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BFA IN STUDIO ART 2020

Opening Reception: April 21, 5-6pm

The annual capstone exhibits by BFA in Studio Art  students features the work, passion, and educational journey by PSU senior students. Studio Art students have been creating a focused body of work in their areas of interest.

 

Click to jump to specific artist or scroll through the page

 


 

EMILY FAULKNER

Artist Bio

Emily Faulkner
BFA Studio Art
Rochester, Massachusetts

Something about you that you would like to share?
Art wasn’t always my passion; I did a lot of theater in High School. I almost pursued acting as a career!

Mediums you work with?
Oil, acrylic, ink, watercolor, silk screen

What is your artwork about?
Growing up, I was always interested in earth sciences and biology. I like to convey that interest through my work, and in my recent art I have been focusing on the major issue of plastic in the ocean.

Artist Statement

I have always been fascinated by the ocean, enamored by its quiet grace and vast beauty. I had always wanted to learn more about it, even toying with the idea of becoming a marine biologist. By studying the ocean, it was brought to my attention just how much trash and plastic is inside of its depths. Throughout life, I have noticed the sheer amount of trash in our natural world through news articles, photographs, and personal experience. Trash has become a part of our natural experience; it is impossible to go for a walk or even swim without finding garbage scattered like fallen leaves. This trash imposes a huge issue for those who inhabit the ocean. The litter pollutes their waters, and often fish and other creatures will consume the trash mistaking it as their prey. In some cases, hermit crabs will use plastic trash as their homes, finding it more plentiful than the shells they usually inhibit. It was how these ocean creatures responded to the litter that inspired my series of work. Trash has almost become its own flora or fauna, being a part of our ocean like seaweed or jellyfish. Throughout my work, I tried to capture the idea of trash being a new species, its own living and breathing thing that infests and overtakes our oceans. The hermit crabs are opting for the easier to find trash for their home, becoming a new type of crab. The plastic jellyfish are unhealthy for the environment, killing their fellow ocean creatures to be replaced in this new stage of evolution.

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AUTUMN HUGHES

Artist Bio

Autumn Hughes
BFA Studio Art
Contoocook, New Hampshire

Something about you that you would like to share?
Growing up in rural New Hampshire, I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time outdoors where I grew my affinity towards small creatures. This includes animals such as insects, snakes, and spiders whose true nature is often misunderstood by people.

Mediums you work with?
Painting, drawing

What is your artwork about?
Recently, I’ve focused the subject of my artwork on my interest in abstracting interior spaces and the objects within them to create a discourse of narratives.

Artist Statement

A dining room chair, a television, or a window looking outside are a few objects that compose the setting of an interior space.  There is an inherent narrative associated with these objects, possessions, or adornments positioned in the spaces that we occupy.  How one experiences these narratives is driven by their subjective response to the given items in each space.  Much like objects interact with each other, I aim to create a composition where the colors and patterns throughout the imagery interact as well.  The addition of pattern and variations in color allow further manipulation of these two-dimensional spaces so that they are almost unrecognizable to the viewer. The inclusion of a couple windows or objects within the composition help to draw the viewer back to reality.

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CHRISTINE LAMBERT

 

Artist Bio

Christine Lambert
BFA Studio Art, BA Graphic Design
Eastern Pennsylvania

Something about you that you would like to share?
In first grade I came in second place in an ages Lincoln Log house contest.

Mediums you work with?
Screenprinting, oil painting, collage, video

What is your artwork about?
My artwork is an emotional response to the turbulent world that we currently reside in. While it might not make instant sense I want the viewer to have to think and maybe even research an actual meaning. I want to provide a space for a viewer to practice critical thinking that is required in this muddy media world.

Artist Statement

Everyone has an accumulation of visual moments that trigger feelings and meaning. Without even realizing I was capturing these moments for years, stockpiling them. From mugs that I found at the thrift store, to advertisements ripped from old magazines, to movies I watched as a kid and pictures on my phone. I have thousands of images that when combined create a narrative. Originally I wanted to remain unpolitical with these narratives, but that proved to be impossible between a threat of World War 3, the wildfires in Australia, and now the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic I had become obsessed with the idea of how we are in a late capitalistic society and how scary but comical it is. I often use comedy in my daily life to deal with tragedy as a coping mechanism. So I started creating “collage paintings”, looking back these collages almost mimic diary entries you can feel my emotions of that current moment. Every piece of the puzzle has a meaning deeper than it seems, I want it to be a challenge to the viewer to have to decipher. At the same time use imagery that is familiar, things that go over class lines like cartoons, advertisements and signage. I find this act of trying to find the deeper connection to the visual information around you is an important practice that I would like the viewer to take away with them. I created a new appreciation for my own personal momentary experience through creating this work, I hope the viewer, after finally solving the puzzle or at least finding one of the pieces, takes this feeling and looks deeper into the media presented to them on a daily basis.

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Links

Website: Christine Lambert
Instagram: @crusttine


COLIN NELSON-PECK

Artist Bio

Colin Nelson-Peck
BFA Studio Art
Plymouth, New Hampshire

Mediums you work with?
Oil paint, charcoal

What is your artwork about?
My artwork is about displaying my antisocial tendencies through self portraits that distance myself from the viewer by obstructing my face. These works display both my comfortable relationship with solitude and my gained understanding of the consequences of becoming too comfortable with loneliness.

Artist Statement

I have worked towards expressing a better understanding of my antisocial tendencies through my artwork. In the past I have explored my bizarre comfort with solitude and how that solitude should not be feared. Though as I move forward, in life and in my work, this perspective has shifted into one that places more doubt on the acceptance of loneliness. While I still do find an odd comfort in being alone, I have come to respect the consequences of falling too deep into that comfort.

My charcoal drawings as well as my Rope Burn series has been what has helped me realize these consequences. In these drawings, the effects of isolation are brought to the forefront. With each of these drawings I have represented myself as restricted and bound. The loneliness that once gave me freedom has taken that freedom away. My works that include rope are meant to show my self imposed prison that shields me from the viewer, creating a greatly claustrophobic space for me to inhabit. Unlike in my past work, where I have created these claustrophobic spaces for comfort, the rope creates an uncomfortable and scratchy surrounding for me, as well as a deeply unsettling image for the viewer. These works also revolve around the themes of obstruction of identity and the idea of a mask to try and strengthen the feeling of separation of myself and the viewer. These pieces display an inner struggle as I so blatantly prevent myself from completing my goals.

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Links

Website: Colin Nelson-Peck

Instagram: @3d_chloroform


 

MIKAYLA OSGOOD

 

Artist Bio

My name is Mikayla Osgood, I am from Wolfeboro, NH but am now a recent resident in Meredith, NH. My journey at Plymouth started with my major being Art Education. Ultimately my Senior year I decided what was best for me was to switch my major to a BFA in studio arts. By doing so I have learned so much about myself as an artist but also as a person. It allowed me to dive in my art and not to regret taking that chance. I am looking forward to the opportunities that come my way and to develop myself further as an artist as I begin this new chapter of my life.

Artist Statement

My work deals with abstract forms in water. The figure has been a big part of my work as well as the air bubbles that form in water. I am inspired by water because it already has abstract qualities. With the addition of the figure it allows me to play with color. It’s not so much who the figure is but the reaction the figure creates in the water. It offers a snapshot in time that appears more stagnant, while air bubbles offer more visible movement. I enjoy floating between abstract and realism as I continue to engage myself in new ideas.

My work is created with acrylic paints and for added texture I work with a palette knife. I continue to work on developing unique composition, balance, and movement. This is important when creating space in abstract realist paintings. I want my paintings to be open to interpretation, and what I enjoy about art.  I take pleasure in creating clarity with distance and I’ve found that abstract forms in water allow me to explore that concept.

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Links

Website: Mikayla Osgood
Email: Mikayla Osgood
Instagram: @myartjourney97


 

MARY PATTEN

 

Artist Bio

Mary Patten
BFA Studio Art
Plymouth, New Hampshire 

Something about you that you would like to share?
I have a strong passion for skiing, gardening, skim boarding, and anything else to do with the ocean and the woods. My favorite ride I’ve ever been on is Shikra, the best ride at Bush Gardens in Florida. I also got the amazing opportunity to sky dive when I turned 18. It felt like flying. 

Mediums you work with? 

For the past few years, I’ve of course been working with oil paint, but recently, I prefer to work with translucent materials such as glass, along with natural found materials such as leaves and other resources that I’ve grown myself. I enjoy the process of integrating my found materials because the work has more of a story to it and reflects my own journey of personal development. 

What is your artwork about?
My work focuses on the spiritual connection that we have to the natural world and is purposeful as such to be a powerful reminder of this connection. It is a documentation of my own personal journey of self-love that is rooted through my fascination of these specimens of which will hopefully become same “spark” for others. 

Artist Statement

Looking inwardly, I often find personal solace in the garden; a wisp of pure air, the vibrant green glow of life, the deep earthly scent of soil all at the edge of the woods. It’s here that I feel most connected to my own source. To gaze through intricate leaf structures feels as though I’m connecting to something far grander than myself; an experience that cannot be put into words. Such vein systems emanate outward within the leaf, replicating the entire tree. it’s simply extraordinary to realize the same vein structures emanate throughout our own bodies. Once more, it’s quite a spectacle to awaken to the fact that the same elements that create plants, animals, earth, ourselves, exist far beyond human exploration. These were the thoughts and feelings that invoked a particular nurturing process in my semi-organic manifestations

 

The strong desire to nurture led to the invigorating experience of keeping something alive, facilitating the growth and development of a living thing. The discovery and growth of such specimens brought forth a greater sense of adventure and story into my pieces. Almost every pressed specimen became an ethereal fossil of something I once grew or found in my own backyard. This particular unraveling of events became a crucial form of guidance to the “worlds within worlds,” journey.

 

However, there was a persistent dualism that refused be ignored. I awakened to the harrowing reality that the way in which we alter the earth to serve our own needs can be very destructive. Although the species that make up the ecosystem possess remarkable resiliency, all aspects of biodiversity begin to vaporize once a vital habitat has been “divided and conquered.” The natural vegetation of a region becomes characterized by these divisions notoriously known as ecosystem fragmentation. I was left wondering why we continue to destroy our most vital connections we so heavily depend on.

 

This harsh reality instilled a reflection of insight into the dualism between man and nature. On one hand, we tend to view nature as an event separate from ourselves; a different world from our own “synthetic,” one. Yet, in another respect, there are those of us open enough to awaken to the reality that nature is part of us, or perhaps is us. When one discovers this interconnection, they begin to expand their sense of self. Small events that were once mundane are now rather vivid and awe-inspiring, to say the least. In retrospect, the synthesis of my earthly manifestations became a means of connecting back to my own inner “root source.”

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Fragmentation from Source

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Divide and Conquer

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You Chose Life

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Biophilia

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Links

Email: Mary Patten