Digital Collections Willamette University
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Jess O'Farrell 2025
No full text“The Sacred and the Profane: An Altar to Queerness”-honors the divine and holy within the marginalized identities of queerness. I have created a sacred sanctum where intaglio works become sculptural and merge with an immersive space to create an altar to queer devotion and defiance. The United States’ government and, its laws, and regulations are thoroughly influenced by Judeo-Christian culture, which holds a primarily moral opposition to the LGBTQIA+ community. This leads people to believe that queer people are profane or lesser: or, at worst, evil. In this body of work, I reinstate the value of queerness, elevating it to holiness. The altar becomes a transformative space where the sacred meets the subversive. It appropriates, references, and reimagines the iconography of the Catholic Church to assert queerness as divine and unapologetic.
As a queer person I see the tender devotion that members of this community have for each other, and the subsequent need to deconstruct the binary matrix of the heteronormative world. By appropriating the imagery and aesthetics of the Catholic Church I seek to imbue these works with the aura and culturally accepted authority of religious art and sacred spaces. Not only is the imagery an act of devotion, but the making of these objects is as well. Intaglio, and more specifically mezzotints, are laborious etching processes that require an almost religious devotion to the medium. Through the countless hours of preparing plates and burnishing and scraping, the intimacy extends beyond the images themselves into their creation.
This Altar stands as a devotion to something beyond the oppressive doctrines of the past- a celebration rather than a condemnation of identity, self expression, and empowerment. I invite the viewer to confront the intersection of religion, power and identity. I urge them to reconsider the sacred not as a space of exclusion, but as a site of inclusive reverence
Lenny Beach 2025
No full textCRT and the Search for God (MK2) explores the intersection of spiritual experience, analog technology, and material presence. Originating from two profound moments of divine encounter - a vision during a performance by Reverend Kristen Michael Hayter and an unexpected blessing from a Capuchin friar—this project reflects a shift from artistic overcomplication toward radical simplicity and spiritual honesty.
Through the use of CRT televisions, water, light, and video footage of prayer gestures, the installation creates a meditative space where technology and spirituality are not opposing forces, but intertwined mediums of encounter. CRT TVs, with their static electricity, scent of heated coils, and visible inner workings - act as relics of memory and ritual, embodying the tactile and imperfect nature of both human, technology and divine connection. Water serves as a site of reflection, transformation, and mystery, bending light and imagery to mirror the often indirect, elusive presence of the sacred in daily life.
The process of building the installation - marked by unexpected technical challenges and material failures - became central to the piece, revealing that surrender, trust, and resilience are crucial to both spiritual and creative practice. Ultimately, CRT and the Search for God (MK2) invites viewers to witness and partake in a personal spiritual journey, grounded in vulnerability, community, and the unbreakable search for meaning.
This work affirms that faith and creation are not destinations but ongoing processes: embodied, imperfect, and profoundly alive
Noel Waite 2025
No full textMy paintings examine the symbolic power of the faery figure through the lens of ancient Pagan Irish mythology and contemporary feminist critique. Drawing on the Tuatha Dé Danann myth, the work examines the entanglement of nature, femininity, and marginalization. The project is an 18-foot double-sided curved canvas depicting reimagined faery beings who embody a vast spectrum of behaviors—from nurturing to vengeful, from benevolent to perilous. This work functions as a form of "practical fantasy," engaging with historical and contemporary notions of faeries while also processing personal experiences. The myth reflects the tension between reality and fantasy, expressing both feminine power and the social structures that confine it. Far from mere creatures of idyllic beauty, the Tuatha Dé symbolize change, defiance, and transformation against societal norms. They signify an eternal metamorphosis cycle, a rebellion against conformity, and a celebration of individual transcendence. Their essence predates Christian patriarchy, rooted in oral tradition, mystery, and imagination. They are timeless spirits, guardians of birth, life, and death mysteries. With the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, traditional supernatural beliefs merged with dogma that sought to control women's bodies, leading to the demonization of the fae as the desire to control women and the fear of the feminine body became intertwined. By reimagining the myth, this work explores feminist anxieties and the long history of misogyny embedded in the figure of the fairy
Morgan Berry 2025
No full textFood, community, and religion are key parts of Black culture. All of our family gatherings are always paired with food. It’s a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation alongside some of the recipes that will be discussed. The dinner table is a symbol of connection, and through research from primary sources- such as family members, secondary sources from Black American-centered cookbooks, and Black artists who explore their culture through photography. Shown in the form of collectible cards, recipe book, and dinner table setup this project explores how photography can portray the subtleties of Southern Black American experience from my eyes
Alyssa Morris-Hatch 2025
No full textAloma, who comes from the waves of sound and fabrics of space, ensures all souls arrive safely, but will theirs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41zdtUznfW
Emma Sewell 2025
Full text linkMy Animated Arts thesis project, “Tombmates”, is an approximately four-minute animatic video that explores the intersections between monstrosity, neurodivergent relationships, and queer identity. I will present this video on a projected board up in the dark space of room 611, where the room is lightly decorated to hearken back to the apartment this story is mainly set in. The animatic is influenced by my own neurodivergent genderqueer background and my lifelong fascination with playfully or humorously dark works. The project is a fiction narrative centered around Thea, a young woman with ADHD who lost her apartment complex in a fire recently and is eager to create a friendship with her brand new trial-run roommate Simone, an autistic nonbinary figure who is actively trying to blend in with the local human population. Through a timed sequence of digital illustrations, I seek to convey the comedic, energetic, and empathetic tone of Tombmates’ premise. In a turbulent time where queer and neurodivergent people both once again find themselves targets for ostracization, I create in the spirit of Maurice Stevens a narrative that features these characters as “vindicated whole beings who possess the stuff of historical merit-will, self-awareness, culture, humanity, and so on”.
My initial inquiries for my research were the following: What role have monsters played in our history, and what does the rising sympathy for monstrous creatures reveal about contemporary culture? In addition, how do neurodivergent people present themselves and connect to other people? I had some academic and personal knowledge on both questions, but I wanted to dig deeper than I had before. This led me down a rabbit hole of research on the Gothically queer through Laura Westengard’s Gothic Queer Culture: Marginalized Communities and the Ghosts of Insidious Trauma, queerplatonic relationships through the thesis “Queer Platonic Intimacy as Transformative Disruption” by Emma E. Allen-Landwehr, and even what makes an ideal dynamic for Muppets through Dahlia Lithwick’s proposed Muppet Theory article. My visual influences for this project are also consistent in theme, including Marc Davis’s humour with Haunted Mansion’s Stretching Portraits scene, Lisa Hanawalt’s exuberant characters in the animated series Tuca and Bertie, and Martin Hsu’s spooky optimism in his Ruby Gloom animated show. My creative practice as a storyboard artist will send me straight into the scene of commercial animation, so I felt it was appropriate to study the commercial artists that continue to inspire me.
Over the past four months, I have used Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro to create this work, operating digitally on both the school-accessible Cintiq table and home Lenovo laptop. Initially, I proposed this project would implement three passes of drawings and 100 hours of labor; due to time constraints, two passes of drawings were completed and I worked for around the time I predicted. Over this period, I directed voice actors, adjusted my visual work with feedback from my thesis mentor as well as the mid-term review panelists, and edited together a video using my own visual creations as well as the sounds of various contributors. I hope that the PNCA community will find themselves entertained by this project and relate to Thea and Simone on their quest for connection and comfort
Alex Zarate 2025
Full text linkThe First Cyber Monarch is a 28 page visual essay that tells the story of Valeria, an immigrant who moves to a new city where technology triumphs. We follow her and through her experiences as an immigrant. A vision of a new life, experiences, emotions, feelings and perspective. With her, we get to meet new people with unique personalities that comes with moving to a new place to help those close to you.
Her new life, emotions, feelings, experiences, perspective are what real immigrants feel. We are not aliens, illegals or wetbacks but we are human. We experience the complexities of what it is to be human and even the mistreatment we still experience to this day
Hannah Fuerst 2025
No full textA Love Letter to Learning is a multi-touchpoint design exhibit that explores the beauty of life-long learning through upcycled relief printed garments
Alexandra Lawson Mangum 2025
No full textPory Roku
My main inspiration for my thesis in general is mythology and folklore, more specifically Slavic and Eastern European folklore. I created a 12 month calendar inspired by Slavic myths and folklore as well as Slavic culture and their associations with the seasons rooted in paganism. Each image in the calendar draws influences from different folktales as well as characters like gods, goddesses, mythical creatures, and deities. My family on my mothers side is Ukrainian, Russian, and generally Eastern European, so my personal family history has also informed the subject of my project. I have created 5 copies of the calendar as well as twelve larger posters to display the illustrations. It is an illustration project first, and a design project second, and is a deeply personal project showcasing my interests and love for mythology as well as the pride I feel for my family history and where I come from