselblad camera to further indicate his influence on my work. This portfolio is a combination of dreamy, nostalgic, and timeless photographs. There is a cinematic feel in some of the photographs that represents the commemorating of childhood achievements, dance recitals, getting my first job, birthdays, and holidays. All of these special events from my life were celebrations; usually commemorated with a drive down Ponce de Leon Avenue. This is where the many vivid neon signs were reflected off the windows of the other passing cars as we made our journey to whichever restaurant my parents were going to surprise us with. There was always a feeling of excitement as the destination’s big bright sign appeared in our windshield. I want to show the liveliness of the city. When you look at these photographs, I want you to think back to a time you were celebrating something special. I want you to think of where that place was and how special and vibrant it was.
My medium for this series is medium format film photography. I am also using a digital program to create a double exposure effect. This imbues the images with a surrealistic quality and a nostalgic feel. I chose to do nine photographs, consisting of three still-lives, three portraits, and three landscapes. I did this to show different attitudes and impressions I sense in each place. I am photographing at twilight, so the neon signs are very vibrant on the dark background.
This series communicates the unique vision I have in my mind’s eye when I think of Atlanta and the memories each place holds. Growing up in the city has given me a different perspective and now I am able to share that with my viewers. The energy of Atlanta is shown through the dazzling colors of each photograph. The nostalgic feel is created by the double exposures. Lastly, the symbolic similarity is presented by the use of my father’s Hasselblad camera. Beacons of Light is a portfolio that focuses on the celebratory memories of my life since early childhood.

Krispy Kreme

Antelope Canyon

For most of my art career, various aspects of the ocean have inspired and motivated me, which I portray through ceramic sculptural forms. We are currently faced with a massive water pollution problem and I want to use this as a platform to not only educate others, but offer insight as well. The ocean is being consumed by trash every day and unwanted objects are strangling the many plants and animals that call the ocean home. One big issue that the ocean is faced with is the bleaching of the coral reef, due to things such as oil spills, overfishing, and pollution from trash. I want to portray this imagery by creating different aspects of ocean life with clay by having pieces of trash intertwine with my sculptures, reflecting the pollution take over. I achieve this by forming slabs with clay and rolling them into a tube form. I then use a tool with a pointed end to stipple the surface. I have researched several types of coral in the ocean and chose different types that I decided would be most suitable for conveying my idea. These species don’t have a voice and I believe that by having these creatures viewed in this restrained way, it will offer awareness for this matter.

CC BY 4.0 Attribution

Extinction

I constantly tried to find significance and identity in who others said I was and what they thought about me, and was constantly confused, hurt, and left feeling worthless. Eventually, this manifested itself in a deep hatred for who I was, particularly the way I looked.
I knew God had created me for a purpose, and he designed everything about me with thought and diligence. After hearing a sermon on prayer, I began journaling my negative thoughts to God, who slowly began to transform the way I thought about myself.
Jesus died to know me. His love and his acceptance are worth more to me than the thoughts of the people around me. I am able to live in His freedom, embrace the beautiful identity He gives me, and fulfill the unique purpose He has for my life
-Mackenzie
I believe that in this life we can all agree on one thing: we all go through struggles and pain, such as heartbreak, loss, and rejection, that leave us hoping for peace in our life. As a photographer, I am highly influenced by my own experiences and my faith. Due to circumstances in my life, I&rsquo;ve wrestled with depression and anxiety and it left me feeling empty and alone. Then, I discovered Christ and my faith in him gave me peace and allowed me to be joyful in those circumstances. I have found photography to be a creative tool to share about the incomparable hope I have.
Incomparable Hopeis a film photography series that describes the lives of three individuals and how they each discovered hope. I created three photographs per person to describe their journey in life from going through trials to being free from them. Light is a key component within my work and I applied it to this series to symbolize the progression of hope within each person&rsquo;s life. The darkest image is symbolic of their struggles and the lightest is symbolic of the freedom they experience. The middle image shares the moment they discovered their hope. Finally, I asked each person to write a short testimony of their story so that the viewer can first reflect on the images and then read directly from the individual. My goal is to share each person&rsquo;s story as truthfully as possible using my tool as a photographer.
My decision to create my senior show with film photography became apparent after my first film class. Today, digital photography is widespread and an effective tool, but I have found film to have an intimacy that can&rsquo;t be obtained through a digital lens. It intrigues me to watch a blank piece of paper come to life with an image I made in the darkroom. I love getting to use my hands to make edits on my image. I take pleasure knowing that a part of me is actually viewable in my work. The hours in the quiet darkroom also give me time to reflect and enjoy a peaceful moment while creating my work.
My desire with this series is to share the hope these few individuals have found through the struggles they experienced. In return, I ask the viewer not to look at these experiences as unique, but to reflect on their own and to question, &ldquo;Have I found hope in my life?&rdquo; I advise them not to leave without thinking deeply about the trials in their life. Each of these people have a story to tell and they all end in this hope they have put their trust in. With this series, I want to encourage the viewer to know that they are not alone in their suffering and hope is there to be found.

Beautiful Identity

Purpose Given

In today’s society, social media is the main influence on young women. There are endless makeup tutorials that show how to get perfect porcelain skin and fitness influencers who motivate girls to do more squats so their butts can be as big as the Kardashians. Young women are growing up believing that they must look and act a certain way to be attractive and desirable. I am here to tell you this is not the case.
“The Ordinary Woman” series consists of five self-portraits that challenge modern ideals of female beauty and shed light on finding joy and acceptance in everyday life. These paintings show the five basic functions of life which are moments that are not considered social media worthy but still make us who we are. They are portrayed to give the viewer an inclusive look into moments that most people do not share with others based on being uncool or unpopular. These daily functions connect us as humans and are shared human experiences. This gives the viewer a chance to self-reflect and examine their own lives.
Getting inspiration from artists like Alice Neel, Chantal Joffe, and Jenny Saville, I use a loosely gestural and expressive style that results in an abstracted figure. I use acrylic wash and apply it in layers to add depth to the painting. Each piece is on raw canvas which allows for the medium to flow and speak freely. This shows proof of my process and immediacy of the work.

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Items in this collection

Love Me or Hate Me