Emily Andersen, Author at BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications

BYU Student Wins Award for Tintype Photography of Black Community in Utah

Emily Andersen — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 17:18:57 +0000

Madison Casagranda submitted photos from her project, The Black Stories Project, to Communication Arts magazine and placed as a finalist BYU photography student Madison Casagranda recently placed as a finalist in a Communication Arts (CA) competition, and her work with tintype photography will be featured in the CA magazine. “This award is an opportunity for me to connect with the art community in a meaningful way. It also gives me confidence and helps me stay motivated to continue submitting my work for opportunities like this,” Casagranda said. Casagranda’s submission to the contest included pictures from The Black Stories Project, which is a collection of photographs of Black people in Utah. She used tintype photography to set the mood of the images. “I hope people will walk away thinking about something they hadn’t before and realize that the human experience ranges vastly. How that experience is shared affects our understanding of it. That’s one reason why I feel the tintype process is so poignant in my show,” Casagranda said. The Black Stories Project was featured in the Harris Fine Arts Center gallery 303, and has been featured in other galleries in Utah. Casagranda said she’s still working on adding to and improving on the project. “The Black Stories Project is still an ongoing project for me. I am currently working to continue to exhibit it, add more pieces to it, and potentially publish it as a book,” Casagranda said. Casagranda said she is grateful to all the people who participated in The Black Stories Project, especially Alexandria Byrd and Trissie and Clate Tirrell, who were featured in the photographs that Casagranda submitted to the contest with Communication Arts. “I wanted to connect myself to the Black community through art. In other places I have lived, I’ve had more of that interaction, but here in Utah I feel like it’s easy to live in a world where everyone looks like you and you don’t have to think about the issues facing marginalized groups,” Casagranda said.

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Calendar featuring BYU professor’s designs wins prestigious Salt Lake award

Emily Andersen — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 21:31:41 +0000

David Habben created a portfolio for his designs using a calendar format and participated in Salt Lake City’s “100 Show” BYU illustration professor David Habben was announced as a winner of the Copper Ingot at this year’s Salt Lake City “100 Show.” Habben submitted a portfolio of his designs, but he didn’t put the portfolio together in the conventional way. “After experimenting with a new technique in my work, I created a portfolio for the work in the form of a 2020 calendar. Each month featured a new illustration and was sent out as a promotional piece to my current and potential clients,” Habben said. Habben stocked the calendar through his website. It sold out quickly and had two print runs. “I designed the calendar to be almost poster size on the wall and used the space on each page to focus on the artwork. The months themselves were kept minimal and clean as to be useful without distracting from the imagery,” Habben said. The project was chosen in September to be part of the “100 Show,” which is Salt Lake City’s most prestigious juried competition. Eligible projects are judged for craft, concept and aesthetic achievement as determined by nationally recognized judges. One hundred pieces are selected to be part of the show, and of those, ten are rewarded the Copper Ingot. This year, Habben was included in those ten. “This project has remained one of my favorite personal projects,” Habben said.

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BYU photography professor’s tintype photographs win prestigious award

Emily Andersen — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 21:15:26 +0000

Paul Adams was recognized for his three pieces: “Breathe,” “#MeToo,” and “President Kevin Worthen, Brigham Young University” BYU photography professor Paul Adams received three Honorable Mention awards from the International Photography Award competition (IPA). He won in two separate categories: Analog/Film Fine Art and Film Portrait. The IPA had over 13,000 entries from 120 countries, making Adam’s three wins especially impressive. Adam’s two entries titled “Breathe” and “#MeToo” won the Analog/Film Fine Art award. For these photographs, Adams used tintype photography to create the mood. “The photographs ‘Breathe’ and ‘#MeToo’ are meant to ask more questions than they answer,” Adams said. “They came during the COVID shutdown early this spring and the racial riots into the summer. I just felt like there was so much going on in the world outside my door, but I was locked away inside my house. I just felt like I needed to create something.” The third photo, a portrait of BYU President Kevin J Worthen, also uses tintype photography. Adams said he spent long hours working to produce the photographs because tintype can be temperamental and difficult to produce. He created a studio for tintype in his home garage and worked in it in the mornings and evenings because it got too hot during the middle of the day. Adams said his favorite picture is the one of President Worthen. According to the picture description on the IPA website, “the portrait was taken the week students protested on campus for policy changes concerning LGBTQ rights.” “When you think about how most men in positions of power are photographed, they are usually photographed with a noble stance in front of bookshelves or a globe, with a strong, sometimes stuffy, demeanor. I thought it speaks volumes to President Worthen’s personality that he allowed himself to be so vulnerable and authentic for this photo.”

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BYU American Folk Dance Ensemble represents CIOFF USA at International Festival

Emily Andersen — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 17:41:31 +0000

BYU’s Folk Dance team was invited to perform in the Camagua Virtual international Festival on December 9 BYU students participated in the first ever Camagua Virtual International Festival, put on by the Council of International Organizations of Folklore Festivals (CIOFF) on December 9-11. BYU’s American Dance Ensemble was featured on the first day, December 9, and they performed two pre-recorded dances. The first was a western line and swing dance called “Boot Kickin’” and the second was a traditional American percussive clogging piece called “Western Wildfire.” “We are so excited to have BYU students participating in this virtual Cuba festival,” said Jeanette Geslison, artistic director for the BYU American Folk Dance Ensemble. “CIOFF International is celebrating its 50th year since its inception and this virtual festival will honor and pay tribute to the unique efforts of preserving cultural heritage by connecting dance and music groups on this international platform.” CIOFF is under the umbrella of UNESCO, and it sponsors festivals with the goal of preserving intangible cultural heritage by connecting, sharing, and exchanging cross-culturally. The Camagua International Festival normally takes place each year in Cuba, but this year the festival is fully virtual. This is the first time that the BYU American Dance Ensemble has participated in the Camagua festival. They represented CIOFF USA, and they were featured among 39 international folklore performing groups. The performance, and the rest of the festival was streamed around the world via Youtube (Camagua Folk Dance Festival), Facebook (Camagua Folk Dance Festival), Twitter (@camaguafolkdan1), and Instagram (camaguafolkdancefestival.cuba). BYU students participated in the first-ever Camagua Virtual International Festival, put on by the Council of International Organizations of Folklore Festivals (CIOFF) on December 9-11.

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Polygamy And Women’s Suffrage Focus Of Student-Directed Radio Play

Emily Andersen — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 17:53:16 +0000

“Suffrage” is a play about two polygamist women who fought for women’s rights and their families. BYU performers have shown grit and ingenuity in full force over the course of the pandemic. One example is TMA student Emily Trejo. When she found out she wouldn’t be able to produce and direct the play “Suffrage” in the way that she’d originally planned, it didn’t take her long to adapt. Trejo decided to put on a radio play. The audio performance of “Suffrage” was available online October 15–17 on 4th Wall Dramaturgy. Audience members were encouraged to visit Pioneer Village in Provo as they listened to the story about two polygamist women in early Utah history fighting for the right to vote. “My goal as a theatre maker is to present people on stage who are normally not represented. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it was important for me to have these two strong female characters and to delve a little more into the history of polygamy in the Church,” Trejo said. “Polygamy is something that we often don’t talk about, and I felt like it was something that was really important to explore.” Trejo said the radio play was a totally different experience for her than anything she had done with theatre before. Beyond the inevitable technological difficulties, there was the struggle of trying to present a play with only voices and sounds. “Suffrage” was performed by BYU students back in January as part of BYU’s Contemporary Voices festival, but it was performed as a reading with minimal costumes and lighting and no blocking or set design. Trejo helped with that version of the show, and she decided she wanted to use it for her TMA 536 project. She was originally excited to be able to develop the show more fully and wasn’t expecting that she would have even less to work with than she did the first time. Creating the world of the play in the minds of audiences proved to be difficult using only voices and sound. “We had to determine how the characters could show emotion without visually acting. There was a lot of trial and error to figure out how to depict facial expressions with sound alone. How do you hear an eye roll? I think that was the biggest part of the process of making it become a radio play,” Trejo said. Trejo said the experience taught her that art can come in many different forms. She said people tend to think of theatre only as plays on a stage, but when she was forced to look beyond that view she discovered a whole new form of storytelling. “The biggest takeaway for me was that theater can be different, and it can create really different experiences. Theatre can still make an impact even when it’s performed in non-traditional ways,” Trejo said.

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BYU Professor shares her journey from dancing to filmmaking in Bolivia and Utah

Emily Andersen — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 17:38:33 +0000

Angela Rosales Challis was invited to speak in a filmmakers panel about her experience with dance films and diversity BYU dance professor Angela Rosales Challis spoke on a panel of diverse mountain west filmmakers on November 18. The panel was organized by UtahPresents, a multi-disciplinary presenter at the University of Utah. Panel members each talked about their experiences as filmmakers in Utah and surrounding states. Challis shared her experience as a dancer and her entrance into the world of dance filmmaking. Challis graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in dance education. She taught dance at an elementary school level for several years. While working as a dance instructor, Challis decided to take a filmmaking class at a local community college, and she fell in love with film. She then decided to go back to school and get her master’s in film and media arts. In the panel, Challis talked about a project she recently finished called Samskara, which focused on dancers from around the world sharing their different talents and views on dance and unity. Challis also shared her personal experience as a Latina woman living and working in the United States. Challis is originally from Cochabamba, Bolivia. She emigrated to the U.S. to study dance at BYU and has been living and working in Utah ever since. “Bolivia and Utah made me the artist that I am today,” Challis said. “What I like most about this place is that the artists come together to create.” Challis has found a lot of support in her career, and she is grateful for the people who have helped her grow as an artist and filmmaker. She said that one of the pivotal moments in her career was when she announced that she would be leaving her job in dance education to return to school. She said she received a heartfelt goodbye from her coworkers, and she was overwhelmed by the love and support they offered her. “I feel like, in my journey, I have found so many allies that have supported me,” Challis said. Challis and the other panelists invited participants to look for ways to tell their own stories. They focused on giving minorities a place to share their stories and allowing everyone to give their own perspective.

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Darius Gray Tells BYU Students “We Have So Much More Work To Do” Regarding Race In The Church

Emily Andersen — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 21:46:55 +0000

Gray’s lecture for BYU TMA students addressed the topics of racial bias and systemic racism The Department of Theatre and Media Arts hosted Darius Gray on November 12 as part of its BIPOC lecture series for students. Gray was a member of the original first presidency of the Genesis group of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been a member of the Church since he was baptized in 1964. During the lecture, Gray told the story of his baptism. The day before he was to be baptized, his missionaries informed him that he would be unable to hold the priesthood. He said he fully intended to not show up to his baptism the next day. After a heartfelt prayer that night he felt the assurance from the Lord that this was the restored church and that he should be baptized. Since then, Gray has faced racism in and out of the Church. He spoke of his time at BYU, when he was one of two African American students on the entire campus. He recalled that he was able to learn a lot, but the biases towards him were sometimes too great to bear. “It was interesting. It was a good time because you found that there were good people and not-so-good people,” Gray said in the lecture. Gray encouraged students to recognize the biases that they hold and to look for ways to be unified across cultures. He said the current political division in the country and especially among members of the Church is greater than he’s ever seen. “Systemic racism. It’s like a cancer that has spread,” Gray said. “We’ve come a long way, but we have so much more work to do. And we’re losing people, Black and white and brown, because of the negative attitudes that are out there.” Gray ended his remarks by inviting students to look for ways to reach out to people of all ethnic backgrounds. He reminded students that everyone is a child of God and that even though the Church’s history isn’t perfect, we need to keep moving toward a better future.

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BYU design student and alum raise awareness and funds for Black Lives Matter

Emily Andersen — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 16:27:51 +0000

Sidney Fa’anunu and Eleni Trapp are using their design website not only to showcase their own art but also to raise awareness and money for Black Lives Matter organizations Eleni Trapp and Sidney Fa’anunu have been friends for 12 years. Trapp graduated from BYU in 2018 with a degree in graphic design, and Fa’anunu is a current BYU illustration student and is minoring in political science. The two friends had joked before about creating a website together called “Miscelenious Squid,” based on their nicknames growing up, but they didn’t start seriously thinking about it until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Around the time that Trapp and Fa’anunu started talking seriously about setting up their combined portfolio website, the killing of George Floyd was sparking protests across the country. Both women said they were concerned about racial tensions in the U.S. and wanted to do something to help. This prompted them to adjust their goals for Miscelenious Squid. “I remember sitting in my apartment feeling so useless. I couldn’t figure out how to participate in the protests that were happening here in Provo, and I wasn’t doing anything to help. I messaged Eleni to ask, ‘What if we use this thing that we keep talking about doing to make a difference?’” Fa’anunu and Trapp decided to invite artists of all backgrounds to submit sticker designs to their website to be sold. Fa’anunu and Trapp are donating all of the funds from the stickers to various BLM support groups, such as Reclaim the Block and the Memorial Fund for George Floyd. So far, Miscellaneous Squid has raised over $2,000. “I’ve always tried to be politically active,” said Fa’anunu. “When the Black Lives Matter protests started, I had a strong emotional response to it all. I’ve always believed that in these situations I should defer to the experience of someone who has lived through it, so for me it was about giving a voice to minorities.” Many of the submissions have come from BYU design students and other friends of Fa’anunu and Trapp, but they’ve also been surprised by how many submissions and purchases they’ve received from outside the United States. “It was so cool to see that everyone was so willing to jump on this and help,” Trapp said. “It’s been crazy. I was not expecting to have people from Australia, the UK, Thailand and China looking at our site, ordering stickers and donating art.” The women said they were grateful for the support of the BYU community, especially the Department of Design. The department put out a social media post informing students about the site and inviting them to participate. “I’ve always loved how the design department offered a space for discussion. It always felt like somewhere people could feel comfortable sharing different views. That’s one thing I really loved while I was at school there,” Trapp said.

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Graphic Design Student First Undergrad to Win Two Communication Arts Awards

Emily Andersen — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 16:15:09 +0000

Hunter Young’s design video illustrating the words of a poem won the CA typography award. This is his second award from Communications Arts. Hunter Young has made history as the first BYU Graphic Design student to win entry into the prestigious Communication Arts (CA) Design Annual twice while still being an undergrad. Most recently he won the magazine’s typography competition for his video titled “Strike.” “To be chosen at all for a CA award is a huge honor, let alone to be selected twice in a row. I did not think that would happen, and I am really grateful. It has motivated me to keep pushing myself and to not be shy of applying for more awards,” Young said. “Strike” is based on a video Young saw of a homeless man reciting a poem while sitting alone on a bench in New York City during a snowstorm. “I really loved the contrast between the powerful message and the harsh environment and knew that I wanted to create something with it. I wanted to shed some light on this man and his words,” Young said. Young said that he’s grateful for the help he’s had as he has worked on this and other projects. BYU professor Brent Barson mentored Young and helped him figure out design decisions as well as some of the animation in the video. Young also wanted to thank his wife, Myra Young, who he said patiently watched his video nearly a hundred times and gave him helpful feedback throughout the process. “Design is hard and frustrating, but it brings me a lot of joy, and I love it,” Young said. Young’s first Communication Arts win was for a rebranding project for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry involving an interchangeable logo system. The project was named, “OMSI,” after the museum. Young, who is from Portland, Oregon, said the museum had a big influence on him when he was growing up, and he wanted to rebrand it because it was due for a change. Young received the award for his “OMSI” project earlier this year.

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Design Students Use Creativity to Promote Safety and Unity

Emily Andersen — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 15:44:52 +0000

Design’s Liset Rivet explains the contests that lead to student-designed masks and zine BYU design students are in for a treat come December. The Department of Design is producing a quarantine zine, or “Quaranzine,” that will be filled with the creations of BYU students and alumni. Over the summer, the department held a contest for quarantine-related designs to include in the zine. All participants in the contest will be featured. The winners were announced on Instagram on July 1. “Students keep asking about when they’re going to get the zine,” said Liset Rivet, who runs the design department’s social media accounts. “They’re really excited about it.” But the call for Quaranzine art didn’t end there. The design department launched a new contest in October inviting design students and alumni to submit their original mask designs, which will also be featured in the zine in December. The winners of the mask contest were announced on November 3 on the Design Department’s Instagram. The winning masks will be produced and sold in the BYU store. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BYU Department of Design (@byu_design) The first-place design was made by Alec Ahlstorm and featured the bottom half of the face of Brigham Young on a neck-gaiter mask, with a Y on the cheek. There was not a specific theme for the masks, and the four winning designs were each very different from the others. Rivet said that while the contest was an opportunity to inspire students’ creativity, she also hoped that it could help promote more safety on campus. “I hope that students will be more encouraged to wear masks. The fact that the winning mask will be sold on campus is so cool. Who wouldn’t want to see their design physically created? I hope that a lot of students feel encouraged to begin wearing their masks. This can hopefully better promote that,” Rivet said.

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