Best in Show
Joan Galbraith
Sinclair Community College
Dahlia and Dahlia
Photography–35mm film printed on Ilford RC paper
3.5” x 5.5"
This piece is meant to show feminine bodies in their most bare. The beauty and bloodied. Familiar and detached. This is a reminder that in the plainest sense, our bodies are simply big, beautiful, strange earthly vessels.
2nd Place
Soraya Burgos
Dallas College
Sonsonate, 2a Calle Poniente
Acrylic paint
34” x 42”
“Sonsonate, 2a Calle Poniente” is a celebration of my family’s reconnection with our home country, El Salvador. The four interconnected paintings are of a deteriorating building in my mother’s hometown of Sonsonate. The choice in color for the painting is a tribute to and remembrance of the heat in El Salvador.
3rd Place
Jeremy Southern
Monroe Community College
Late Night Light Painting
Digital photograph
11.25” x 20”
After discovering a walkway that went under a tunnel next to a stream, I knew I had to paint with light there. I left my house at midnight and before I knew, it was four in the morning. I was having so much fun I didn’t want to go home.
Juror’s Choice
Tyrin Clay
Maricopa Community Colleges
After Friday Night Lights
Digital archival inkjet print
16” x 22.5”
Taken after a lightly attended high school football game, the photo captures both the sadness of the end of the game, but also the happiness of having watched and worked around it.
Zoe Hunter
Cuyahoga Community College
Living Room
Ceramic
5” x 10” x 2”
This is a miniature rendering of my apartment living room that I share with my lifelong best friend. I included our cat and bunny as separate ceramic pieces that can be moved about the space.
Ruby Krimstein
Austin Community College District
Wuthering Heights Map
Digital print on paper
24” x 18”
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights took the form of a map for me. I mean “map” in the most pedantic sense. Place and time hold life, which is chaotically sensical. With this balance in mind, I treated the digital canvas like a tapestry. All parts are carefully considered and intentionally connected, even when visual pathways interrupt themselves.
Honorable Mention
Julia Carson
Johnson County Community College
Biting the Snake That Feeds
Ceramic
21” x 20” x 8”
This sculpture is deeply inspired by women’s suffrage, portraying women enduring the pressure of femininity while also having the strength to protect ourselves. It is a struggle with beauty, fragility, and rage.
Mary Ruffing
Cuyahoga Community College
The Challenge
Ceramic
5” x 10” x 12”
I was intrigued by some classmates challenging each other to throw the smallest pottery piece. I secretly took up the challenge of making small pieces, both thrown and handbuilt. The thirty-six pieces on display range in size from the smallest at 7/16 inch to the largest at 2 3/8 inches
Anne Arundel Community College
Arnold, MD
Mark Crooks
Shyweezyy - Life, Music Video
Video
4k - 16:9
I dedicate my work to Captain Walter Crooks, thanking him for his love and support as my greatest teacher. I love music and cinematography because art offers an exploration of the human experience. I consider myself a storyteller and strive to visually create the sounds and energy surrounding me.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGzpleezAfs
Mack Disbrow
Self-Portrait
Digital illustration
2.4” x 1.8”
I created “Self-Portrait” to portray myself in a way that matches myself being both mature and young. My face is not included in this art piece and is replaced by a coral tube to add a bit of a whimsical feeling for viewers.
Kenzie Estell
Distressed Eyes Sake Set
Ceramic
8” x 7” x 5”
All of my ceramic pieces have some kind of creepy decomposition death vibe. I like to use black in my pieces to represent that and make work that represents me as a person. The kind of art I like is creepy and not delicate, but beauty in decomposition and unease.
Madison Osborn
Self-Portrait Reflections
Oil on canvas
48” x 24”
I am a student at Anne Arundel Community College working toward a degree in Fine Arts. This piece is my first self-portrait showing how I personally deal with my anxiety and dissociation, through use of color and expression.
Mary Ruesen Strauss
Light Source
Digital photography
8” x 10”
I’ve been an artist my whole life but I had never explored photography as a conceptual medium until I came to AACC. Professor Matthew Moore encourages us to think about the meaning of our images beyond composition. I began exploring some life experiences: nature, death, our relationships with animals.
Austin Community College District
Austin, TX
Ruby Krimstein
Wuthering Heights Map
Digital print on paper
24” x 18”
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights took the form of a map for me. I mean “map” in the most pedantic sense. Place and time hold life, which is chaotically sensical. With this balance in mind, I treated the digital canvas like a tapestry. All parts are carefully considered and intentionally connected, even when visual pathways interrupt themselves.
Dagon K. McNiff
Bat Head Henry
Cardboard, cardstock, hot glue
15” x 22” x 14”
My work is very process-driven. In the case of this vampire bat mask, I explore new mediums, such as card stock, while balancing functionality and aesthetics. This mask is meant to be worn and was made to fit perfectly on my own head.
Jill Mirostaw
Steel Stones
Steel, glass, sand
8” x 32” x 22”
Enrolling in the Architectural and Ornamental Metal program at ACC has been one of the best decisions I have made. I have learned so much, met so many excellent teachers, and have found my passion in life. It’s as though everything in my past has culminated to bring me here.
Suzanne Moore
The Long Stair
Intaglio on paper
9” x 22”
Maria Montessori designed materials central to the neural development of young children. My artwork, “The Long Stair,” provides a child with a concrete understanding of how things move relative to quantity, thus building a concrete connection to an abstract concept.
Natalie Padrés-Soto
I Think I Heard You
Oil pastel on paper
24” x 18”
I often feel the world’s noise surrounding me. Everything is loud, taking up as much space as a yell, even if it’s only a whisper. Nothing about this drawing was planned; rather, it followed an automatic process as I tried to filter out everything in my head onto the page.
Cuyahoga Community College
Cleveland, OH
Paulette Bryant
It’s Me
Acrylic paint, aluminum foil, paper
16” x 20”
Tasked with painting a self-portrait, I was drawn to “President Barack Obama” by Kehinde Wiley. I referenced a skewed photograph to thin my face and a garden image for the background in homage to Wiley’s signature foliage. Foil was used for the glasses frame and paper for the praying mantis.
Greyson Fischer
Self-Portrait, Trolling Degas
Oil on canvas
36” x 24”
This self-portrait, inspired by the exhibition “Degas and the Laundress” at the Cleveland Museum of Art, attempts to highlight our society’s continued legacy of sexually objectifying women. I attempted to objectify myself performing similar domestic work to more clearly communicate the sexual bias still implicit in media representations of labor.
Zoe Hunter
Living Room
Ceramic
5” x 10” x 2”
This is a miniature rendering of my apartment living room that I share with my lifelong best friend. I included our cat and bunny as separate ceramic pieces that can be moved about the space.
Kaitlyn Murphy
Leah
Charcoal on paper
24” x 18”
My model for this drawing is my oldest and closest friend. My goal was to represent the light and joy she has brought me throughout our lives.
Mary Ruffing
The Challenge
Ceramic
5” x 10” x 12”
I was intrigued by some classmates challenging each other to throw the smallest pottery piece. I secretly took up the challenge of making small pieces, both thrown and handbuilt. The thirty-six pieces on display range in size from the smallest at 7/16 inch to the largest at 2 3/8 inches.
Dallas College
Irving, TX
Soraya Burgos
Sonsonate, 2a Calle Poniente
Acrylic paint
34” x 42”
“Sonsonate, 2a Calle Poniente” is a celebration of my family’s reconnection with our home country, El Salvador. The four interconnected paintings are of a deteriorating building in my mother’s hometown of Sonsonate. The choice in color for the painting is a tribute to and remembrance of the heat in El Salvador.
Greyson Fischer
Police Brutality
Photography
20” x 16”
“Police Brutality” examines social, political, and cultural matters, including the intricate connections between power and inequality within the context of developing countries. This piece is inspired by the Eswatini unrest in late June 2021. It advocates for victims harmed by security forces, amplifies marginalized voices, and encourages social accountability.
Erica Fullbright
Self-Reflection
Chalk pastels
24” x 18”
This piece is a self-portrait/updated self-reflection using chalk pastels. This is a medium I’ve never worked with, so I wanted to practice working with the medium by playing with color and skin tones.
Nobue Jansen
Whale of the Forest
Wood, bark, fungi, tiger’s eye stone
54” x 42” x 14”
This artwork speaks to our urgent need to protect our natural resources, animals, and plant life.
Daniela Segovia
Pa and Bri
Acrylic paint
48” x 48”
Capturing elements of old masters with a contemporary approach, I blend scenery and stories. This narrative of “Pa and Bri” (view right to left) depicts a young man reaching for a new life, leaving El Refugio (The Shelter). Merging past and future, this story centers around the American Dream.
Delta College
University Center, MI
Marcelo Jourdan
Cheese Cake
Oil on canvas
10” x 16”
This is a painting done from an old photograph of my mother on her birthday.
Michael Sian
Untitled
Graphite and kneaded eraser on paper
24” x 18”
Art is something I love to use as a form of expression. The reason I chose this particular subject is because as I was drawing, I could feel the emotions as if I was experiencing them myself. I want the viewer to interpret the emotions of the drawing based on their own.
Marielle Wilson
Henson
Acrylic on ceramic
10” x 12” x 12”
This ceramic sculpture pays homage to the Fierys from the 1980’s Jim Henson film, Labyrinth. Standing at over 12 feet tall, this moveable jointed doll captures the essence of the whimsical creatures with its detachable limbs.
Melany Yciano
Lovecraft: The Uncanny
Digital images
3000 px x 2400 px
This collage portrait is a tribute to the cosmic horror author H. P. Lovecraft, created by cropping and combining cosmic, sea, and horror-related imagery using Adobe Photoshop. Just like this author’s works, this collage alludes to the maddening terrors that lie beneath the seas and in the deepest regions of space.
Foothill-De Anza Community College District
Los Altos Hills, CA
Will Hollander
Midnight in Santa Cruz
Photography
8.5” x 11”
Taken off of the coast of Santa Cruz, I shot this photo at around midnight on 35mm black and white film, using an 80s analog Nikon camera. The photo is the result of a roughly hour-and-a-half exposure, shot at F5.6 with 400-speed film.
Paola Valenzuela
Ghost in the Cathedral
Digital photography
16.6” x 12.5”
In the quiet corners of memory, I find my late father, a conjurer of eerie enchantments. His hands, daubed in paint and glue, sculpted Halloween phantoms from humble scraps. Our shared imagination echoed with spine-tingling whispers. His love for macabre cinema and haunting symphonies still resonates, etched in my soul.
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Toronto, ON Canada
Kassidy Baker
The Reach
Monochromatic photography plus post-production
19.7” x 13.9”
My art is a silent symphony of reaching for the light, a monochrome tableau where motion is captured in the stillness of time.
Anvi Suresh Dangaria
Synthesis
Digital art
11” x 8”
Using avatars and virtual landscapes, we form connections that go beyond the limits of the real world. As we navigate this space of data and imagination, our conversations are shaped by lines of code, and emotions are expressed through shared experiences. Different realities make us question where we really belong.
Rajat Mitra
Chiaroscuro
Monochromatic photography
13.9 ” x 19.7”
I find my inspiration in the interplay of light and shadow, using the disparity between darkness and illumination as a metaphor, the intricate dance of elements within myself and the world that surrounds me. “Chiaroscuro” is an exploration of the visual symphony created by the contrast between light and shadow.
Arushi Sabharwal
All of Me
Embroidery on fabric
16” x 36”
In this piece, I explore themes of self-identity and self-expression through a series of self-portraits capturing the nuanced expressions we wear throughout the day. Using thread and fabric, I wanted to depict the myriad emotions that colour the human experience, inviting viewers to contemplate their journey of self-understanding and introspection.
Hongqing Yang
Choke in Red
Color photography plus post-production
19.7” x 13.9”
This image is inspired by the need to hide, but feeling suffocated at the same time. By hiding ourselves we are able to optimistically face the world, but risk losing who we truly are.
Jackson College
Jackson, MI
Quynton Beavers
Symbiote Venom
Terracotta clay
10” x 6” x 4”
My statue is based off the character Venom in the Marvel creations. Venom has been the character in my drawings since I was a kid and now has evolved into this great statue. It proves to me that I can do anything! Especially obtain my dreams!
Kodi O’Kert
T4T
Soft pastel
14” x 11”
Transsexual love heals an artist’s soul.
Katie Prokos
Listening to the Trees
Graphite
14” x 11”
This drawing is my reminder to find time to be outside listening to nature and enjoying the slowness of life.
Scott Rice
An Apple I Am Not
White stoneware clay
3.75” x 2.5” x 2.5”
I had fun making this wonderful little rattle that I intended to be an apple but the universe thought it would be
better if I made a pear. Glazed with a clear coat over a semi-moist underglaze that added enough color while remaining subtle and soft, like a nice little pear.
Janice Stern
Tribute to Dad
Charcoal
18” x 24”
My dad loved to share his knowledge and passions. His love and respect for the outdoors lives on through the lessons and experiences he has shared with me.
Johnson County Community College
Overland Park, KS
Ryan Blackwell
Harley People
Digital print
24.5” x 18”
This photo wouldn’t be the same had the lady not chosen to adjust her hair. Her natural expression was better than any pose I could’ve done.
Julia Carson
Biting the Snake That Feeds
Ceramic
21” x 20” x 8”
This sculpture is deeply inspired by women’s suffrage, portraying women enduring the pressure of femininity while also having the strength to protect ourselves. It is a struggle with beauty, fragility, and rage.
Noreen Dupriest
Dazed and Yet Flourishing
Wood and ceramic
15” x 18” x 30”
When I allowed God to guide me through a transitional phase of my life, I was reminded of His divine plan. His definition - and now mine as well - of growth is not about idealizing self-abandonment but rather prioritizing what it means to be embodied.
Ava Elton
Bisan
Acrylic on canvas
38” x 32”
Bisan Owada is a Palestinian activist and journalist. She documents on social media her experiences being
displaced to the Gaza Strip. She begins her videos with the phrase, “I’m still alive.” The portrait of Bisan in her press uniform is striking for her beauty and courage in times of hardship.
Elizabeth Nixon
Critter
Wire, animal hair
41” x 12” x 23”
“Critter” is an amalgamation of hair and fur from different animals, signifying the unity of nature. It is a figure representing freedom, escape, and unity.
Kirkwood Community College
Cedar Rapids, IA
Noryli Villada Avila
El Dragon
Wood-fired stoneware and stains
10” x 11” x 18”
“El Dragon” was inspired by the fascination of dragons that my dad has, and I wanted him to have a dragon made by me!
Tzitziki Garcia
Point of View
Graphite on paper
24” x 18”
The artist chose not to provide a statement.
Lucas-Allan Lueth
H;PE
Color laser print
10” x 8”
This embodies life. We continually find ways to stare into the place of hope. Whether we are walking to work, sitting with family, or lying on the floor.
Dakota Osegera
Primordial Eyes
Glass
3” x 3”
My work focuses on the creation and experimentation of different color patterns using glass murrine. “Primordial Eyes” captures my murine in a solid glass orb featuring 31 polished facets to create a mesmerizing change in visual optics at every angle.
Max Studier
Teapot
Wood-fired stoneware and rattan handle
5” x 10” x 7”
I would describe my art as being simple. While I enjoy contemporary work, I am most drawn to simple forms with simple glazes. There are many things that inspire me, especially other people and their forms.
Maricopa Community Colleges
Tempe, AZ
Tyrin Clay
After Friday Night Lights
Digital archival inkjet print
16” x 22.5”
Taken after a lightly attended high school football game, the photo captures both the sadness of the end of the game, but also the happiness of having watched and worked around it.
Sean Dirks & Shelby Griffitts
Jorogumo
Raku ceramics
27” x 16” x 14”
A yokai of Japanese folklore. At age 400 they become shapeshifters and begin feeding on humans. Disguised as a beautiful woman, she hunts her favorite prey: young men looking for love. Revealing her true form guarantees a painful death.
Izaac Robles Moroyoqui
Man Portrait
Oil paint
20” x 16”
My painting is made by using a style of coloring that I’m practicing. It’s made by choosing a range of similar
colors to the reference picture and by adding them in subtle and small amounts, various parts of the face pop out.
Emily Vega
Ocean Themed Teapot
Ceramics
11.5” x 9.25” x 3.75”
The white details in the teapot are one of my first attempts at creating a trailing slip that looks identical to the slip work found in a Mexican town called Santa Maria Canchesda. I aspire to create future works as detailed and colorful as the pieces produced there.
Shaandiin Yazzie
Ash the Healer Demon
Hand-dyed cotton, mixed media
13” x 5” x 4”
As a queer native artist, my work tends to focus on the turmoil of the inner self and parallels and conflicts of the many worlds of which I am a part. Ash, as a demon, demonstrates the idea of looking a certain way and being another, a healer.
Monroe Community College
Rochester, NY
Amelia Gibbons
Submission
Graphite
24” x 18”
Once a still-life, now a mess. Using charcoal, we were tasked to make over five layers of observational drawings into something beautiful again. With different focal points, values, and depths, your eyes try to determine exactly what you are looking at.
Tristan Harris
Rattling Peafowl
Acrylic paint
48” x 30”
I create a 3D effect using paint that protrudes from canvas to make the viewer feel like the painting is leaking into the surrounding area. To capture the nature of a peacock, I used alternating colors to separate each brush and knife stroke from one another to illustrate individual feathers.
Katelyn McLymond
Surface Design
Digital
11” x 17”
Art improves the quality of life. For this project, we were asked to design a repeatable pattern. We then took the pattern and applied it to mock up products as examples of how the pattern could be used on common items.
Shubhankar Shiv
Spaceman
Digital
18” x 14.25”
“Spaceman” is a piece made as part of a raster graphics class that embodies my love for space and larger-than-life subjects. Chrome materials and hands are symbols with big personal importance to me and I was glad to be able to incorporate them into this.
Jeremy Southern
Late Night Light Painting
Digital photograph
11.25” x 20”
After discovering a walkway that went under a tunnel next to a stream, I knew I had to paint with light there. I left my house at midnight and before I knew, it was four in the morning. I was having so much fun I didn’t want to go home.
Moraine Valley Community College
Palos Hills, IL
Koda Kasper
Funky Bird
Colored pencil, oil pastel
14.75” x 12”
This is a nonsensical creature I created and used with a color scheme I deemed nonsensical. I wanted to depict a chaotic feeling and give this being a threatening presence. It is also meant to represent feelings of frustration and confusion.
Samantha Mares
Tear it Up!
Adobe Illustrator
16” x 16”
Created as a t-shirt design for a young girl skater who competes, I wanted this design to give off a feeling of cute and tough.
Helena Smith
Heartbreak
Ceramic
12” x 12” x 10”
I created this artwork to capture the simultaneous beauty and trepidation of falling in love. The form plays with the nervous, excited movement of a dress walking down the aisle, and the colors of a beating but bruised heart.
Priscilia Sossah
Naturals in Nature Triptych
Digital photography
19” x 39”
This body of work explores the natural hairstyles of Black women and elements of nature that complement them. My hope is that these images prompt a fresh perspective on Black hairstyles and on the world around you.
Reese Wedrall
Reese
Acrylic
14” x 11”
This is a self-portrait. I struggle with picturing myself in my head, so this was a good exercise to get to know myself better.
Santa Fe College
Gainesville, FL
Jaden Canty
Self-Portrait
Charcoal on paper
30” x 20”
This self-portrait is a representation of my experience taking my first art class. The process of creating it was, to say the least, challenging, but that made the experience even more enjoyable. At its core I see this piece as the foundation of my journey as an artist.
Sarah Henderson
Origin Story
Linoleum block print
Four 7” x 5” prints
Agriculture is an intrinsic part of life on Earth: the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the gas we put in our vehicles, and the hygiene products we use. This piece aims to mend a disconnect between consumers and agriculture by juxtaposing a familiar product with its source.
Claire Myers
Yellow Bollards
Oil on panel
12” x 8”
The purpose of this painting is to bring the viewer into a state of nostalgia. The two bollards represent the mundane inanimate objects that we often ignore, even though they appear throughout our lives. Applying a variety of colors centered around the classic safety yellow gives life to objects that were once soulless.
Emelingage Nuri-Prugh
Tesselation Sensation
Wood
13.5” x 18” x 1”
I seek to fuse the fine arts with functionality and sustainability. I repurposed wood scraps from other projects that had not been previously stained or otherwise chemically contaminated. I used hardwoods to ensure the cutting board would be durable, long lasting, and cause minimal dulling to a knife’s blade.
Carolyn Von Zabern
Memorial Water Fountain
Ceramics
13” x 8” x 22”
I chose to create this water fountain to commemorate my mom, Christine. Like ancestral tablets, this fountain will have a place in my home so that I can acknowledge my mom’s gifts to me: values of education, freedom, and family.
Seattle Colleges
Seattle, WA
Amaya Berger
Daughter of the Sea
Charcoal on paper
42” x 56”
Daughter of the Sea sees herself reflected on fellow sea-dwelling fish finding their way. My self-portrait offers me a moment of self-reflection through my first year at North Seattle College as I dive into many new opportunities to channel my inner world through art, and watch my growth.
Madeline Brandt
Glamour
Charcoal on paper
63” x 27”
This piece was inspired by the many fashionable looks of my drag queen father. I went to many shows and these were the kind of outfits I would look forward to seeing the most.
Vincea Fejeran
Woe
Ink on paper
14” x 11”
Self-portrait. Cowichan and Tlingit mother testing my strength, skill, and perseverance during my year of mourning my mother. I infuse my cultural influences and spiritual skepticism with a lifetime of self-reflecting unease.
Kristin Mayer
Control
Papier-mâché, wood, wire, plastic, wooden beads
12” x 12” x 12”
In Sculpture class, we were given a table of materials from previous artworks and asked to create a cube with the prompt ‘Control.’ Control is suffocating, and often used in unjust ways. As the form came into being, I realized I created what felt like a prison constricted in wire.
Estelle Muey
The Weight of Youth
Clay, underglazes, glazes, food prepared
by culinary arts students
8” x 10” x 2”
My intention for this piece is to represent young people struggling with eating disorders and body dysmorphia. The phone number on the side is an eating disorder hotline. I made this with mostly soft slabs of clay attached to each other through scoring the clay and the yokes glazed in vibrant orange.
Sinclair Community College
Dayton, OH
Abigail Angott
Untitled
Ceramic
7” x 4.5” x 7”
I like to express myself by creating sculptures because of the willingness of how the clay can be shaped and transformed. I love creating organic forms because of the many interpretations it can have on the viewer.
Joan Galbraith
Dahlia and Dahlia
Photography–35mm film printed on Ilford RC paper
3.5” x 5.5”
This piece is meant to show feminine bodies in their most bare. The beauty and bloodied. Familiar and detached. This is a reminder that in the plainest sense, our bodies are simply big, beautiful, strange earthly vessels.
Ashlyn Haywood
It’s Not Me, It’s You
Watercolor, ink, spackle, fabric, thread, and found objects on watercolor paper and foam board
5” x 9”
This piece was my first shot at mixed media. I utilized each tool to add a different symbol or emotion to the scene. I wanted to capture feminine rage that derives from an abusive partner in a surreal and fantastical way.
Alexander Rothery
Detached
Pastel
24” x 18”
Rothery’s current work reflects the anxiety and trepidation of existing as a young queer person in the turbulence of the modern age.
Sean Wells
Cat Wearing a Hoodie
Drypoint monoprint
10” x 8”
Character design is at the crux of my art. I tend towards interesting and distinctive silhouettes, personality and earnestness are presented through surrealism and anthropomorphism. I like to have a calligraphic and graphic line quality to most of my work.
