Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Art

Over the course of my time in graduate school I went from small figurative and narrative-based images on paper to large scale landscapes on textiles. Printmaking has consistently been the lens from which I most effectively communicate my relationship to memory and place. I am interested in cultural production of landscapes and how it influences individual and collective identity. Exposure to landscapes and the nature of their representation can frame and reflect both individual and community's relationship to natural and constructed place. Factors such as an increasingly globalized world and my multi-cultural-multi-ethnic upbringing has imprinted my memory with divergent visual cultures. I pull from my imagination, which is largely influenced by memory, to communicate information about where and what I come from in the form of prints. I print landscapes and their ghosts as a visual language centered around place and people. Collectively, it describes how and who we see in the world we inhabit.

Committee: Sergio Soave (Advisor); Laura Lisbon (Committee Member); Gina Osterloh (Committee Member); Caitlin McGurk (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2024, College of the Arts / School of Art

“Soft Machines: Abject Bodies, Queer Sexual Expression, and the Deterritorialized Transfeminine Figure” explores the relationship between the abjection associated with the feminine figure and queer discourses surrounding sexual expression and gender dynamics. Julia Kristeva, in her 1980 work “Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection”, examines the social and cultural disruptions caused by objects/subjects on the boundaries of “The Symbolic Order”. Kristeva's work, along with the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, lend themselves to the development of a perspective on queer bodies that allow them to revel in the abjection imposed on them. The transfeminine figure is regarded as a taboo, an infringement on the boundaries of both social order and biological determinism. It is in this that “Soft Machines” weaponizes abjection to illustrate expressions of queer love and desire that align themselves with femme perspectives, an act of resistance against the centering of masculine accounts of queer sexual expression. “Soft Machines” situates itself as a feminist body of work exploring the boundaries of printmaking, painting, and sculpture using watercolor silkscreen monotype on canvas and installation. “Soft Machines” explores a corporeal color palette reminiscent of skin and the bodily interior. The “figures” printed on the canvas works are ambiguously internal and external, twisting and folding over each other across the print/paintings. My research into the relationship between painting and printmaking inform these aesthetic and formal decisions, “queering” the traditional formats of both by producing works that could be read by viewers in either context. The main painting device throughout this work is specifically watercolor, chosen for its historical relationship to women in the arts as well as its ability to stain textiles with minimal material disruption. The balancing of softness and the visceral is central to this work and is reflective of my research inte (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Advisor); Shawn Powell (Committee Chair); John Paul Morabito (Committee Chair); Eli Kessler (Committee Chair) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2024, College of the Arts / School of Art

Arteaga, Mario, M.F.A. 2024 Heated Heated was a word I used a lot growing up in Chicago, one as a term of frustration, and looking back I felt I had every right to feel that way. Home is a scary idea to me and every time I speak on my home now in Ohio, I feel like I am rationalizing it, trying to convince myself that this is home and it's okay to be away from family and the stress of being home. Through my 18 years of living in Chicago, I had moved a lot. I was constantly being passed around, from my different grandparents' houses, to losing our home in the recession, to every other weekend at my dad's place, home never felt stable. Through the use of color, text, concrete, steel, and teeth, I created a representation of my mind. The entire show is me building a physical version of my mental landscape. In my mind I see an empty box that I set like a stage for each memory I have. Every print is a monochromatic memory. Through the use of both CNC and handmade processes I orchestrated a vision of home then and memories now. By combining digital and handmade processes I am able to achieve perfection in form, line and shape, but I'm also able to show my heart, respect and love for my past. While I'm fearful of not living up to expectations, being an outcast to my family, I have been building a life on my own terms and telling that story from my perspective, rationalizing my feelings. The Cyanotype print series of houses on the walls are a selection of the places I've lived in Chicago, and memories of them. The two large cyanotype prints are about my mother, the embodiment of strength, struggle, work, pain, and success. She has done it all for us and yet is thankless, continuing to push and provide. We got through it all by the skin of her teeth Each physical box is based on my thoughts about each of my family members. Dad, me, mom and sister. The insides are a representation of their character; work and dump trucks, peaceful emptiness, physical pain, and anger (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrew Kuebeck (Advisor); J. Leigh Garcia (Committee Member); Eli Kessler (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Art

This collection of short stories and poems, accompanied by a glossary, is an ongoing diary about love, intimacy, domesticity, emotional maturation, and maternal inheritance, and is largely inspired by my Great Aunt Marge—major matriarch of the family, avid gardener, and hoarder. She had no children, but she was a mother. Psychic Garden considers the gut microbiome as one kind of garden and the gut as home to intuition. This writing is in close dialogue with, and perhaps in narration to, a body of work installed at Urban Arts Space from February 13th to March 16th, 2024, as part of The Ohio State University's MFA Thesis Exhibition titled Sun Spell.

Committee: Laura Lisbon (Advisor); Christopher Stackhouse (Committee Member); Dani ReStack (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2023, College of the Arts / School of Art

Maybe She's Born With It, Maybe It's Neurodivergency is an homage to my lived experience as a Queer-Neurodivergent individual navigating a world that was not made for me. It challenges the hegemonic notion of ‘normalcy' and opens up a dialogue about the oppressive structures that we live within and are confined by. I impart the meaning of the grid as a symbol for neurotypicality, white supremacy, heteronormativity, and patriarchy. Alongside the grid is a hieroglyph of my own creation, a tight yet explosive gestural mark, a visual metaphor for my neurodivergent physical, mental and emotional discomfort. Combining these seemingly oppositional forms, I disrupt the grid visually and physically through a variety of print and papermaking processes. Through an interactive installation, the work calls attention to the importance of embracing intuition, relinquishing control, and audience participation in contemporary art— providing a platform to challenge the status quo both within the conventional art world and beyond.

Committee: Leigh Garcia (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts; Gender Studies; Mental Health

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2023, Studio Art

The Potato Famine Paper illuminates a document written and passed down by eight separate members of a Catholic Irish-American family. Over a thousand years of history and culture have been studied and compiled in order to create an edition of handmade books of that document. Various processes of printmaking, papermaking, bookmaking, lettering, and painting have been used to preserve this document in a style inspired by Insular illuminated manuscripts as well as contemporary illustrated books.

Committee: Melissa Haviland (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Art

Waiting Room explores the existence and creation of artwork in the in between. Through collecting, recontextualizing, and reprinting images and printed matter that defined what the “societal ideal male figure” should be, I consider the construction of identity at the intersection of ability, gender, and sexuality shifting perceptions of the body and the self, allowing for multiple narratives and speculative existences.

Committee: Sergio Soave (Advisor); Kris Paulsen (Committee Member); George Rush (Committee Member); Carmen Winant (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2021, College of the Arts / School of Art

The impact of global environmental destruction, and loss of biodiversity has affected many important natural ecosystems. As ocean waters warm in temperature coral reefs bleach creating a chain reaction of damage onto other coral populations. This phenomenon is both beautiful, and haunting. I use the materiality of paper altered through hand cutting, deeply embossing, and inking to create organic forms with color altered shadows. I start with photographs of coral I take in aquariums, and zoos, and then designs are hand drawn and turned into digital line images. These are used to create the printing matrix or plate using a laser cutter, or dremel. Each plate is then used to transfer imagery to paper. Parts of that paper are then cut by hand. Once each layer is created they are stacked together able to droop, and settle. As I consider my personal experiences with loss, disease, and grief I create large installations with print media to explore the interconnectedness of ecological destruction and human fragility.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2021, College of the Arts / School of Art

Thesis paper that coincides with my printmaking thesis show of the same name. Goes over my introspective approach to mental health and art about its effects on the body, mind, and spirit in an attempt to create a discussion with the viewer.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Committee Chair); Isabel Farnsworth (Committee Member); Eli Kessler (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Mental Health; Microbiology

MFA, Kent State University, 0, College of the Arts / School of Art

One of the most uniting experiences of humanity is our connection to our physical body. While they come in a plethora of variations, we all have a physical form that we must use to understand the world around us and mediate between our minds and others. For women in particular, this experience is often moderated by continued methods of societal objectification and patriarchal expectations, both conspicuous and understated, that unite us in ways words cannot do justice. In this way, female relationships are deemphasized, despite the power and importance they have in our lives. We learn from each other, observing how others react and behave. We rely on their approval, their opinions, desires, conversation — in effect, our understanding of self becomes intrinsically tied to the other women around us. In between the space of you and I is an exploration and celebration of those relationships that inform us of ourselves. It's an homage to the growth I have undergone in understanding myself and others, as I artistically grapple with the ways we overlap with the people we are surrounded by, and the women who help make us who we are. They are portraits of individuals, as well as expressions of the deeper relationship within. Some of these women are mothers and daughters, sisters, lovers, friends, but all of them have left an irrevocable mark on the other.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2021, Studio Art

In a single moment, Nothing became Something and Notymseh was. What happens when our own perception of oneself comes in conflict with the way others perceive us? Do opposing perceptions find resolution, or do they grow farther and farther apart? Came To Be explores these questions and other themes related to identity, spirituality, and relationships in a mythicized personal narrative through written, illustrated, printed, and sculptural means.

Committee: Melissa Haviland (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2021, College of the Arts / School of Art

Video games are often the source of controversial discussions due to the majority containing some form of violence and the notion that they are addictive. People tend to forget that the very purpose of a video game is to play. Brian Sutton-Smith spent his lifetime as a theorist analyzing the importance of play in our childhood and adult lives. As Sutton-Smith says, “We study play because life is crap. Life is crap, and it's full of pain and suffering, and the only thing that makes it worth living — the only thing that makes it possible to get up in the morning and go on living — is play. Art and play.” 8-bit Hunger is about the connections between human interaction and fabricated environments. This work is for those who are nostalgic for an environment that was before their time, where a community spirit was commonplace and play was an important part of those connections. It isn't solely about video games; it's about the power of nostalgia.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Advisor); Andrew Kuebeck (Committee Member); Isabel Farnsworth (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Art

This work is about the loss of power, the reclamation of that power, and the act of becoming.

Committee: Sergio Soave (Advisor); Gina Osterloh (Committee Member); Dani ReStack (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Art

Mapping Pinpoints explores the intersection between mapping, repetition, copies and editions through a collection of altered pinboard panels, pierced mylar stencils and pounced toner powder prints.

Committee: Sergio Soave (Advisor); Suzanne Silver (Committee Member); Gina Osterloh (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2019, College of the Arts / School of Art

Anthem serves to share both analytical data and emotional connections to the viewer on the subject of school shootings in the US. Black and white flag pieces made by altering US flags are flown above grave shaped mounds that take up the room. Those flags are meant to communicate the messages a black and white flag each can represent in battle, this battle being in the fight to cull the epidemic of school shootings en mass in the USA. Each flag sits in front of a chronologically ordered wall mounted book comprised of 300 toe tags, each with the date, location and number of victims of a school shooting in the US. This information is meant to show any viewer how widespread and historic these events are, whole also showing how close to home they are. Anthem seeks to disseminate information and pull emotion, but the work is not designed to fix the issue directly but create dialogue with viewers to look for solutions to the issue inside and outside the gallery. Each flag can, should and will be utilized outside white wall spaces to protest and be performative so that non-art viewers can share in the discussion and work towards new strategies in taking on gun violence in the US system of current violent behavior.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Committee Chair); Janice Garcia (Committee Member); Kuebeck Andrew (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Mass Media; Modern History; Political Science

MFA, Kent State University, 2019, College of the Arts / School of Art

Women's hands till the earth, sow the seed, tend the garden, and produce the yield of the home. But theirs are not the mouths that consume, the lives that prosper, or the selves for whom they provide care. In Intramural: Within Four Walls I frame the garden as a mental-emotional sanctuary and as a metaphor for the labor that drives my own efforts of self-preservation. The space is shaped by the very expectations of womanhood with which I am contending. The ironing board is an icon representing the women whose extensive oppression through marriage, housekeeping, and motherhood resulted in my experience. Therefore, if my external self is the result of multiple generations of women's oppression, my internal self is inescapably connected. Repurposing and transformation are the heart of women's work. Intramural uses the selective collection of several mid-century objects as well as grown grass, special substrate, and recycled textile material. With these I repurpose and transform objects into small environments through which new experiences of empathy can be discovered. Esoteric narrative drives the conceptual design of the work, with feminism informing the greater context and being integral to the relational aestheticism employed. A gardening narrative parallels that of women's work and intersects with feminist overtones as a vehicle for discussing nurturance, care, growth, maintenance, and domestic labor.

Committee: Arron Foster M.F.A. (Advisor); John-Michael Warner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Andrew Kuebeck M.F.A. (Committee Member); Isabel Farnsworth M.F.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2019, College of the Arts / School of Art

I am a record-keeper of disposable objects that live to be discarded. Such materials include one-and-done supplies like packing materials, sanitation products, and household cleaning supplies. Where contemporary culture views these objects as a means to an end, my work establishes value in them as the end, themselves. In this way, I elevate daily `garbage' to a fine art standard. 
 I use a variety of print media to keep these records including silkscreen, lithography, intaglio, and relief printing, which take the final form of prints, books, collages, installations, and video animations. Whether printing the physical object as a relief, exposing the object onto a screen, or imprinting its form onto a stone, the texture and shape of the material create the most compelling mark that I strive to document.
 The prevalence and quantity of disposable materials is larger than life, and the fibrous forms of these objects are detailed beyond what any human can remember. I intend to present the immensity and complexity of these `garbage' products by dwarfing the viewer through accumulation; this will take the form of an assembled overhead `sky' element that traverses the entirety of the gallery space. My practice is based upon collection and observation, and by presenting the work overhead, I ask my viewer to experience an environment rooted in trash impressions.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Advisor); Arron Foster (Committee Member); Gianna Commito (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2019, Art History

In the history of printmaking, the goldsmith-engraver Israhel van Meckenem (German, 1440/45-1503) represents a paradox: an inventive copyist. His innovations include the earliest printed self-portrait and prototypes of genre scenes depicting everyday life. Meckenem was also the first printmaker to brand engravings he produced with his first name. However, many of the prints he signed were copies of works by other artists. Given the strong association of name and authorship that developed in the Early Modern period, art historians have struggled to evaluate Meckenem's significance without invoking the modern stigma of plagiarism. Founded on the examination of approximately 1500 extant impressions of his engravings, this research project investigates Meckenem's printmaking practice—especially his copies and his treatment of products—in fifteenth-century terms. These diverse engravings demonstrate that the early print market, fostered by the efficiencies of the printing press, interrupted longstanding artistic practices and changed cultural perceptions about art, copies, authenticity, and authorship. Chapter 1 examines the intersection of Meckenem's personal engraving style and his copying methods. His editorial approach while copying reflects an emerging awareness of individual artists' styles in the marketplace. The second and third chapters investigate the production and reception of two types of prints. The evolving treatment of seven apostle series throughout Meckenem's career traces his evolving efforts to present devotional subjects as visually engaging, collectable works of fine art. Meckenem's keen interest in decorative leaf work and flowers led him to cultivate a market for ornamental engravings, from pattern prints to elaborate works in which ornate flora served as a metaphor of artistic fruitfulness. The final chapter probes the meaning of Ornamental with the Engraver's Name, a showpiece in which Meckenem spelled out “ISRAHEL M” in decorative leaves and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Catherine Scallen PhD (Committee Chair); Emily Peters PhD (Committee Member); Erin Benay PhD (Committee Member); David Rothenberg PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

MFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

Spreading prolifically and harmfully, invasive species overpower the areas they inhabit. This body of work contextualizes the concept of invasive species into five main parts. Each element, ivy vines, honeysuckle plants, rabbits, black beetles and cicadas, are classified as invasive for their destructive tendencies. In addition to this, each serves as a metaphor for different aspects and characteristics of myself and life. Whether they be representative of a moment from childhood or of a trial of adulthood. "Invasive" presents a series of 23 suspended fabric panels and 3 crafted benches that come together to create a large scale three-dimensional sculpture to capture the essence of my concept.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor); Taryn McMahon (Committee Member); John-Michael Warner (Committee Member); Andrew Kuebeck (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Folklore; Interior Design; Textile Research

BA, Oberlin College, 2017, Art

In this body of work I use printmaking to look critically at the commercial consumption of Mexican culture in popular media, using my own experience as a mixed Mexican-American as a lens. I consider how my experience of cultural identity, family history, and assimilation has complicated my interaction with Mexican culture within the United States. My work questions how cultural identity is reduced to stereotypes, employing the reproducibility of print to mimic the proliferation of simplified and exotified portrayals of Mexican-Americans in popular culture. I attempt to contradict this assumed cultural experience by producing work that asserts my own. By creating work that distorts stereotypical imagery, by embedding my own lived experience into these recreated consumer objects, I attempt to counteract and resist misrepresentations of Mexican-American identity.

Committee: Kristina Paabus (Advisor) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art History