Artist’s Statement
“Staring out from a window seat, my view looks down on the fjord as the train tracks meander along the edge of a cliff. Pine trees zoom by at a blurred pace, drifting in and out of a heavy fog. At times, the haze becomes so dense only a map can tell me where I am. The terrain shifts as we cross into Sweden. There are less trees and more open spaces, rock outcrops and lakes. Trains carrying iron ore pass by heading towards Narvik.”

I’m fascinated by the lines, textures, formations and moments that have shaped this earth. I’m in awe at the magnitude of it all, determined to somehow transcribe and share my thoughts through prints, drawings, sculptures and text. By continually creating and sharing, I’m hoping to maybe preserve at least a little bit of the wildness left on this planet. My interest lies in the interconnectedness of trails and waterways. I wonder about how the influence of human footprints have an effect on the environment through resource extraction and the desire to explore wilderness.

My creative practice is an exploration of materials, processes, ideas and the outdoors with an effort to find a way to cope with making work knowing that it is impossible to leave absolutely no trace on the environments that I’m so amazed by.

Website: www.annaeorbovich.com
Instagram: @aeorbovich
E-mail: anna.e.orbovich@gmail.com

Artist’s Statement
I live for moments that make me oooh and ah, make my eyes widen in wonder and giggle in excitement. These fantastical visual experiences interrupt our daily lives with a burst of razzle dazzle. Strange shadows created by sunlight as it passes through a space, colorful light inside of a car wash, the way light hits and bounces off reflective surfaces like plastic and glass; these are the moments I am drawn to, ones in which light and color momentarily abstract the world around us and alter our perception. My work documents everyday brilliant experiences, like a glistening wine glass, soap bubbles in the sink, or an oil slick puddle in the parking lot. These moments are ephemeral, changing with their surroundings and time; they are extraordinary in an ordinary way. I want to capture them at their peak, that brief magnificence, pause them in all of their glory.
Using chalk pastel or lithography I render objects that act as artifacts of the fantastic instances I am recording. The objects themselves are often quite cheap and artificial, but the experience they provide is true and wondrous. It is, they are, the glitter on the floor after the party.
Through drawing, I extract and portray these fanciful, magical, visuals from my everyday experience; enticing viewers to take time to pause and appreciate these mini moments of awe. Using bright, vibrant, candy-like colors, and the lure of reflective materials, my work attracts viewers with these characteristics. I depict objects full of intricate, swirling details created by their interaction with light. These small, ethereal moments of beauty are enlarged to a grand scale, creating elaborate compositions full of rich color and intricacies that imply movement and energy on the paper.
As my drawings teeter between abstraction and representation, they can incite curiosity in the viewer. The surface of the chalk or ink, and the subtle traces of my hand become visible upon close inspection. This re-imbues the image with a kind of magic. The magic of making and the magic of seeing. Through this mediation I am able to convey, in some small way, my wonder and pleasure of the original experience.
My drawings flow back and forth between something we may recognize, and something abstract, but in the end, like that wondrous moment, viewers must set aside any sort of logic and reason, and give into the power and brilliance of the image I present.

Website:
Instagram: @juliamilbrandt_art
E-mail: milbrandtjulia@gmail.com

Artist’s Statement
Figurative Distortions, A Repose From Doubt, a thesis capstone of my undergraduate career is a collective body of work that comprises a visual dialogue of day to day experiences of Alaska Native and LGBTQIA+ experiences. The topics of intersectionality, community, and identity acceptance are core themes of my thesis work. Figurative distortions is a direct reference to the emotions associated with identity and the experiences of doubt, otherwise a lack of acceptance. To achieve this effect of figurative distortions I incorporate disconcerting elements into the figures, obscuring facial features, creating repetition of specific anatomical features as well as the entire figure itself. The premise behind the figurative distortions and body horror is to create an effect of emotional transference that alludes to the experience of identity rejection. The concept of a repose from doubt is fulfilled through an emphasis on a strong sense of place and the activities, routines, and culture that is associated with the city and rural scapes that I reference, places that tend to resonate with my own conscience and memory.
Essentially Figurative Distortions, A Repose From Doubt is an autobiographical, visual narrative that compiles my day to day experiences through intersectional context from relationships, community interaction, to identity acceptance and development. To emphasize the intimacy of my thesis I work on a relatively smaller scale, creating small etchings, encaustics, and collages that require more attention to detail. As a result my thesis work is basically a coming out story for my own non-binary gender identity and the gradual process of becoming more comfortable with that identity. The goal and intent for my thesis is to highlight the complexity of Alaska’s cultural dialogue, especially in regards to Alaska Native and LGBTQIA+ experience and fostering an appreciation for community and diversity .

Website: https://ethanjlauesen.com/home.html
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sia_wyn/?hl=en
E-mail: ejlauesen@alaska.edu