Printmaking started it. From the beginning, I have been fascinated with the many ink layers you can apply to a single piece of paper when creating a print. For this piece I worked with multiple layers of Dura-lar, paper, as well as ink. I was able to construct a print, whose materiality hints at three dimensionality, while remaining flat. Using my two degrees in biology and the visual arts, I was able to build an image anyone can relate to.

I have always been very interested in getting an interdisciplinary education to serve as a source of inspiration in my artwork. As a result of this, I am a senior in the B.F.A. program of 3D4M Sculpture & Glass, the B.S. program of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE), and research within Earth and Space Sciences. Human perception and light are very strong influences in my work. Interactions between the body and autonomic processes, especially respiration, inspire me. The body's numerous systems function without any perceived expenditure of effort. I make work that attempts to activate perception of those processes in a visual way through glass. I love glass because it facilitates the bending and refraction of light in a controlled manner. Some of my work relies on manipulating the index of refraction of glass immersed in oil to appear invisible, other glass work harnesses diffused light to a focal point central to the piece, but overall I tend to think of light as another material or media within my artwork. I often consider how people comprehend the world because my curriculum in HCDE primarily consists of studying and manipulating human perception of graphical user interfaces. As a result of this, the interface between person and object is also a recurrent theme in my artwork. I critique the over-saturation of technology in human lives by recreating hardware in unsettling ways, like a computer mouse imbued with human fingerprints or a laptop that types itself.

Using casted aluminum my work explores the relation between the chaos and order that exists within our world. In our world fractal patterns are found pervasively and govern the order of both the inanimate and animate. Fractals are patterns where a basic component is copied repeatedly within itself for an unlimited number of times. Like fractals the underlying elements of my work are simple but put together they start to overwhelm the viewer. What was once easily described shapes becomes a chaotic mass. This mass is then confined to a simplistic form. Though this confinement a sense of order is returned to the viewer.

Finding threads of commonality among stories from multiple gallery participants, "Intersections" takes intimate memories and brings them to life. Participants sit alone in a secluded room and share real and imagined stories while navigating through a series of prompts. Speech is recorded in fragments and also converted to text to drive the compositional process. Important words, as determined through parts-of-speech and repetition analysis of the text, are entered in a Flickr tag search. Images thoroughly tagged and described by Flickr users, which often capture personal experiences, are then saved. In the public gallery space, three video monitors display a dynamic sequence of these images while two speakers (with left, right, and center channels) play back the speech fragments. Neurobiological principles of memory consolidation provide an underlying functional framework that determines probabilities and sequences of the image and speech output. Images and speech associated with frequently used words have a higher probability of occurrence and a greater longevity inside the system. Patterns emerge over time as commonly shared memories achieve a monopoly on the output. Ultimately this system functions as a collective mind where shared memories are fragmented and juxtaposed to form narrative re-appropriations of the original stories. In the end viewers are left with remnants of the original speech and continuously changing visual representations. The new system of memory is constantly in flux and becomes a new form in itself, a collective reminiscence.

Landscape Architecture professor Daniel Winterbottom leads a Design Build studio program, that spans two quarters, for graduating 3rd year undergraduate students every year. During Winter Quarter, students are split into teams to come up with schematic designs for a real client, and real build site. This year, the Japanese Cultural and Community Center, a non-profit organization, enlisted the help of Daniel and the 3rd year Landscape Architecture students to design an outdoor garden for their community. It was required that the garden be symbolic of the Japanese history, and culture, yet have aesthetic qualities of the Pacific Northwest. After a series of reviews, a final design which pulls ideas from each team is synthesized. Construction drawings are then created in preparation for Spring Quarter during which the students, with help from volunteers, will construct the project. Three years of learning design principles and disciplines are culminated in the final six months before graduation, where by June 2014 the garden will be open to the public.

My project is a study of urban form, not as it exists in any particular real place, but as an amalgamation of realism and idealism. The goal of this work is to depict a snapshot of an imaginary city, its buildings, people, spaces, and history. In creating this project, I did an extensive amount of research into the urban form in action, relying on direct observation, images from the internet, and studies of cities from architecture, urban planning, and design. The City of Atlas Bay is not a real place, but it does include references to diverse locations such as Seattle, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., London, and Shanghai. Despite the final product’s large scale, the work is also meant to be examined in fragmented sections, a half-way intentional product of the way it was created, which was in fragments. Just as one would not immediately grasp a large city all at once, the work is best viewed in fragments, through examination of its individual and distinct constituent neighborhoods. To foster this, I have included a large amount of detail in every part of the work, encouraging the viewer to linger on the streets as if in a real place. What impression the work leaves with the viewer depends on how the viewer interacts with urban life, whether it be a fast-paced inventory of major artifacts, or through a leisurely stroll examining their surroundings. This project is related the studies in my major, Community Environment and Planning, a bachelor’s program in the Department of Urban Planning, College of Built Environments.

These images offer a glimpse into my explorations of mark making through two disparate modes of artistic production: printmaking and embroidery. Printmaking is a unique medium; inscrutable and self-determining - it gives to the artistic process almost as much as the artist. One never knows what impressions one is going to get. On the other hand, embroidery on canvas is a largely predictable process where the artist is  in virtually complete control. Until the image is complete. The raised surface, layering of thread on thread gives the image a different dimension, much like printmaking but subtle and assertive. To me, printmaking and embroidery mark the beginning of an interesting conversation and I hope that the combination of given images reflect just that: beginnings. However, there is more to these images than conversations and interactions – they are investigations towards the development of a visual language.The marks themselves are indexical and hold keys to a fixed event, a happening or a phase in time. The referential themes provide starting points for each piece’s journey but do not influence the final visualization. Thus, they become freestanding objects, open to interpretation and much like a Rorschach test, perceived differently by every viewer. Nevertheless, the memories they contain are real, marking time, as memoirs are not to do. The displayed collection got its beginnings with spilt ink.

As a sculptor I work both figuratively and abstractly in a variety of styles ranging from installations to life-size figures and large sculptural vessels. Human anatomy is my starting point for exploration. Clay is the principal material for my work or a primary element of the fabrication process. I bring a diverse background of artistic training to my practice, but working in ceramic sculpture is where I find that my hands, vision, and voice come together with the greatest harmony. There is a one-to-one relationship between my hands and the clay as I manipulate it into the form of a body or organ. In its raw state the clay acts, feels, and even looks much like living tissue. These forms develop from diagrams, drawings, and photos, but most importantly from an intuitive sense of touch and sense memory. As human beings we are flawed and messy, and I strive to instill a sense of that vulnerability in my work. The surfaces and forms evoke a sense of duration, damage, decay, and the tenuousness of life. These themes stem from my interest in working with body imagery in a socio-political context, allowing me as a woman and an artist, to reclaim the female body from a historical position of subjugation and objectification. It is not my desire to limit the viewers’ interpretation. Instead I seek to question how we view the human body, relate to our anatomy, and consider our physical connection to the social structures we create around us. The content of my work originates from a visceral place, translated through a tactile process, and balanced by formal and aesthetic decisions.

I barely knew Emily. We had been in a car together for only twelve hours when she decided to jump in the lake. The lake was probably somewhere in southern Oregon, sometimes it is difficult to pay attention to where one is when one has been in so many places in such a short time. Emily was tired and needed to wake up. This is why she jumped in. I barely knew Emily, but I think the lake allowed me to know her better. I am a student at the University of Washington currently majoring in Photomedia and English Literature. My work explores the human trace in the natural world. I search for unintentional evidence of the human story in places where it may seem illogical to be and, by framing this occurrence in photographic form, I aim to suggest a narrative for both what has come before this isolated piece of evidence, and what may follow after the camera has left it.

Growing up in two distinctive cultures, I can well combine the best of both sides, the American culture and the Taiwanese culture, and then express my creative thinking in my art pieces. This unique personal experience lets me possess the ability to manipulate the spirits of two different subjects together into my artworks successfully. Often, these subjects evoke some kinds of emotional linkages, mostly human-to-human or human-to-animal. The ideas and concepts are to emphasize on the relationship (interacting, confronting, etc.) between the two subjects. All in all, the core motivation is to convey the interrelationship between the two cultures that made me who I am today into every piece I create. Glass and clay are the major which I am exploring and learning. Current artworks highlight my intention to figure out the features of glass, clay and metal, and to enhance skills in mixed casting. Several trials are needed to achieve success in most cases. Various unexpected results, eventually, led me onto the right track and into the next stage.The distinctive features of glass fascinate me and arouse my curiosity. My idea is to present the features of life with the characteristics of glass. For example, subjects alive need to breath, and glass responds to this idea because it can capture the air and show the moment of living life. Moreover, it can be liquefied, and then shares similar characters with water, another indication of life. Another material I like is clay. It has great plasticity, and is a good medium for me to make my work more vivid. These exhibits shown not only implicit my motivation in art, but also present the features of glass and clay.