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A SPECIAL PRESENTATION
COALESCENCE
WEBSTER UNIVERSITY PRESENTS
SENIOR EXHIBITION 2026
WEBSTER UNIVERSITY PRESENTS
SENIOR EXHIBITION 2026
Webster University Department of Art, Design, and Art History
2026 B.A / B.F.A Student Exhibition
Exhibition Statement
We are individuals with different experiences and upbringings, but we come together and become one for one night, one last time before we depart and become individuals once again.
Come See It For Yourself!
Saturday, May 2nd - Monday, May 11th, 2026
Arcade Contemporary Art Projects
Webster University - Gateway Campus
812 Olive St, St. Louis, MO 63101
Opening Reception
Friday May 8th, 5 - 8 pm
Awards announced 6:30 pm
Synthesis
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Fusion
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Unification
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Connection
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Synthesis ✳︎ Fusion ✳︎ Unification ✳︎ Connection ✳︎
Meet the Artists
BFA Ceramics
BFA Drawing
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Kaitlin Gleiforst is an artist who merges a foundation in visual fine arts with experimental animation. Kaitlin is fascinated by experiences and sensations that are uniquely human and often underrepresented. Her work frequently takes the form of non-representational experiences transformed into physical pieces, usually characterized by strong use of color and movement. Her conceptual process is often collaborative involving friends, family, peers, and sometimes strangers in experimental studies or group projects. Her collaborative approach reflects her emphasis on connection and the unique experience of being human.
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My current body of work focuses on self-reflection with my previous experiences, concepts I have struggled with, and events that have greatly impacted my life to date. My work is reflective of the constant conversation between a struggle to find my religious faith in conversation with previous religious trauma, coupled with questioning the love I’ve either been gifted or deprived of in familial and romantic relationships and a range of intense emotions that I am processing. The main goal is to create pieces which either disturb or comfort and to move away from work which could generally be considered aesthetically pleasing and closer to work which makes the viewer ask questions. The concept presented within my work is one which I am continuing to work on improving whenever it comes to the overall feeling which my pieces give my audience.
BFA Graphic Design
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Colton Barfield is a graphic designer and illustrator known for his bold, eye-catching designs. Rarely one to be subtle, Colton prefers a more dynamic approach, using his powerful illustrations in combination with his striking design work to always stand out from the crowd. Colton also works with motion graphics and has experience with character design, which is showcased well in his personal artist avatar: Coltron the Mighty.
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Kaelyn Carter is an interdisciplinary artist and designer from St. Louis, Missouri that specializes in package and brand identity design. She enjoys creating and designing pieces that include hints of personal anecdotes and interests, while also encouraging viewers to think about how her work relates to their own experiences. With an artistic, creative foundation, Kaelyn employs illustrative, organic, and fluid elements into her work, while still maintaining symmetrical, uniform designs. She also keeps the impact of her work in mind from start to finish, and how viewers will first approach her work and continue to ponder and interact with it after that.
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Taylor Crawford is a designer who approaches each project with curiosity, critical thinking, and a commitment to growth. Inspired by nature, Taylor’s work often features organic shapes, flowing lines, and earthy, thoughtful color palettes, reflecting an appreciation for subtle detail and movement. Illustration and photography have shaped a hands-on, creative foundation, while graphic design offers a structured way to bring ideas to life and solve visual challenges.
For Taylor, every project is a chance to learn, experiment, and refine. By considering form, color, and composition, Taylor creates work that feels intentional, warm, and meaningful — designed to connect and resonate with viewers.
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Eriana Freeman is an interdisciplinary designer, based in St. Louis, Missouri, specializing in creating interesting visuals to connect people through communication. Her work consists of daring visuals and content, often using motion/animation, sculpture, design, fashion, photography, to open up a conversation. She is earning her BFA in Graphic Design at Webster University and a Certificate in Ceramics with an anticipated graduation of May 2026. Through bold, experimental approaches, she encourages the audiences and herself, to approach problems differently, pushing past boundaries to provoke curiosity and dialogue.
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Elise Hejlik’s work entails crafting interactive and informative designs through color, shape, imagery, and concept. She is a graphic and UX/UI designer whose work bridges the gap between visual language and functionality. Beyond aesthetics, her approach to graphic design is driven by a problem-solving mindset, her ability to experiment and try new things, and a passion for user experiences for how people approach and interact with the world around them.
Throughout her work she focuses on themes such as the environment, systemic issues, and playful design concepts from thank-you cards to magazines. The purpose of her work stems from driving awareness on issues she finds important in the modern world in which we live. She responds to these issues through her work as she deals with information visualization that not only captivates viewers, but also informs them on issues that impact everyday people and animals.
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Hanna Phuong is a Graphic Designer. She enjoys all aspects of design, from print to motion graphics. She loves incorporating physical work in her design and creating projects that are both functional and tangible. Graphic Design has allowed her to express her experiences and creativity through forming ideas in the digital space. She strives to turn people’s imaginations and ideas into digestible visuals for others to see. She fell in love with typography, and that later transformed into layout designs in branding and making posters. Aside from designing, she loves working with her hands and creating tactile art. Whether it's snapping photography pictures or working with clay and 3D projects, she loves it all.
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Detail-oriented creative with a major in Graphic Design and a minor in Communications. Creator of MAFOY Design Studios with a special interest in branded marketing, advertising, and additionally skilled in photography, illustration, and traditional art, having been personally and academically recognized on multiple occasions. Embraced throughout is the mantra of taking nonsense seriously and to not be afraid to "Make A Fool Of Yourself".
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Hanah Sakinovic is a graphic designer that specializes in brand and print design. Hanah is a first-generation child of Bosnian immigrants, and she has spent her life navigating the space between two cultures—an experience many children of immigrants can relate to. With Medo, she uses experiential design, branding, print design, and, of course, bosnian donuts as the vehicle that closes the gap between Bosnians and non-Bosnians, educating everyone in a digestible way—pun intended.
Much of her work involves identifying, understanding, and addressing an existing problem within a specific demographic. In her practice, Hanah keeps people at the center of her work, using empathy and compassion as she solves problems with design.
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Chris strives to showcase his appreciation for expressive typography, attractive and dynamic design. He enjoys working with branding, package/product design, and editorial design. Chris is also no stranger to sneaking easter eggs of his interests outside of design into his work to see if anyone catches on. He really values seeing people interact with his work and engaging with it.
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Sarah is a graphic and UX/UI designer graduating with a dual degree in Graphic Design and Interactive Digital Media. She approaches every project with curiosity, empathy, and a deep belief that good design requires a bit of theatre: timing, storytelling, and making people feel something.
Her work is rooted in user-centered thinking, shaped in part by her own experience living with Multiple Sclerosis since the beginning of college. That perspective has given her a unique lens for designing in the healthcare space and a genuine investment in creating experiences that are not only beautiful, but deeply considerate of the people who use them.
When she isn't designing, Sarah can be found on stage where she's learned that the best stories, like the best design, know exactly when to let the audience lean in.
BFA Illustration
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Yassmin Abdul-Malik is a BFA graduate that aims to use her art to share her inner world and connect with others. Her work aims to explore themes such as motherhood, childhood, gender, race, and humanity through fantastical settings. Sometimes these fantastical settings are otherworldly, whimsical but hiding a darkness, or she is simply adding a touch of magic to our mundane reality. Regardless, Yassmin's aim in her work is to show that despite our societal notions, we have more in common with each other than not, and that we are able to connect with each other even when our life experiences and circumstances differ.
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Sophia Dehler is and Illustrator and storyteller based in St. Louis Missouri. Her body of work ranges from children’s books and graphic novels to editorial illustration. Exploration of female experiences, anxiety, and fantasy are ever present in her practice. She examines how we navigate the pandemonium of our lives and the deep contemplation that goes on below the surface. Much of her inspiration comes from lived experience and observation catalogued through writing and a practice of keeping detailed sketchbooks.
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Dante Douglas is an illustrator based in Southern Illinois. He is pursuing a BFA with emphasis in illustration at Webster University, St. Louis. He has had work presented in the Soulard Art Gallery of St. Louis, and has had work published through Ink and Drink Comics. Dante is a freelance-artist and works in several different mediums, such as oil, watercolor, graphite, digital, and more. His work presents highly detailed, high-contrast scenes with a dark, dreary tone that is offset by a subtle, often comedic tension.
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Sam Finch is a cartoonist and multimedia artist based in St. Louis who is graduating with their BFA in Studio Art with an Emphasis in Illustration from Webster University. Sam works with themes of identity regarding gender, sexuality, and dualities of mind. Despite these somewhat serious themes, the meaningless and bright always find their way into Sam’s work with saturated colors and vibrant confusion. Sam views their work as an essential part of their living and homeostasis as a being. Whether it ‘works’ or not, these ideas that are trapped in their mind must come out.
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Riley Gregerson is a modern visual artist whose creations explore the intricacies of emotion, perception, and the human experience. Every artwork embodies a profound link to personal thoughts and feelings, expressed visually through the thoughtful application of color, light, and texture. Gregerson’s art encourages viewers to find their own interpretations, fostering a sense of exploration and self-reflection. uses art to challenge social conventions and spark emotional conversations through a developing and changing practice. Gregerson views painting as a means of understanding the world, converting beauty, uncertainty, and frustration into potent visual narratives that are both intimate and broadly relatable.
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Wren Hartke is a graphic designer and artist who creates subjects focusing on empathy and care, both in intention and creation. Many works revolve around nostalgia and natural subjects, specifically finding a way to incorporate these subjects into the graphic design practice. Wren uses a wide variety of mediums in their work, going beyond the digital that graphic design might suggest. They choose to focus on subjects that fulfill a feeling of joy, something that is essential in order to be passionate about the work created. Every work we make is a piece taken from ourselves, and should be treated as such.
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Evelyn Italiano is an illustrator and mixed media artist from Imperial, Missouri. While she was growing up, she became fond of the creations of illustrated storybooks as well as the themes of science fiction, thriller, mystery, and fantasy because of their inclusion of imagined characters, suspenseful components, along with impossible situations. Italiano’s works through the years mainly include fictional semi-realistic creatures or characters, vibrantly saturated color palettes, in addition to the presentation of foreboding settings. The aspects of an artwork that are important to Italiano are the purpose of immersing viewers into the environment, imagining the characters coming to life, and considering a suitable color palette for the proposed expression of the work. Ever since Italiano was a child, she has always considered illustration as a method of giving life to a story in addition to a sense of breaking free from reality.
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Joshua Jordan is a multidisciplinary artist from St. Peter’s, Missouri. While he is earning a BFA at Webster University with an emphasis in Illustration, his artistic practices have branched out from 2D mediums and encompass sculptural work as well. He makes use of painterly, whimsical styles with the goal of enveloping the viewer in fantastical realities that possess narrative reflections of our world. Within these visual abstractions, he creates spaces to better express thoughts about himself and varying social topics. These topics may include race, gender identity, sexuality, neurodiversity, etc. The ability to talk about these subjects through art is priceless to him, as it allows creators to spotlight sensitive realities in a way that is digestible.
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Marcus Reames is an author and illustrator who has lived all across the continental United States and is now based in Saint Louis. He’s graduating from Webster University with a Bachelors of Fine Art: Emphasis in Illustration, a Minor in Creative Writing, and two Certificates in Comic Art and Leadership. While his work is primarily fictional, he’s also interested in providing visual histories, work relating to theater, and tabletop games.
He utilizes both traditional media and digital programs in tandem to create his body of work. His work often favors exploring psychological themes, personal identities, and projects tied to tabletop or video gaming cultures while also tending to favor science fiction or fantasy aesthetics.
Marcus’ work often depicts narratives that are close to his heart for one reason or another. While this applies to both his visual artwork, it also applies to his creative writing work. Over the duration of his artistic career, he has endeavored to unite these two and has doubled down on his efforts over the past four years.
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Emerson earned her BFA in Illustration from Webster University in 2026. She works primarily with colored pencils, ink, and paint markers as these best showcase her refined and finished style emphasizing an attention to detail. With a general tendency to create based on her personal feelings related to subjects, fear and discomfort are usually at the forefront of her themes and are typically what drive her to create. Some examples of this are human interactions, particular visuals, sounds, and textures, and transforming negative feelings into aesthetically pleasing visual narratives. Illustrating around topics that make her anxious helps her better understand and cope with her reactions to them. Her pieces represent narrative qualities using organic subjects to convey stories. A vast majority of the techniques she uses come from figure drawing and character design classes and have technical but illustrative aspects. She enjoys combining the anatomy of living beings with narrative facets to design and relay information. Aside from personal work, she loves doing illustration commissions, creative writing, and swimming.
Feel free to contact Emerson at emersonangel124@gmail.com if you are interested in commissioning her or would like to discuss her work.
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Alex Watts is an illustrator and concept artist from St. Louis. He earned an AFA from Jefferson Community college and earned a BFA in illustration from Webster University.
Alex is an illustrator with a focus on concept art for games and comics. His work bridges the gap between imagination and reality, bringing an understanding of the world to his works of fiction. Drawing inspiration from video games, comics, and animation, his style simplifies the world through line and shape focusing more on portraying the imagined form of an object as opposed to a hyperrealistic representation. His dream is to create his own works of entertainment in a way of participating in what he sees as a communion of imagination, where ideas are exchanged and built off of in a cycle of creation.
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Mikaila Zanghi is a St. Louis based illustrator, painter, and sculptor. She graduated from St. Louis Community College with her Associates in Arts and moved on to Webster University to finish her undergraduate study, pursuing a Bachelors of Fine Arts with an Emphasis in Illustration. She is interested in narrative and materiality; combining 3D materials with traditional illustration processes. Throughout her work, themes of fantasy and historical reference reoccur, inspired by her interest in folklore, mythology, and art history.
BFA Painting
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In their work Ariel Adams tackles topics of gender and economy in the United States through a feminist, genderqueer, and anti-capitalist lense. With acrylic paints and large canvases they create bold compositions with bright colors and broad strokes. They incorporate typography and careful studies from life. They use colors similar to popular American brands and closely study advertising to create eye-catching pieces which subvert the viewers expectations regarding brand imagery. Ariel uses surrealist yet recognizable imagery in order to effectively communicate the message within each of their pieces, urging the viewer to more deeply analyze their relationship with popular culture and overconsumption.
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Tripp Antill is studying at Webster University to receive their BFA in Painting. They utilize various media, including photography, painting, and fiber arts, to engage the viewer in their work.
They were featured in the Kooyumjian Gallery in 2025, showcasing their photography work, and had their work published on the cover of Green Fuse 2025. Tripp is from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and now lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
Tripp states that painting has always been an outlet for their emotions, helping them deal with the stress of living in the world. Recently, they have decided to have fun with their craft, which includes painting or photography.
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The art that Madsen chooses to create is themed around or rooted in nature, community, family, and memories. Whether or not she chooses to reference specific memories, they are always present, pushing her art somewhere that is rooted in the past. The wispiness and flow of the materials that she works with act as a metaphor for the idea of memories revealed in the pieces. Madsen might start with just a concept and then later create the image. Other times, it will reverse and, after she starts creating the image, more meaning is infused into her landscapes and other works, delving deeper into nature and her relationship with it.
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My artwork consists primarily of oil painting rooted in the human psyche and my own lived experiences. Recently, I have expanded my practice to address political and social topics such as immigration and the restrictive standards placed on women and young girls. I feel a responsibility, as an artist, to respond to the world around me and to create work that functions as both personal reflection and social commentary. While much of my work is drawn from my own life, my goal is to create a shared space where viewers can recognize themselves within these experiences and engage with the issues being presented. My commitment to art goes beyond aesthetics. I aim to create work that challenges viewers, invites discomfort, and pushes against expectations of what a woman or first-generation artist is expected to create.
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As an artist, Analiese explores the human experience as a site of identity and social pressure. Her work creates a dialogue between personal experiences and our broader culture. While oil paint is her primary medium, she also engages in ceramics and sculpture to expand her ideas. In Analiese’s work, it is also important to show her ongoing journey towards self acceptance due to conflicting heritages and expectations.
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Celia Pearl Friedrich is a visual artist from St. Louis, Missouri. She earned her BFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in painting from Webster University in 2026. Her practice is rooted in self-reflection and examines trauma, mental health, addiction, and identity through process-based and performance-driven work.
Working from staged reenactments of personal memory, Friedrich uses video, photography, and painting to re-enter and reinterpret lived experiences. These performances often begin with revisiting past environments and bodily states, including the clothing and conditions tied to periods of treatment and recovery. Rather than treating memory as fixed, her work approaches it as something unstable and continually reshaped through repetition and return.
A recurring neon yellow, drawn from hospital-issued “fall risk” socks worn during psychiatric treatment, functions as a central visual and conceptual element. It appears as a spreading, stain-like presence across her work, symbolizing addiction, psychological instability, and the lasting impact of destructive cycles. The color resists aestheticization, confronting the tendency to romanticize substance use and instead emphasizing its consuming and pervasive effects.
Friedrich’s imagery often features fragmented, multiplied figures that reflect emotional disorientation and shifting states of self. These works explore the tension between past and present identity, often positioning the body as a site of internal conflict and reflection. Across her practice, she is interested in how repeated engagement with memory can reveal what has been suppressed or avoided, and how meaning emerges through the act of revisiting rather than resolving experience.
BFA Photography
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Elizabeth Nichols is a photographer and multimedia artist from Little Rock, Arkansas. Her photography is a documentation of her travels and surroundings through her eyes that is used in her realistic and abstract artwork, emphasizing the fragility of the creation and memory of environments.
BFA Printmaking
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Mavis Kemper is a 22 year-old artist graduating from Webster University, St. Louis with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in printmaking and a ceramics certification. They grew up in a small historic town in Missouri, where they grew up immersed in the history of the 1800s and life growing up in a rural area. Their work revolves around d building up a fantasy world inspired by traditional fantasy concepts and historical practices. They spend most of their days working on building their body of work, through both creation and research, to expand the groundwork for the base concepts of their main body of work. When not working in the studio or at work, Mavis spends their time with their cat and dog, as well as exploring mediums available to work with and finding opportunities to show their art as well, such as the C9 exhibition currently taking place in the Daum Museum.
BFA Sculpture
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Clark Ledbetter is a Saint Louis-based artist that explores queer intimacy and the trans-masc experience through his sculptural, photographic, and performative works. He brings a camp approach to socio-political critique, aiming to create a space for acknowledgement, questioning, and understanding. Primarily, he works with clay, concrete, and performance. He pushes the viewer to embrace their curiosity and bridge the gap between their understanding of transness, and the documented reality of his lived experience.
BA Studio Art
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Jayson's work comprises of mostly ink-based work and manga-based work. What's most important to his practice is bringing the manga style to the center of his artistic identity, as well as bringing that style to the forefront of conventional fine arts. Taking a mostly Japanese style and showcasing it in a way that's more universal across global identities. He is also just extremely passionate about the manga style and the history incorporated within the context of manga.
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Talia Jones is an illustrator from St. Louis with a fascination for working with mixed media. Her practice explores the beauty of the natural world and the creatures within it, with much of her work being driven by a fascination with form and texture, as well as the quiet complexity of living thing. Fascinated by the animals and people in her life, her goal is to draw attention to details that might otherwise go unnoticed. Alongside this focus, Talia's work engages with ideas of memory and history, particularly how personal and cultural narratives come together with the natural world. She considers how identity is shaped not only by lineage, but by the environments and materials that surround us. She often incorporates tactile elements such as fiber, particularly through crochet, in a way that allows her work to exist between image and object.
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Devin Messmer is a multidisciplinary visual artist from St. Louis, Missouri. He is currently working toward his BA in Studio Art with an Illustration Certificate from Webster University. His studio practice involves using a variety of mediums and found materials to explore the complex relationship between identity, queerness, and the human body.
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Mozert is a versatile digital and traditional artist who hones in on a creepy/cute style for most of their works. A huge aspect of their practice is not keeping any medium off the table, whether it be music, sculpture, web design, or games. They're also not afraid to pull from past works to repurpose or inspire new ideas, even if it's a silly Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends fan character they made at age 7. Mozert's work subjects can range from a dark animation about the existential dread of life's expectations to a bombastic color filled website fit for a Myspace scene queen. Their art is a way of showing their innermost self to others while also pushing people to be more inspired in their art and how they go about creating it.
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Hollis West (he/they) is a multimedia artist attending Webster University, graduating May 2026 with a bachelor’s degree in studio art. His roots start in Cherokee Nation/ Tulsa, OK but now resides in St. Louis, MO. His art is inspired by our kinship to the natural world. His work often touches on belonging within yourself, to each other, and to the land. He is passionate about empowering community through art, and the transformative effect art has on the artist as well as the canvas. In addition to fine arts, Hollis has a background of public service, K-12 education, and art instructing. He saw in his community, students, and himself that when you grow as a creator, you grow as a person. This propelled him towards a path of art therapy, and he plans to enroll in an Art Therapy Master’s program after graduation.
“At first glance, the collective works in this exhibition are scattered parts, fragments of a whole idea, the beginnings of what will evolve into fully realized statements brought to life by a creative catalyst. Much like the world around us now: a conglomerate of alternate realities, disconnected theories, and incongruent facts all gelled together by a binding agent which, in 2026, utterly lacks definition.
Shared histories, shared experiences, our connection to one another is loosening daily. These artworks represent a struggle to connect with the other artists displayed, with the viewer, and to the world. Their path toward that connection is not a straight line, but a meandering path walked with intrepidity through a sea of uncertainty.
Striving toward the goal of connection, these works (like the world around us) lack convention and definition, entering into an unknown future, but offering tools for survival: resiliency in the face of insurmountable struggle, unbridled individual expression when it is most needed, and a necessary place for rest along an arduous trek toward an unwritten future."
“Primordial Soup”
Professor Tate Foley