Mazmanian Gallery hosts multiple senior capstones

By Antonio Machado Multimedia Editor During the majority of the school year, the Mazmamanian gallery is home to local artists, visionaries and creators, but during these past few weeks, it was proudly home to artwork by FSU’s own. The Mazmaninan Gallery hosted three receptions for its senior capstone art exhibitions to celebrate graduating art students. The first senior capstone exhibition featured art from illustration students Charlotte Jupiter, Autumn Ray, and Ziyuan Zhang on April 14. Jupiter said their pieces in their show work together to create an overarching story. They added their experiences over the past year and the semester they spent in Ireland helped them create the main character of their exhibition. Jupiter added they really enjoyed the experience of making their show. “I wasn’t too worried about being perfect. I was just worried about if I liked it. … It’s not very often, at least in art school, that you get to make what you want.” Ray said her show is about pouring herself into her art and ignoring the other way people would perceive it. “It took so long to even make my first piece I felt happy with. It felt like me, like I had put myself into something for the first time. Yet, it was considered gruesome and ugly,” she said in her artist statement. Ray said, “I feel limiting myself to other people’s expectations of what I make will just ruin art for me.” She said the process of creating her capstone pieces was amazing. “I had such a blast. I wish I could do it over and over again and just keep creating.” Zhang said her show is a book she created based on ancient Asian mythology. “Through character design, worldbuilding, and visual narrative, I created a fictional world shaped by the conflict between the phoenix and the golden crow families,” she said in her artist’s statement. She said her art pieces came to life after a journey of self-exploration, drawing upon different parts of her identity to create her art. The second senior capstone exhibition featured art from graphic design students Marcus Falcão, Kyle Gould, Leah Hall, Gabriela Silveira, and Alyssa Domrose on April 28. Falcão said his show aimed to reimagine a deck of cards through the relationship between cartomancy, game history, fashion illustration, and astrology. He said he’s grown as an artist since his first year at FSU and would not have been able to complete his exhibit without the experience he gained while here. Falcão said, “It’s very challenging to essentially be given no demands and have someone say, ‘It’s your time to make your show. You set the limits. You set the scope of it and exactly what you want. “The hardest part was narrowing down the scope because I had an explosion of ideas, but I needed to really narrow down exactly what I wanted to show. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be,” he added. Gould said he is interested in how graphic design shapes everyday experiences. He added, “I try to create work that looks good, but also has a purpose - whether that’s encouraging people to take action or creating a brand that feels clear and consistent. “This project was inspired by my time abroad in Europe, where I was impressed, but also frustrated by how clean public spaces were compared to my own environment.” Hall said her show was inspired by her love for books. She added she has an affinity for gore and horror movies, and her art reflects that. She said she wanted to make a book cover for a series she enjoyed and was familiar with, so she chose the “Red Queen” series. Hall said her time at Framingham State altered her creative process. “The way we do them here is very much like the clinical take of it. You do your preliminary sketches, then studies, then you do the main work, and then the final piece. That was never how I did art growing up,” she said. Silveira said her work is driven by a want to make connections between people and brands. “My work is driven by an interest in solving visual problems and building meaningful connections between people and brands, and I hope to continue pursuing this direction in the future,” she said in her artist's statement. Domrose said her work focuses on depicting experiences that are difficult to explain with words. “I’m especially interested in how design can take something complex, personal, or internal, and transform it into visuals that people can understand and connect with. She said her show was centered around making invisible experiences tangible. “These experiences are hard to communicate because they aren’t seen from the outside, which can make them feel isolating,” she said. The third and final senior capstone exhibition featured art from studio art students Zen Crosby, Eliza Gaston, Eda Kristina Lindstrom, Jen Koeller, and Alyssia Pham on May 6. Crosby said their show was inspired by their journey through grief over the past 16 years since losing their mother. They said, “I knew this day would come where I’ve had half of a life with her and then half a life without her, and now, I’m moving forward. I'm like, ‘What’s next?’ So I did this project as a way to capture who I was.” Crosby said they create their art intuitively. “I treated it like a spiritual practice where I would show up to the studio as if I was a cloistered nun. I would try not to be on my phone. I would try not to consume any media, except for music. “I was trying my best to just be in the studio creating and getting the vision that’s inside of my brain out of me,” they said. Lindstrom said her show represented the experience of her medical diagnosis and all the emotions attached to it. She said her pieces are chaotic but incredibly detailed. She added that she made a special art piece after completing the individual works of her show called “Reflection.” “I just feel like that piece is really trying to just find stillness where the other work is really chaotic,” she added. Lindstrom said, “ I couldn’t really put this together until the Install day, so seeing my idea come together really felt like a huge accomplishment. You really have to be in the moment to see how it looks because they're really coming at you.” Koeller said her show is an exploration of clay bodies and techniques. “I’ve always loved the squish of wet earth between my fingers and toes,” she said. She said she loves the evanescence of the world. Koeller said, “A thing may last generations, yet one day it returns to the earth, the way we all do. “The sandcastle’s inevitable demise as the tide comes in does not negate the creation. In fact, it is loved more for the short time it lives by those who created it for that very reason,” she added. Pham said her show is inspired by BDSM and what it means to people’s relationships. “I was always into BDSM, and not because I do that stuff. I love talking about stuff like that. I love hearing about people’s experiences, their thoughts on it, and their perspectives,” she said. She added her piece is a direct copy of her body and that it was a way to tackle her body image. She said she loves seeing the discussions around her show. “It’s a little scary, but kind of thrilling. I kind of like being exposed like that and having people put out their opinion and hearing their thoughts, she said. Pham added, “I had a lot of body dysmorphia. I was feeling so many different feelings about how my body is shaped and how it looks. I’ve been seeing a lot of positivity about it and I’ve been hearing a lot of questions, and I’m just really happy about it.” Ellie Krakow, director of the Mazmanian Gallery started the final reception of the senior capstones by announcing the former director of the Mazmanian Gallery, Tim McDonald, is retiring. Krakow also announced she is stepping down as director of the gallery and will be replaced by Laura Ostreweis. Ostreweis said, “I’m going to have some very, very big shoes to fill.”