The B-Gallery is very excited to announce FINGERS CROSSED, an exhibition of advanced-level Western Studio Art students enrolled in the Art 494/495 courses. These young, emerging artists are actively developing their work and professional practice from mixed media video installation to more traditional illustration. Each student pursues and perfects both their formal craft and skills, as well as theoretical language surrounding their studio practice. This exhibition is a culmination of one term’s endeavors into developing a strong body of work. Please join us in celebrating the Art 494/495 students as they move one step closer to the completion of their degrees.

 

 

Sylvie Ackroyd

My main creative pursuits are watercolor, small sculpture, and crafts. In two-dimensional art, I use watercolors and also some pen and ink. I tend to illustrate scenes from books or my daily life or draw fantastical creatures. I’ve been interested in doing collections of drawings that show a process, especially mundane ones like cooking or commuting.

This is a collection of drawings and letters I sent to family and friends over the last year, beginning during my last winter in-person class and continuing through summer watering plants at a farm and garden store and into this winter’s online classes again.

Slow motion apocalypse was a journal entry about the smoke from the summer fires. I was inspired by the borders and decorated letters of illuminated manuscripts. In Plasma Cutter I was trying to share with my family the mechanics of the new skill I was learning. The Phantom Chick is an excerpt from an illustrated recounting of finding a chick that had escaped its cage at work. It was an unplanned drawing in pen and I enjoyed leaning into stylization. In the fall I went on lots of walks and on one of them watched a salmon climb, after several tries up a steeper part of Whatcom Creek. I drew Salmon in Whatcom Creek in pen and added watercolor afterwards, trying to give a general impression of the water and woods. Walk shows moments of a uneventful and pleasantly quiet afternoon I had in early February.

I enjoy sending mail and have been making a particular effort this year as a way to gift something beautiful or share a physical bit of my life when I can’t otherwise.

 

 

 

 

Lillian Azbill

These illustrations focus on the human form, self-perception, and serves to comment on American society.  Photographs of naked bodies in multiple positions emphasize the humanness often lost in today’s hyper-sexualized culture. Each piece remains up for interpretation because every person has different experiences with their own bodies and perceiving others. It is meant to be mentally freeing, vulnerable, and emphasize awareness of being body neutral with one’s self. The juxtaposition of nude art and nudes taken today is quite humorous. While nude art is seen as respectable and “fine art”, nudes are seen as a questionable or dangerous act, blending the two is blurring the line between these perceptions. They are intended to make the viewer question labels in regard to the human. The illustrations are achieved by using tempera paint and pencils on paper. My past focuses have been on portraiture as a subject and mental illness as a concept, this work takes on other social issues that are important to me and allows for wider subject range, a reclamation of my body and finding peace with that.

 

 

 

Keaton Bruce

In observing the world through the lens of a mind racked with seemingly diabolical anxiety, my creative work, predominantly collage-paintings with various punches of digital, print, and 3D media, searchers for an antidote.

The work explores chaotic and messy rhythms existing on the boundary between the tangible and the intangible, the human and the inhuman, the natural and the artificial, the religious and scientific. Attempting to define in brushstrokes and handicraft the relationship between myself and the world around me, my pieces alternate between expressive movements with an extended arm and minute, specific application with nose millimeters from the canvas. Utilization of recycled materials brings to the present questions of past journeys and subverted intentions. This continual process activates surfaces that command as much attention in physical presence as conceptual space.

In this collection the iconography of Edward Lorenz’s butterfly effect in juxtaposition with up-cycled materials imagines the impact of religious and scientific institutions on the narrative and path of space, mind and body. The work examines the chaotic collision of the theological and secular word in direct observation of environment and perceptions of my queer body.

 

 

 

 

Penguin Davis

Mental health has always been an issue; however, it has become more prevalent in conversation now a days. One of the things that has always interested me is the psychology behind mental health and why it seems to be difficult to talk about. My artwork has been a way that I have learned to process through my own mental illness, my hope is that through my work hopefully others will be able to as well. For each project I try to find the media that will best convey the message that I am trying to make. Sometimes this means that I use unconventional mediums in my work. In this piece, I used EVA foam, foam clay and leather. This adds a challenge to the work and creates more visual interest in the piece.

 

 

Chloe Dichter

By researching the history of my family, this work contemplates the precarious ownership of my own history as a secular, patrilineally Jewish queer individual. This is an intensely personal search for ancestral connection, a humbling confrontation of what has been erased from the Jewish diasporic consciousness, and my sole duty to preserve the complicated stories of my family as I am the last to carry its original name.

The work uses archived family imagery translated through the cyanotype process and acts as a bridge between religion, history and memory; concurrently emphasizing the significance of the color blue within Judaism. Reconstructing my family tree by way of cyanotypes on matzo crackers, will shed light on the realities of lost cultural roots, systemic erasure, and anti-Semitic persecution. The delicacy of the matzo is representative of the infrastructure of my family, where cracks form and eventually fracture; leaving behind pieces to be salvaged and put back together.

 

 

 

 

Mary Boyle

Literature influenced my first creations of artwork. When I was 8 years old my father handed me a copy of The Phantom Tollbooth, which ignited some sort of creative flame within me. There’s a specific scene in that book where the main character, Milo, ends up at a word market, full of shopkeepers that sell words. Milo samples an A and finds that it tastes “sweet and delicious—just the way you’d expect an A to taste.” There was an illustration that went along with it, and it made my mouth water. When I think about it today my mouth still waters. The literature had me in awe, so I would try my best to draw these scenes like the illustrations that were scattered throughout this book. I went onto love Alice in Wonderland, where the nonsense continued. The call to adventure, starting off with something as simple as chasing a rabbit out of curiosity, as Alice did, is what sparks my imagination. The unpredictability and imagination is what excites me. I am a painter, illustrator, and sequential artist that wishes to put an emphasis on storytelling and create my own universe where all things I create live, much like the books I read as a child. I imagine each artwork I make to be a part of a larger story. This quarter I am exploring this concept through a sequential series of paintings inspired by the idea of “falling down a rabbit hole” but in this case, a water well that leaves you stranded in the ocean.

 

 

 

 

Hayley Deti

 

 

 

 

 

Lily Foss

I work with online sex workers from cam sites in order to capture images of their live performances for my weavings. Over the few months I have been developing new dying techniques by using airbrush to apply color to warp before weaving. Through my weavings and research I am exploring issues concerning gender politics, censorship, female labor and agency. I chose to weave portraits of online sexworkers, specifically cam girls, because of the connection between technology and woven fabric as well as connecting issues of female labor in textiles and sex work. I am interested in the overlapping themes in art and sex work such as performativity and voyeurism, as well as sex work’s development thoughout art history and changes in technology. By using explicit imagery I want to challenge and explore where a naked body crosses the line between artistic and pornographic. While I began this project before the pandemic, online sexwork has since then dramatically increased in popularity and conversations concerning sex workers have become even more important; I hope to, through my work, represent the individuality of sex workers.

 

 

 

Jocelyn Gibbons

As I currently approach graduation and what feels like the beginning of a new chapter in my life, I have been contemplating my self-image as an artist and how it has changed. When interacting with daily life, I like to sectionalize my day between work, academics, down-time, friends and family, etc. Sorting my reality into categories makes it easier to process and execute my decisions. So it comes to no surprise that in creating artwork I tend to keep the mediums I use separate according to how it applies to my life.

On paper, I look like a photographer. I’ve spent much of my academic career pursuing photography with the goal of monetizing my skill for success in a professional setting. As an artist, photography is a medium I have assigned the stress of academic and work life to. Although, for turning inward to explore my own psyche, photography falls short. This has fueled my curiosity for watercolor, acrylic, pastel, sculpting, anything I find remotely attractive in that moment, to better understand the enigmatic workings of my mind and soul. Most 2D media allows the freedom to be messy and unhinged. Whatever strokes or lines or textures I use are puzzle pieces that are spontaneously sculpted to interpret the emotion I am attempting to convey. There isn’t a possibility of making bad or wrong art because viewing my inner world is to see something abstract, without perfect shape or form. Pieces can be more detailed, sometimes I can feel very pointed on certain matters, but ordinarily I’m exploring different sensations that are occurring simultaneously. Constantly bouncing between mediums is something I do because that is how I communicate on multiple levels; photography for the commercial realm and 2-D media for the more spiritual.

However, the barrier between the stressful realm of work and my interior emotions has become permeable as I rely more on my own motivations to market profitable skills for survival. As a result, my new self-portrait is a mesh of intermingling layers between paint and photography with highlights of how they intersect.

 

 

Maria Hescheles

As an interdisciplinary artist I work primarily in ceramics, painting, drawing, and 3D functional art. My work contains a wide variety of mediums, as I find inspiration working and exploring in an array of creative fields. My artwork focuses on a perspective of greater connection and awareness to the interconnectedness of our lives with our surroundings.

Created from a respect, admiration, and love of nature and a connection to home, my work is rooted in evaluating societies relationship within the world. I focus on portraying the human experience not with the human as the main subject, but as the spaces and places that surround and interconnect us. I found we as people are so wrapped up in our own inner worlds and human life struggles, that we often become blinded to the details around us. My work questions this perspective and draws observation to our surroundings.

Building from my background of growing up along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, I developed a deep connection to the landscapes and nature around me. Struggling from a very young age with anxiety, these environments were often my place of escape, where I could breathe and feel a sense of calm contentment away from the busyness of life. My art is directly influenced by this and portrays these qualities and places of my escape.

I’m passionate about art from a hands-on perspective. Distantly commenting, contrasting, and critiquing our societies consumeristic, fast-paced, materialistic, and competitive ways. My art reflects qualities of craftsmanship, function, detail-oriented, precision, and naturalism. I am passionate about sustainability, and in the future want to expand my work in several fields such as sustainable design and architecture. I want my work to bring awareness and appreciation back to the things that connect us to our surroundings, our lives, and the built and natural world. For me, art making is my way of connecting and questioning how we, as humans, function and interact with the natural environment and the complexities of society.

 

 

 

 

 

Grady Lehto

I am for an art that preserves the feeling of hope and the feeling of youth. I want to continuously and relentlessly remind people that there is no end without a beginning, and that the part in between is where the real story is. Hope is a concept that a lot of people lose in their lives, and sadly not everyone has people in their lives that keep them afloat. My goal is to be that person through my art.
My mother and father provided my engagement for this practice by demonstrating their processes of artistry through their own lives and careers, and through there continuous love and support, they are my greatest inspirations.
Stan Lee and George Lucas are other examples of these types of artists who continuously push messages of hope through their work.
I like to practice this method in my social circle by gifting art to the people who I love as an honoring of gratitude.
I’d like to say that I am a mixed media artist because my education has pushed me to broaden my experience in terms of mediums. I continue to practice my methods of honoring gratitude by making pieces that show people that I understand something about them. I like to use any medium that allows this process to go off without a hitch.
I am still really into using graphite, but I have extended out into using ink, colored pencils, markers, acrylics, photography, ceramics, digital paints, and even video and music/sound production.
In this exhibition I was given permission from my mother to use her photography as music artwork. So, I altered the photos to fit the sound that I am going for in my music journey right now.
Whether or not I am recognized as an artist my goal is to continue to show the people who are close to me that they impact my decisions as an artist, and they help me impact the world with my art because of it.

 

Botanical Study
2048 x 2048 resolution, Music / Altered Photography, 2021

 

Botanical Study
2048 x 2048 resolution, Music / Altered Photography, 2021

 

Botanical Study
2048 x 2048 resolution, Music / Altered Photography, 2021

 

 

Lucy Lund

My pieces consist of a series of charcoal drawings portraying a pantheon of modern deities.
These deities were created by me. Each image is based off of a small terracotta figurine from the classical era in Greece.

 

 

 

 

 

Ashlin Perkins

Through my work in various media, I have created both precise analyses of the things I see before me and whimsical versions of my actuality. Though I do not have one specific artistic process, I tend to come up with an idea before I decide which medium to execute it in. Most of my work will take the form of drawings, paintings, prints, or digital pieces. My work tends to focus on the use of bold color and graphic imagery that often depicts nature, both things that have been incorporated in what one could call my ‘style’. I have experimented with and explored a variety of themes that are important to me. Whether that be body image, mental health, the relationship between life and death, it is a way to figure out how I really feel about certain situations and topics. Though, sometimes, I appreciate creating illustrations that have no greater personal meaning at all.

I like the way the real world is portrayed through art. The real world, to me, can mean the literal, physical objects, buildings, people, and so on that are placed in front of us and visually seen throughout our entire lives. But it can also mean things we cannot see: our thoughts, feelings, and interpretations of the real world; unique and personal for each individual. Although my art tends to draw on real-life, producing it feels like a way to escape reality, a feeling I very much enjoy. As an overthinker and general worrier, getting lost in the rhythm of producing a piece while listening to my favorite audio is something that can take me away from my everyday anxieties. Even if just for a little while, artmaking can refresh my outlook on thoughts that may have bogged me down moments before. My goal with my work is to express to others, particularly non-artists, that art does not have to be only a perfect piece of work; it can be anything one wants it to be. What matters, I think, is how an artwork might resonate with any individual that stumbles upon it. Art, as I’ve experienced it, can come from unusual places and can be reinterpreted the moment it hits a new viewer’s eye.

 

Plutocracy

1920 x 1080, Premiere Pro, paper cut outs and camera, 2020

Feelin’ Small

1920 x 1080, Photoshop and Premiere Pro, 2021

 

Whitney Powell

I create woven hanging tapestries, garments, and textiles comprised of natural and synthetic fibers such as merino wool and acrylic yarn. The textures and patterns in my work often mimic those I’ve encountered on the beaches in Washington, specifically those in the Puget Sound. After moving to Gig Harbor when I was seventeen, I became enthralled with the changing tides, sea life, and diverse habitat of the area. I’ve attempted to mimic the diverse range of textures and colors within my pieces, often incorporating objects found on the beach such as driftwood and sea glass.

Weaving and crocheting are repetitive processes; often placing my mind in a meditative state. I aim for my work to evoke this same sense of calmness in the viewer and to be inviting to gaze upon. I intend for my work to compliment and diversify interior spaces and homes. It is meant to serve as an organic moment in a seemingly structured world.

I am currently working on completing my BA in studio art with a concentration in mixed media and minors in art history and psychology at Western Washington University. After Graduation, I plan to continue selling my work on Etsy and building my textile company, High Tide Textures. I look forward to continuing my exploration of turning wooden bowls on a lathe, designing crochet patterns and experimenting with linocut relief printmaking as I emerge from being a student.

I truly believe in the zen qualities of repetitive motions that result in the creation of something beautiful. The ability to leave your own sense of self for a moment and just be is what I think is most beautiful about my art and process. I hope that through my creation of patterns for others to recreate, they are able to cultivate the same sense of calm that making evokes in me.

 

 

 

 

Dominique Richards

I am an artist that works with acrylic paints to explore physical poetry. These are my preferred medium because of how I can show emotion, like joy or happiness, through the use of colors. However, when I use charcoal for my drawings my work dark and often a sinister reflection of my negative emotions. Not just negative emotions but nightmares as well. Creating a physical form of my emotions or nightmares help me process and express myself. Although my styles are different, it creates a beautiful juxtaposition against the bright and bold colors of my paintings.

I am exploring my creativity with incorporating my rendition of physical poetry by serenading my views with the various colors in my paintings. Physical poetry is how I can tell you how I’m feeling without the use of words. Instead of words, I am selective on what colors I use in each art work and the absence of color in most of my drawings. My inspiration comes from many sources. For example, when I am experiencing a strong emotion, by a spiritual thought, nature, animals and the weather. In addition, I  have included many symbolic shapes in my art work as well. One example would be the hummingbird because, it symbolizes the excitement and joy of life. The peacock is a symbol beauty and eternal life. My darker moody drawing of the eye with a tree in the center of it is a symbol of spiritual growth and the struggle to achieve internal peace with ones self.

The Charcoal drawings I have created are my own interpretations of some of my own afflictions , like fear, stress and anxiety. Within these drawings I have hidden beauty that is awaiting me when I have reached spiritual clarity. My artwork is a way to overcome stress and anxiety, and to reach emotional peace.

 

 

 

 

Daniella Roca

Within my body of work, spray foam dominates the surface and expands with time. This material can be characterized for its grotesque appearance, unpredictable nature, as well as its stubbornness. Similar to my experiences with anxiety, ADHD and borderline personality disorder, I find parallels between my own mental health and the qualities of spray foam. In my work, this sticky residue alludes to my personal experiences with these disorders that are challenged with symptoms like anxiety, dependency, paranoia, uncontrollable thinking and idealization. The presence of mental health within my young adult life manifests with almost full control. And with that, mass amounts of spray foam intends to portray a sense of suffocation due to the complexities of mental illness. I envisioned a body of work that reflects on the intensity of emotions, moments of anxiety and paranoia, and dependency. Through my experiences, I aim to display a body of work that disects these disorders in relation to spray foam.

 

 

 

 

Christian Serwold

I am a 22 year old photographer based in Western Washington. Professionally I shoot digitally with a Nikon DSLR but for fun I love using my old film camera and am excited to make projects with it in the future. I have experience in many different aspects of photography. Originally, I first started taking landscape photos on local hikes as well as in my travels to different states while playing soccer. This allowed me to explore my creative side that I hadn’t tapped into in many years. From there I started photographing friends and family, taking senior pictures of high school graduates, and have a couple weddings under my belt.

Not being “good” at traditional art like painting and drawing made me neglect the arts for many years growing up. I love photography because it allows me to capture what I see in ways I and many other people normally wouldn’t. Somehow I am able to look at things differently through the viewfinder. I think it is because I can make choices about where I position myself relative to the subject, as well as include or exclude anything I want from the frame that wouldn’t be as easily overlooked just walking down the street.

Currently I am part of  the Western Athletic Department’s creative team. Sports have always been a huge part of my life. Photographing the Western sports teams for the past couple years has been the best college job I could have ever asked for. I hope to be shooting professional sports and weddings as my full time job in the near future. I hope to keep up in my personal work too. I am going to strive to balance both professional work and the work that I want to make for my sanity.

 

 

 

 

 

Kiyoko Van Wyck

Through ceramics and sculpture, I create functional pieces that can be used day-to-day, but also bring a smile to those who interact with my pieces. My artwork is inspired by different cultures, food, and the natural world around me. Everyone at some point in their lives has felt chaotic from either stress from school, work, money, family, friends and in recent times facing issues that have surfaced during the Covid-19 pandemic. We all should be reminded throughout the day to interact with the things that bring them joy. Small, simple moments during the day are just as important as the tremendous achievements, and my mission in ceramics and sculpture is to help emphasize these moments. For me, placing food in handmade bowls amplifies the experience beyond the passive routine, and resonates feelings of home, comfort, and delight!

As a Filipino-American, my life has been filled with blending different traditions, values, and cooking styles too! Through travelling to places like China and the Philippines, I have gotten to experience how different cultures approach their artwork and incorporate it their daily lives. I cherish those experiences, and use them as inspiration to experiment with many mediums that embrace my own culture. To deepen my understanding of the world, I want to embrace different perspectives on how to create art. A goal of mine is to travel to many different locales like Japan and Thailand to learn about how techniques for ceramics and other mediums have evolved into what they are today.

I gravitate towards ceramics for its willingness to transform into any shape, its ability to interact with me as I am creating a new piece, and how as a medium it has persisted through time. Ceramics is able to turn into anything my hands can make and be turned into something that is more than just aesthetically pleasing, but practical and useful. Clay has been used throughout the world not as only as a form of art for sculptures, but as every-day use as tools like bowls, plates, cups, jars, car parts, and even toilets! Each culture has adapted this medium into items that highlights everyday values, whether it is for specific food, transportation or personal hygiene. While ceramics has some limitations, I find it is not nearly as constraining as other mediums like painting or drawing, which are mediums I still enjoy, because it has the ability to embed itself into an environment rather than reflect upon it.

 

 

 

 

Yan Wang

During the pandemic, there is a surge of racist harassment to Asians, the fear about the Covid-19 which was first detected in Wuhan, China, has stoked up Xenophobia and bigotry toward this group of people. This body of work takes a critical view of inflammatory rhetoric in our society and its negative impact on daily life, especially the bad example from the former top authority whose provocative language has helped to spread hate speech and violence, and gives people license to attack specific groups of people. As an international student and a Chinese, I am worried about the situation and at the same time this situation makes me realize there is an urgency we need to address this problem, and my work is the outcome of this realization.

There are five photographs in this collection of work named “Hey, you foreigner”. The title reflects the racist incident that I experienced at the beginning of the pandemic, March 2020, “Hey, you foreigner” is the verbal harassment from the attacker. Ironically, the mentality of perpetual foreigner stereotype that has been particularly applied to Asian-Americans was shown through this short sentence. So with the intention of putting this racist concept into the spotlight, “Hey, you foreigner” eventually becomes my title of work. By exploring the topic of racism, I used myself as the subject matter to build a relationship between the individual and the larger societal and historical context. The smile/ non-smile and the pointing gesture not only relate to what I experience in that short moment of being discriminated against but also function as my disagreement with this behavior.

 

 

 

Bronte Wetherington

I make ceramics, cosplay props, mixed media works, paintings, and stickers to make a whimsical version of things that bring me happiness.

My paintings are an attempt to convey strong, mostly heavy, and negative feelings to others that cannot be understood through just words. I use mixed media to paint, embroider, and write on a canvas to get my feelings into a concrete form. I also cut the canvas and even add things onto it, such as embroidery, buttons, or even things I sculpt myself. Most of the feelings I convey are tied to anxiety, depression, loss, and many other heavy emotions.

Currently I am focusing on bringing happiness the mundane parts of life. For this reason, I am making custom bullet journals that have detail and life on every page catered to the person that has ordered from me. This includes curating every page so it is exactly what they need. I find planning my life stressful, so I bring serotonin into day-to-day tasks, primarily through planners and journals.

In my digital art I make custom stickers that sell in packs of 10. This can create a lovely way to remember a lifelong memory anywhere there can be a sticker. I enjoy being able to take anyone’s favorite memory, moment, or furry best friend and turn it into a keepsake for them to love forever.

I have two very distinct art styles within my art and both are in hopes to convey feelings. Whether that is to convey heavy feelings or bring happiness it is part of all of my work.