Jennifer Moya is a junior who is double-majoring in Art & Design and Engineering, with a focus in product design. Colored pencils were her first love when it comes to art, which inspired this week’s comic. To see more of Jennifer’s work, you can visit her website at https://jenmoya.wixsite.com/portfolio.
From the rigid
Rough beige, brown
Of ripped nails on stubbed toes
Ashy feet on rugged heels
Using a finger a shade lighter than my face
I trace the line of my legs.
With feet that tap on, or offbeat
That jump to reach
That step closer to embrace.
I move up to my hips
Hidden, or accentuated in tight jeans
That cover the dark skin on my knees.
I’ve had hands encircle them
Lick them and look at them
With like, love, or disdain.
I’ve moved them in vain
In ways that make me feel sexy or
Make people laugh.
I’ve seen them in the mirror
And how they fit or don’t fit
With my breasts
That I pushed out to look bigger
Or suffocated to fit in
Clothes that don’t fit.
I’ve rubbed my skin
As if the color was a stain
Traced it to map where it came from
Compared it to that of my loved ones.
My arms move up to feel my face
Where I washed away dirt,
Popped pimples, and hated
How instead of burning,
It just blackens with the sun.
Insta: @mattie_tvc15
“I’ve always really liked creating things and doing all different types of art. I didn’t know anything about photography until this summer. I was thinking of taking a class in it, so I talked to my grandfather, and he’s just one of those people who’s had a million different jobs . . . he used to be a professional postcard photographer, so he was super into the idea.
I know I’ve had a lot of ideas for projects and concepts for shoots, but I guess my brain is still pre-COVID, even though I’m talking about photography, which I learned during COVID. There are things that I just can’t do right now, because I want multiple people and I want to be safe, of course. It just gets to the point where production value is so low that I’m just going to have to postpone it . . . without people, I can’t always convey the message I want to, but I can find creative ways to edit my images and add elements of other photos.
I’m just finishing a project for class and I’m so happy with my current prints. I’m half-Arab, half-white, and [I’ve been] more fortunate than a lot of non-white people, but I don’t fit that eurocentric beauty standard at all, and I just think those standards are stupid.
Throughout childhood, when you’re growing up in a majority-white area, and you feel like there’s something wrong with you, those eurocentric beauty standards are kind-of ever-present in your mind, so these photos are visualizing and representing the effect those standards have on people of color.
I draw a lot of my art from my passions, and right now anger and frustration are really present. A lot of this frustration comes from places where it has to do with race and ethnicity. A lot of people, if an issue doesn’t apply to you, it’s easy to brush off. I’m guilty of it too, [but] when it concerns [my identity], it doesn’t ever go away when you close the app. It’s there. It’s in my thoughts constantly. Identity amplifies my passions and emotions for those topics, and it directs them as well.
Is there anything else I’d like to say? Black lives matter. Free Palestine. Screw eurocentric beauty standards.”
Julia Khater is a sophomore in the RC, currently enrolled in RC Photography I. You can view more of her photography on her Instagram: @julia_khater_
“My major in information science ties to people and how technology affects them, so even though I haven’t made art about tech, there’s definitely a link between how I care about people in my art and in my studies. I really like digital art, so I use a lot of digital software. I think it provides a lot more creative freedom.
One of the pieces I put the most work into was in my senior year of high school. It was a two part series about androgyny. In 2016, there was a lot of news about ‘millennial pink’, which steers away from the idea that only girls should wear pink, and I guess that was really interesting to me since I don’t really subscribe to traditional gender standards. I wanted to make a series that focused on that idea. I used the Pantone colors of the year: Rose Quartz, and [Serenity]. The style is realistic, but [they’re] bust portraits. If you look around the eyes, you can see drips; it’s fluid. It reflects that gender cannot be condensed or tied to one thing.
Recently, I’ve been very interested in the value of art as a whole, especially expressing yourself through art. In contemporary art, it means a lot to the artist, but to an audience that doesn’t have a background, they maybe don’t resonate. That causes a whole cycle of like, do I understand art? Do I need to have a formal education in art to understand this? It makes me think a lot about artists on Instagram, like artists that mess around and do what they want because they can. I’m always thinking about, does art have to have value beyond aesthetics?”
You can view part of Summer Nguyen’s 2016 series, as well as other designs and illustrations, on her website: https://snguyen.design/work/misc
Now that summer classes have wrapped up and his mental health is a little more sorted, Hal took time this weekend to be active… in his community! With the growing movements around racial injustice, LGBTQ+ rights, voter suppression, and healthcare, Hal sat himself down to fill out his absentee voter ballot application and write some postcards to his elected officials. Checking your voter status and corresponding with your reps are good ways to make sure your voice is heard while staying at home!
Requesting an absentee voter ballot is easy in Michigan, and you can learn more about it for your particular situation from your state’s government website. If you’re a student like Hal and you’re not sure where you’ll be living for the future elections, put your home address so your ballot won’t get lost at temporary housing. Your family can forward it to you wherever you end up!
Hal’s sending postcards to his elected officials because he feels like it draws more attention than an email. If you don’t have any postcards on hand and you have some spare change, you could buy some from a minority artist or an artist donating funds to a worthy cause!
Hal is a U-Mich student who’s moved back home for the summer of 2020. He’s here every week with updates on all of the wild things that have been coming with this pandemic. If you want to see more, search the Study Hal tag!
Noah Caspar is a rising senior studying fine arts in the Stamps School of Art & Design. As a freshman, they intended to graduate with a neuroscience major but transferred into Stamps after reigniting their artistic passion through a sculpture course in the residential college. Noah enjoys creating work that forces the viewer to interact with the piece and allows the space to take shape around it. As a queer artist, they also explore what makes a space exclusionary and how they can facilitate comfortable spaces for all. Noah gravitates towards sculpture because of the process and labor for its craft and hopes to branch off from these studies with their background in music to make more performative installation pieces. To learn more about Noah’s process, work, and their definition of art please take a listen to this audio interview and check out their website below.
Website: https://www.noahcaspar.com/
Instagram: @noahc100
