Recent accomplishments in our PCA&D community

• Rebecca Adey, Assistant Director of Admissions, has five works on exhibit at Millworks, Harrisburg, through Sept. 10 (see above). The show opened in August for 3rd in the Burg. All of the works depict Sphinx cats: The three larger 2D portraits are made from mixed media, including paper cut to create the portraits and felt sewn applique decorate “wreaths” that envelop each cat. 

• Work by four members of the Class of 2023 Animation & Game Art cohort was screened at last month’s SIGGGRAPH23 conference in Los Angeles. Congratulations to Lauren Antanavage, Adan Harris, Taylor Richardson, and Rachel Sinclair. In addition, Richardson and Francisco Maldonado ’24, AGA, attended the conference as participants in the Student Volunteer program. They were joined at the conference by Natasha Warshawsky, AGA Chair; faculty member Ellie Cochran; and new AGA adjunct Panote Nuchprayoon. To watch the senior capstone projects by Antanavage, Harris, Richardson, and Sinclair, click on their names above. 

• Dyneisha Gross ’20, Graphic Design, has been named to the ADCOLOR FUTURES program, recognizing the next generation of leaders in the advertising, marketing, media, and public relations industries. Gross, a designer at Ogilvy North America, will receive intensive training, mentorship, and networking through the program. You can learn more about Gross here, and more about ADCOLOR FUTURES here. 

• Maria Hostetter ’16, Graphic Design, has been named Chair of the PCA&D Graphic Design Department. She succeeds Pamela Barby, who remains with PCA&D as an Associate Professor of Graphic Design. Hostetter, who also earned a diploma in Communication Art and Graphic Design from the then-Pennsylvania School of Art and Design in 1993, studied Art Education at Millersville University. Go here to learn more about Hostetter, and her experience as both educator and entrepreneur. 

• Congratulations to Olivia Koziel ’23, Photography & Video, who was selected as this year’s sole photography student to enter Notre Dame’s MFA in Studio Art program. “My current work is definitely still in (the style featured in her senior thesis,” Koziel says, “and I plan to continue the concepts behind my thesis in my new work, focusing on and further strengthening them.”

• Kaitlyn McCulley ’21, Illustration, won the Top Chalk Art-Adult category in August’s York Chalk Walk competition. Her sword-wielding Barbie Slayer chalk mural in Continental Square wowed the judges in the annual event, part of York Arts Week.
• Annelise Marie Vuono ’09, Illustration, was a featured artist at York’s 2023 Mural Fest. Featuring bold color and emotion, Vuono’s works have been published in books and magazines, and featured at athletic and fashion venues. You can see more of her work on Instagram at @anndope, and at lovebugillustrations.com.  

• The Great Basin! Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Desert, a film by Photography & Video Chair Eric Weeks, was winner of the Best Nature Film award at the recent Environmental Film & Screenplay Festival 2023. The full project is a film, book, and print endeavor that addresses climate change, the severe drought in the Western United States, gun culture, the military’s use of the basin and range of Nevada for atomic testing, cultural stereotypes, Weeks’ personal history, and his experiences in this mostly remote area. The 15-minute short film includes complex collages of Weeks’ still and motion captures made in Nevada with appropriated short clips from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, recent weather footage, The Lone Ranger, historic films with John Wayne and others, cartoons, and other cultural artifacts. View the film’s trailer here.

• Congratulations to Foundation student Zeon Youngblood, whose elegant PCA&D-peacock-as-ampersand design was chosen by votes to front the 2023 T-shirt given out to everyone during Welcome Week! Youngblood says his design, created in Procreate, was the result of about a week of considering different concepts before landing on the winning design. 

Top image: Cropped collage of works by Rebecca Adey, Assistant Director of Admissions