“It’s Not You It’s Me” UVAA Student Show

“It’s Not You It’s Me” features work by UCC students Angle Mae Bioy, Jayden Dukes, Colleen Jackson, Lillian Meier, and Serena Swanson. The work looks to express and explore the variety of ways that they view themselves internally as well as how they feel about the way the world views them. There is also a portion of work that goes beyond this idea and is more of an embodiment of themselves. The artists describe their work.

The work can be seen at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association starting May 17. The opening reception will be from five until seven in the evening. The show will be displayed until June 30.

Angie Mae Bioy

“This piece was tedious because I used lines as a way to shade and create the image, but it was worth it. Actually, the hardest part was picking a color for the shirt! I was deciding on yellow or pink. I also wondered if I should have put the yellow in the background or her shirt. Although in the end, I think I made a good decision because I wanted the little girl to be the focal point and putting yellow as the background would’ve made it look like wallpaper. I wanted this piece to show innocence because this piece is about how I feel in the eyes of my parents and maybe to some other people in my life, that I’m still an innocent little girl. The little girl represents how I think I’m still seen as, and the eyes watching her is the pressure I feel of being what they want me to be, “a good little girl.”

Serena Swanson

“When I was working on La Gringa, I really wanted to capture my struggle with identity and what I find it means to me as a biracial person. My mom is Honduran, and immigrated to America when she was little, and my dad is a White American. Although both of my parents make up the whole of my identity, I always felt that I didn’t have the authority to identify with my Honduran side. I was raised by my White dad, so I felt this disconnect from my Honduran heritage. Every time I would visit my Mom’s side of the family I experienced culture shock, because I don’t speak or understand Spanish, leaving me with this feeling that I am “too white” to be Honduran. I created these ideals of what Honduran is, when I don’t have to, because, I am Honduran, and I am white; I am both.

La Gringa is representing the feeling I had, when I felt my “whiteness” was in the way of my ability to identify as a Honduran. I wanted my hair to be the focal point in this piece, because I feel that it is the one part of my physicality that can identify me as Honduran. My hands are covering my face, to be symbolic of how I once felt shame for my “whiteness.”

Other artwork by Serena Swanson

Jayden Dukes

“This piece came from a place of feeling confined and as if I could not take up space. It came from an idea I had about shower curtains; it was as if shower curtains were this barrier from everyone else. It is intimate behind a shower curtain, and we only let so many people past that veil.

I used photographs of my own body as well as blind contour drawings to make up the figure in the piece. This subject was so personal to me that I felt like I needed to use and see myself within the work. It is about myself as much as it is about body standards, society, and who we will allow to see past that.”

Colleen Jackson

Colleen Jackson comments on her art work were unavailable.

Jackson’s work can be seen at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association starting May 17.

Lillian Meier

Lillian Meier’s comments on her art work were unavailable.

Meier’s work can also be seen at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association starting May 17.

For more information, go to the UVAA website or call 541 672-2532.