OPUS 2023: BA/BFA Senior Thesis

The Bachelor of Art (BA) and Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) Thesis exhibitions are the culmination of the final year and a half’s creative exploration for each graduating senior. Organized around each student’s interest, the exhibition brings a wide variety of aesthetic approaches which seniors must defend in their senior presentations.

In the last three years, Trinity art graduates have been accepted into prestigious graduate programs from Parsons in New York City to The School of the Art Institute and the University of Illinois at Chicago, in some cases winning fellowships to attend. Other graduates choose the job market and are regularly hired by design agencies and educational institutions.

The Gallery

During their years at Trinity, our Art and Design majors hone their gifts by focusing on both creative skills and critical thinking. As part of their senior thesis, students describe their processes and their passions. Click on each name to follow the creative journeys of the members of the Art & Design Class of 2023:

Sisyphean
My exhibition is driven by a desire to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by internationals in the professional world, to promote empathy to those who struggle to navigate a broken system. This stems from a personal struggle, one that i am experiencing right now trying to push forward my career as a professional designer in the real world. I hope that my exhibition provides a platform for dialogue and reflection around the issues of diversity and inclusion. By inviting the viewers to experience what it’s like to be foreign. I hope to inspire others to reflect on their own attitudes towards cultural difference and to engage in meaningful conversations around these important topics.

Instructions:  Hover to learn details. Click to open up full image and slideshow.

Of Sticks and Stone magazine, edited and designed by me. Exploring the concept of America, a nation of wide-open skies, desert highways, freedom, and riches, as well as oppression, poverty, and inequality. And to be an ode of gratitude. Gratitude to a people torn apart. But a people that welcomed me with open arms.

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During my time in France, I learned how climate change will inevitably shift the vineyards above the 50th parallel within the next 30 years. The famous wine regions you know and love will be no more, causing prices of wine to increase everywhere. Please feel free to sit down and chat, discussing what you see and feel, parisian style.

Instructions:  Hover to learn details. Click to open up full image and slideshow.

Everyday People aims to explore the generational divides that exist in America and their impact on various aspects of society, including politics, culture, and social values. Through interviews and research this project seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics between different generations and how they shape the American identity.

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My work is exploring the relationship we today have between dolls from a variety of roles and how they act as models to kids. My work is springing from the nature of play that children impose on toys treating them as characters of both the imaginary and the very real. This addresses stereotyping in the way that kids model themselves after toys, such as Children wanting to look like their barbies or toys being arbitrarily gendered to fit inside a store aisle. This work is creating a space where these aspects exist in a setting meant to be touched and interacted with rather than being placed on a shelf.

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My project is a story I have wanted to make into a comic for many years, and as a personal challenge I want to finally tackle and complete a full comic short story. I have always and will always love story telling in artwork and comics are one of the most effective ways of doing so and a medium that is very dear to me and fundamental to who I am.

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Femininity and anger are often considered opposites. I believe this is a false comparison. Instead, anger and femininity are a beautiful pair, one that must be celebrated and normalized. Feminine Fury aims to explore their interaction, causing the viewer to reevaluate their own interaction with the two.

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I am a designer, but I also love making arts. Started off with the idea of combining three elements which is design, art, and fashion. I had the idea to make a wall art of fabric collages. But as I go, I found myself enjoy making just a part of the whole fabric collages. Heating and shaping acrylic sheets caught my attention and I decided to focus on what I like. Ditching all my fabrics and my first idea, I went big on making acrylic sculpture. Finding myself in the process of making. Exploring and getting myself comfortable with the materials leads me to thoughts. The whole process and the outcomes are about me. Pouring emotions and characteristics is what this sculpture is all about. Rigid vs fluid, reflection vs transparency characterized my soul. Being flexible but fragile at the same time is what I explore within this material and me.

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My project “National Parks” is a collection of posters that are vibrant and are stylized as postcards for that specific National Park. I will use Illustrator to create my pieces and include small details that will bring in the viewer to take a closer look at the collection. The small detail that I will add to my projects will include items that show how humans create an impact and show that without human upkeep, some of the National Parks would not even exist. I hope to create pieces that are not simply eye candy, but also teach the viewer some type of lesson.

Instructions:  Hover to learn details. Click to open up full image and slideshow.