Robin Weis

Robin Weis is a painter, illustrator, and installation artist based in Corvallis, Oregon. He attended Mt. Caz and Dad’s Workshop Residencies in 2021 where he focused on found material installation art practices. Most recently Weis launched the interactive exhibitions Liminal Atrophy and Benign INC. both of which blended domestic settings and found material installation to build community and shape conversations about healing. He has been a featured artist with Garbage Fest Corvallis since 2021 and has had art included in Assemblage, Art of the Heartland, 64 Arts, Light Filtered & Making Faces at the World, the Joan Truckenbrod Invitational, and Major Arcana. Weis has organized community-centered exhibitions and window displays at the Corvallis Book Bin since 2019, currently works as a Student Outreach Coordinator at the Valley Library and is a Gallery Assistant at the Truckenbrod Gallery.

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    Artist Statement:

    Trash Baby draws parallels between forgotten items generated from daily living and the emotional debris that lingers after trauma. Integral to the understanding of this work is the truth that the emotional and physical processes I endure while creating must match the form I create. If I am in emotional disarray, I focus primarily on my illustrative practice that features blurred and age-regressive forms. When I am seeking to present myself or mask intense past traumas, I focus on a more refined painterly practice. The collages and installations featuring compulsively collected items is the result of my attempt to survey my habits to process what their collection signifies.

    Works featured here were crafted as I processed displacement, abandonment, death, and the formation and reformation of my being despite and in reaction to these experiences. Therefore, disjointed depictions of myself frequently appear as they splinter and converge through sculptural, illustrative, and painterly processes that embody articulation or age regression brought about through the cyclical healing process.

     

Katie Le

Katie Le is a watercolor and digital illustrator from Portland, Oregon, who will be receiving her BFA in Painting and Drawing from Oregon State University in 2022. Katie’s work focuses on creating entertaining yet heartwarming stories and illustrations to spark joy and intrigue within her viewers. She has been a recipient of the Helen E. Plinkiewisch Scholarship, and currently works as a Cartoonist at OSU’s newspaper, the Daily Barometer, writing and illustrating her biweekly cartoon, Viridian.

 

Artist Statement: Potpourri

My first time engaging with narrative illustration was during my sophomore year of high school. My art class hosted a small children’s book illustration contest. The winner would receive the paid opportunity to illustrate the rest of the author’s book. Though I did not have much confidence in winning, I did my best planning the layouts of each page and rendering everything as nicely as I could. I coincidentally won on my birthday, but the conversation after was the only thing that would stick with me to this day. The author told me everyone on the decision-making committee did not find anything special with my work and that it was not even in consideration. It turns out that the author’s kid niece advocated that my illustrations were “the one,” excitedly pointing to it the whole time. Everyone else was eventually swayed by her. I always think about how my work resonated so much with a child that they expressed so much enthusiasm and happiness. I think that is one of the reasons why I kept pursuing illustrative storytelling afterwards, so that I could share my art and stories with others in hopes to spark a similar joy. Potpourri is the assortment of the five stories I developed throughout my time as a student: Welcome to the Golden Fin, Viridian, Pyro-Penguin, Murder at the Wistful Wisteria Inn, and Rupert. They are all in varying states of progress; some having more developed characters and worlds, while others are still tiny sprouts. Regardless, all my characters and their stories are deeply loved. I aim for this exhibit to give you a snippet into their lives through my digital and watercolor illustrations, as well as by bringing small aspects of their stories out in the form of props to make them feel truly alive.

 

Taylor Wells

Taylor moved to Oregon from California when he was five years old, and many of his early memories were exploring the Northwest and this new environment. He began to appreciate the stories of the past and travel. Initially he dreamed of becoming an archeologist. However, in high school Taylor took his first photography class, and realized that what he saw through a lens could capture as a record for the future, to learn from or enjoy, was how he wanted to live his life. He wanted to mirror his love of history and travel, and his unique perspective of how he experienced the world as a deaf individual, into photography. After completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography, Taylor’s aspirations for the future will be to continue to experience, photograph and show all the unique and beautiful people and sites our world has to offer.

 

Artist Statement:

Visual Sound

Growing up I was the only hard of hearing person in my circle of family/friends. I grew up within an oral community, utilizing hearing aids and being surrounded by people who hear. As such, “Deafness” has been hard for me to understand and a challenge for me to explain what it was like to not hear or my particular level of deafness. I missed sounds that I had no idea even existed, specifically higher frequencies. These non-existent sounds are a mystery, which is why I believe I naturally resort to visual things, such as photos and movies as they bring meaning from silence.

Using the sound recorded at the time of image capture, actual audio waves are overlayed in a graph format, reconstructing the image into representative sound bars. Bar height has been adjusted to indicate different degrees of hearing loss; normal, mild, moderate, severe, profound. Providing a key to read each image, bar height that is closer to the centerline, the removal of color saturation, and the black space above/below the bar all represent certain amounts of information lost for someone who has loss of hearing.

Visual Sound is a way to bring sight and sound together in a single body of work. It has helped me create a conversation about the absence of sound in my life, and demonstrate hearing loss in visual way. The goal of this project is to allow the viewer to “see”, and hopefully understand, what it is like to lose one’s hearing.

 

Erik Ruby

Erik Ruby’s work primarily explores one’s perception of self through figurative oil paintings on canvas and panel with occasional elements of waxwork and fabric sculpture. Erik has been featured in exhibitions at the Crossroads Carnegie Art Center from 2014 to 2017, and most recently at Amalgam, an advanced student exhibition hosted at Linn Benton Community College in the Fall of 2021.Erik will graduate in the Spring of 2022 with a BFA in Studio Arts with a focus in Painting.

Marta Nunez

Marta Nunez earned an associate degree of Fine Arts from Linn Benton Community College. Currently, she is also pursuing a bachelors in Studio Art at Oregon State University. She will be graduating at the end of Spring 2022. Nunez is a recipient of the Dr. Helen E. Plinkiewisch Art Scholarship. She is currently living in Keizer, Oregon.

 

Artist Statement:

This exhibition was inspired by bravery, love, pride, and brown. As a Mexican-American art student, I wanted to create something to show, explain a bit of my culture and heritage, but also who I am as an artist. I want to express myself in the way that I see myself through my own perspective as being the only Latina in my art classes. This also included my disability as someone who was diagnosed with a Spinal Cord Injury at age 17. As an artist, I don't see myself in one category or art field, but many. I am a painter of acrylic, watercolor, and oil, but also a photographer and a traveler.

Look around and be inspired with richness of color and a little cafecito de color.

 

Lee Niemi

Lee Niemi is a multimedia sculptor and photographer born in Portland, Oregon who will be receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from Oregon State University in 2022. He makes introspective work with themes of transition and memory. He makes art to communicate with the world and be visibly trans.

Niemi has been a recipient of the Helen E. Plinkiweisch scholarship, and his work has been featured in OSU Woodshop Projects’ Soundbox and the annual Montage Juried Student Exhibition for which he worked as a curator in both 2021 and 2022.

In his most recent body of work, Metamorphosis, Niemi depicts trans experiences through sculptural and photographic mediums using insect imagery and self-portraiture. After graduating, Niemi plans to work while continuing his fine art practice for a few years, then pursue a Master of Fine Arts.

 

Artist Statement:

My work is informed by memory and mental illness, and how these qualities of myself are impacted by living as a trans person. I make it for myself more than anyone else. Art allows me to communicate more easily than I can verbally, catalog my experiences, and then share them with an audience with the hope of making those with similar experiences feel seen. Bugs are a recurring motif in my work because I think of the complete metamorphosis they experience as an analogy for my own transness. They’re often treated as unwanted and gross, but insects are full of beauty. This analogy is the basis of this body of work, Metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis includes pieces from three different projects: Binary, Life Cycle, and Scars. Binary is a self portrait made up of ten solarized silver gelatin prints that I created as a way of reclaiming my sense of self and identity. My series of materials-focused insect sculptures, Life Cycle, aim to ground my experiences in the natural world. They represent constant change, rebirth, and interconnectedness. Scars is an accordion book containing a close-up composite image of my top surgery scars across my chest. Similarly to Binary, this piece is a way of connecting to my physical body and existing openly in front of others.

 

Willow Cope

Willow Cope was born in 2000 in San Luis Obispo, California, and is a 2018- 2021 recipient of the Helen E. Plinkiewisch Scholarship. Willow plans to graduate with their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from Oregon State University in 2022. They have exhibited at multiple galleries throughout Oregon including as a part of “Frame” at Fairbanks Gallery in Corvallis, Oregon and as a part of “A Watched Pot Always Boils” at Umpqua Valley arts in Roseburg, Oregon. Cope currently lives and works in Corvallis, Oregon.

 

Artist Statement:

When I first started this series in 2019, it was an exploration of my physical form that stemmed from not knowing what I looked like due to body and gender dysmorphia. Since then I have learned that there is much more to the whole of my being than my physical form. I am made of my mother’s smile and my dad’s temper and my favorite song from middle school, but more than anything I feel as though I am made of memories. For the first time in my life I am developing self-worth outside of my body, and this is the autobiography of that journey. I am trying to learn how to not use my body and my sexuality as currency, despite being told that was my only worth for so long. These paintings I’m sharing with you are glimpses into queer life, glimpses into my life.

The title Rose-Colored Glass comes from the nostalgia that is brought up from looking at old memories captured in photographs.. The memories feel so sweet, but at the same time I know that I am viewing them through the hazy rose-tint of nostalgia, not as they really are. All of my paintings are based on either reference photos of me or references photos I took, in addition to some imagery common in my journaling practice. Working with mirrors addresses ideas of identity and community because it directly engages the viewer by making their reflection part of the piece. The eye cannot focus on multiple images at once, instead when presented with multiple images the eye must flicker back and forth between them. We end up focusing on what is important to us. So what will the viewers of this series focus on, the art or themselves? Here there are no wrong answers

For this series I have been painting memories of myself, morphed and distorted through nostalgia of a body I once had when I was young and hadn’t learned that I was whole yet. Our bodies change when we experience life head on, and my body has changed. It feels different now. It takes up space in ways I used to be afraid of. As much as I try to love this new body that is now my home, it is still difficult to paint images that aren’t memories, moments made softer by the rose-tint of nostalgia. It seems like my body has always been a sore subject. In the moment I look at my body with so much anger and distrust, but looking back I wish I was as lovely as the self I once hated. Losing the ‘ideal body’ made me lose my identity. Who am I now that I am not thin? That I am not beautiful in the ways society wants me to be. If as femmes our body is currency is this what inflation feels like?

 

Jayden Dukes

Jayden Dukes is an artist whose work often focuses on themes of fat identity and its relationship to queerness and sexuality. They were born in Roseburg, Oregon. In 2019, they received their Associates of Arts Oregon Transfer (AAOT) degree from Umpqua Community College and will receive their Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Oregon State University in 2022.

Dukes has had their work displayed in various exhibitions including It’s Not You It’s Me at Umpqua Valley Arts Association and the Montage Juried Show at Oregon State University. In 2021, she was a curator for the exhibition A Watched Pot Always Boils at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association.

 

Artist Statement:

I am interested in the implications of taking up space in societal systems that are prejudiced against specific types of Bodies. My work explores the consequences of the marginalization of Fat Bodies. My practice uses research and personal experiences as a Fat, queer person to create artwork that centers Fat liberation and combats fatphobia. I make work about the Body, Fatness, and identity as it pertains to the development, exploration, and practice of sexuality.

I create conversations about the ways in which Fatness, queerness, and sexuality intersect in ways that are positive. These dialogs focus on the beauty in Fatness through the documentation of the Fat Body’s texture, shape, and color, and the beauty found through the acts of love done to and from Fat Bodies. I attempt to tackle the negative aspects of living in a Fat Body: the demonization and fetishization of Fat Bodies, fatphobia in academia, discrimination in the workforce, medical, and fashion industries, marginalization in interpersonal relationships, and internalized fatphobia.

Through the exploration of various mediums–constructed photography, installation, poly-fil, nylon, rope, plaster, barbed wire–I make artwork to reconceptualize the ways in which we interact with Fatness. In the interest of taking up space, my work explores the image, representation, and concept of the Body in an attempt to answer the question of what or why the Body is, the differences in Bodies, and how to help Bodies that face continuous discrimination.

 

Madison Haugen

Madison Haugen, has been honing her skills in oil painting over the past several years. Originally a graphite artist with a focus on the human form, Madison combined her drawing skills with her fascination with the human body, bringing about a unique union of her two interests. Maddie’s expansion into oil painting enabled her to introduce another element into her artwork as well as expand her range. The use of the human form, specifically the female form, in her artwork allows her to tell personal stories of what she has faced as both a human being and a woman. Her artwork acts as a tool in allowing her to heal from her traumas and create something beautiful out of them. Madison’s goal is to render the female form in such a way that escapes the male gaze, and provides a new sense of appreciation for our bodies. She will graduate with a BFA in Painting in Spring 2022.

 

Artist Statement:

My artwork allows me to heal. The action of painting allows me to escape my traumas while simultaneously encouraging me to make them my main source material. As a survivor of rape, my work is deeply rooted in painting the human body in its most vulnerable form as a way to transform my own self-image and reclaim the relationship with my body. My artistic practice started early on in life, but the subject matter of my work has remained consistent; humans. While my subject matter of human beings has persisted, the content behind my paintings has become why I continue to create. With sharing deeply personal stories through my art, I am both healing myself and creating a safe space for others to heal as well.

Oil paint has been used to render the female body for centuries. By using oil to render my contemporary ideas of the female form, I am making a deliberate statement. My current work focuses on questioning and undermining traditional conceptions of the way the female form is supposed to be seen, while also surveying the alliance between identity and the body. This is accomplished through painting the female body in its most vulnerable state from the perspective of myself, a woman, in turn undercutting the objectification that comes from the male gaze. Providing my feminine lens on the body helps to provide a sense of normalcy without a sexual agenda. Art is often seen as a prestigious thing, my work aims to call for people to see their bodies that way as well.

 

Delaney James Wilmott

Delaney Wilmott has been creating art since she was a young child, but did not decide to take it to a professional level until 2018 when she began studying art at Oregon State University. She creates art using a plethora of mediums, painting with both acrylic and oil while also crafting wood-burns and digital art. Delaney’s art focuses primarily on the beauty and joy that life can create, while also reflecting on the balance between life and death. She paints a diverse range of nature and landscapes as well as broader subjects. Delaney will graduate with a BFA in Painting in Spring 2022.

 

Artist Statement:

My whole life I have been creating art to make people feel happier, whether it is something as simple as a birthday, or if they are going through a difficult time in life. I will make them art to take their mind off of it in that moment. Or for it to be reminder for them that there was happiness and beauty in those dark times. This is all for the pursuit of happiness. The infinitely complex idea. And it still all boils back to perception. There have been times where I have made paintings when I hated what was going on in my life, but when I look at it later on, it reminded me of how thankful I am for what I once thought was a horrible time in my life. It was really just another path for me to get to where I am today. I would not have perceived the world around me in the same way had that event not happened to me, and I am grateful for that. If you can change the way you perceive and what you have perceived, then you can shape your environment to reflect what you want. Art, perception and environment are all tied in the same knot, and it starts with the art you surround yourself with.

 

Caleb Monticone

Caleb Monticone is a photographer from San Clemente, California. In middle school Caleb fell in love with photography as an art practice while on a photo shoot mission with friends. This passion was further explored through the photography program at Jserra Catholic High School. Because his high school was incredibly close to his home, he decided to continue his studies at Oregon State University so that he’d be able to immerse himself in new experiences. He will graduate this year and receive his BFA in Photography.

His most recent work, Crashed Wedding inspects the role of toxic masculinity in abusive relationships. Because toxically masculine men internalize emotional repression, when they need help they often cannot ask for it. Through the empowering narrative of Crashed Wedding, Caleb wants to spread awareness to younger generations of men of the emotional repression that comes with toxic masculinity.

     

    Artist Statement:

    The powerful narratives that can be captured through portraiture inspire me as a photographer. It is important to me to share these narratives in a familiar way with my audience. My most recent project, Crashed Wedding inspects the role of toxic masculinity in an abusive relationship.

    Toxic masculinity alters the man’s mind and causes him to think that he should just endure the abuse of his partner without showing his emotions. He thinks he shouldn’t reach out for help, and that mentality informs how he views all relationships. This narrative illustrates what happens when a man denies his emotions and how this denial causes his mental state to decline. In order to get through all of this and become free from this toxicity the man needs to accept that it’s okay to reach out for help.

    Crashed Wedding is the story of a man and women on their wedding day. This is one of the most important days of their lives. The man is shown wearing a white wedding dress; this is a symbol of both femininity and his mental battle. He is torn between reaching out for help and staying with his abuser. In this story the man frees himself from the abuse by running away from the relationship. He is freed from both the abuser and from the toxicity of internalized emotional repression.

     

Ashley A Maceira

Ashley Maceira comes from a family of artists and her work speaks to the notion of home and self-identity. Her main inspirations come from her grandmother who used to create soft scenic paintings, and her aunt’s experimental and abstract art. She will receive her BFA in Painting from Oregon State University in the Spring.

     

    Artist Statement:

    Since my grandmother passed in 2010, it has been difficult growing up without a sense of home. As such, I have had a sense of dread and fear of never finding what others called home. Working through and learning how to navigate life with the knowledge you can’t go back to the innocent bliss of childhood is a step for me to figuring out what is “home”. For a child who was never taught how to control their emotions and express themselves, emotions come in big waves, often at a higher intensity than others around me. This causes difficulties when it came to learning how to control them. Even now, I struggle. Finding home requires one to look at themselves and consider the possibilities of what home truly means. This series explores these possibilities and definitions. It is a search to find my idea of home.

     

Sarah Bennett

Sarah Bennett was raised in Gold Beach Oregon, a small town on the Oregon coast. With a focus in printmaking, Bennet creates a variety of works ranging from Linocuts to Drypoint Etching. Bennett has already been included in various exhibitions, her work has been displayed at Wrights Custom Framing and Art Gallery in Brookings, Oregon, Giustina Gallery at LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, and Fairbanks Gallery also located at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. Sarah Bennett currently lives and works in Albany, Oregon, and will be receiving her BFA in Printmaking this Spring.

 

Artist Statement:

I never quite knew what printmaking was until I took my first printmaking class in the Fall of 2019. Not only did I learn the skills and techniques utilized within the different printmaking processes, but I gained personal enlightenment on what it truly means to be an artist. At first as an artist, I was mainly concerned about finding “my own style” desperately trying to figure out a way where my artwork would be recognizable as mine. I was distressed on the matter so much so that it was getting in the way of my artwork. But then my teacher and mentor at the time, Yuji Hiratsuka gave me insightful advice mentioning how the true talents and skills of an artist is their desire to create. Then those very creations can provoke as well as develop intricate feelings and emotions, everything else is just icing on the cake. With that advice, my perspective on art has certainly shifted and I think has even evolved since then. I try not to feel the pressure of creating “good” art that is void of emotion, now I just try and create for art's sake and see what emotions I might invoke within others as well as myself.

 

George Graham

George Graham is an artist who focuses on printmaking and is graduating in 2022 with their BFA from Oregon State. Born in rural Oregon, they grew accustomed to being surrounded by trees and draw from that experience to inform their work. They have participated in group exhibits at the Umpqua Valley Art Association, the Mezzanine Gallery, and the Whipple Gallery in Roseburg, Oregon.

 

Artist Statement:

Hair is one of the things that I notice first–whether there is or isn’t any, texture, shade and shape. It distinguishes people from one another, stylistically and locationally. We put more thought into how we present ourselves and our hair more than we tend to want to acknowledge.

The faces I kept blank. Without faces, the figures become more elusive, less tangible, less real. We are left to fill in the features, wondering what could be there and what could have been.

This series has followed me since I publicly came out to my family and community. In Faceless Wonders I’m considering what may have been had I been able to come out earlier and had been encouraged in forming relationships that I deemed worthy rather than those that society saw fit.

 

Preston Kill

Preston Kill is an OSU Senior pursuing his Bachelors in Fine Art with a focus on Photography. His passion for art started 9 years ago when he was gifted a camera by his father in the 8th grade. He has been published by Anti-Heroin Chic in their 2019 Winter online magazine and has recently worked for a recognized literature magazine, ellipsis, as its Art Editor. This has allowed him to refine his critical eye to help produce more poignant pieces of his own. More recently, Preston has been focusing on installation art paired with his main medium of photography.

 

Artist Statement:

My work focuses on ideas of mental health, reclamation, and renewal. In this new body of work, Shattered, I use a multimedia installation approach to communicate the ideas of a shattered perspective of self. The collection memorializes ones past self, while trying to reclaim an identity that has been altered through escapism. Themes of longing, memorial, and acceptance can all be found through the different pieces in this collection. When you look in your mirror, are you still able to see the person that was once there?

 

Anastasia Hazel

Anastasia Hazel was raised on O’ahu and moved to Oregon in 2015. She is a painter, sculptor, and digital artist. She will graduate from Oregon State University with a BFA in Painting in Spring 2022. Ana specializes in fantastical bodies of work that revolve around an individual’s responsibility to the world, and how our anger can be valuable and necessary to create change. She also does commercial work focused on the realm of Dungeons and Dragons. Her sculptural pieces create inspiring and innovative spaces for players to express themselves through the game.

 

Artist Statement:

Damage to an ally could lead to the death of a team, the loss of a friend, and a defeat overall. As my main series, Fuck You, Future Me, portrays my present self-opposed to my future self, I found the phrase, “Friendly Fire,” fitting. It’s unclear whether the friendly fire comes from my future or present self. Who holds more power over the other? The present has all the opportunities to fuck over the future, but the future holds so much expectation and pressure over the present self. Who wins? Who concedes? Who shoots their ally first?

 

Anastasia Hazel

Saving my Anger for Later

©2022

Medium: Canvas, Acrylic Paint, XPS Foam, Wood Glue, Nails

Dimensions: 24” x 36” Canvas, 32” x 46” including Wood Boards

Description: Anger is a dominating emotion in my life. I have begun to manage this emotion more, but struggle to bottle it up all the time. It hurts to not be able to rage at will, but I understand that I have to in order to begin a path of positivity. Working on this flaw of mine is especially rage-inducing considering that my future self will benefit from all my hard work, while I suffer through the task of beginning to better myself. All of my work on my mental health is for someone I don’t know and will never meet. I have portrayed this sense of unfairness in this painting in order to remind my future self of the work that I have put in and the length I have gone for their sake.