Maria Guadalupe Aschenbrener has always wondered why there weren’t museums with interactive exhibits for adults.

People are taught to behave a certain way when encountering art. Hands behind backs, no loud talking, no touching the artwork.

Maria has created these works with people touching them in mind.

Embroidery is often considered a craft art and lesser than, something that has been said to her while she’s been working on this body of work. She uses embroidery to connect back to her fathers indigenous roots, the Huichol, in Mexico.

By using clothing, Maria pushes the boundaries of the viewers about what they consider art and what qualifies as art that can be exhibited. Clothing is also something everyone is familiar with and something that especially women and those with bigger bodies, struggle with in their everyday lives.

By using clothes as a canvas, Aschenbrener invites people to bring their own stories and assumptions to the viewing of the art, as well as encouraging people to interact with them. Clothing as a canvas also takes what is sometimes seen as a cumbersome thing. and transforms it into a work of art that no one else in the world has.

Maria’s work was made in effort to break down some of the barriers between what is seen in museums and considered fine art by including bright embroidered patterns and design in clothing.

Personal Acknowledgements

“Thank you, Sophie, for keeping me sane and bringing me diet coke. 1365244 :() Nana & Cathie, thank you for making all of this possible! Mike and Peter, thank you for always being a phone call away and letting me send selfies. Love you all with everything.”

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You can follow her art journey on Instagram @guaasch.

Eva Haykin is a multimedia artist whose body of work in this show details personal reflections and experiences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Eva’s work in this show includes sculpture, painting, and drawings that were inspired by human-made environments, objects, and materials as well as the human body.

Through their artistic practice, Eva enjoys manipulating imagery and found objects to depict lived experiences, such as the experience of dread and isolation that many of us have experienced throughout the duration of this pandemic.

Several pieces contain text, which is used to illustrate Eva’s personal account of connected events. and to identify visual patterns and similarities in objects from everyday life and human-made environments during various stages of lockdown.

Further, these works depict some of the impacts that the pandemic has bad on personal habits and perception.

Personal Acknowledgements

“Big Thank you’s to Leah, Demi, Miranda, Ben, Toryn, Layna, and Evangeline for your encouragement and support during the creation of this work! You are all loved more than words can say. An extra thanks to my professors, to my studio-mate Maria, and to the makers of Klean Strip Mineral Spirits for keeping me tidy.”

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See more of Eva’s artwork on lnstagram @evahaykin.

Brooke McCammond has always been interested in expressing internal struggles of the conscious and subconscious in an altered, vivid, and expressional manner.

While her body of artwork speaks to mental health, it is fashioned in a way in which the viewer can take their own traumas and internal conflicts to the pieces and find a sense of identity within each oil painting.

Ambiguity and symbolism presides in McCammond’s work, it allows the viewer to connect with it based solely on emotive and visual elements. Unintentionally, McCammond’s own identity finds its way into the works she creates.

“My own symbolism creeps into each composition with a single stroke of my paint brush. It waits to be interacted with and it finds itself silently existing for another individual to allow its pain to permeate the mind.”

Personal Acknowledgements

“A special thank you goes out to my darling mother who constantly inspires me to be whoever I desire to be, my father who willingly helps me brainstorm titles for my pieces, and the love of my life who always supports me in my artistic endeavors. My love and eternal gratitude goes out to you all.”

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See more of Brooke’s artwork on her Instagram @brookemccammond_art.

Grace Zaffiro is an artist from Milwaukee whose work consists of textile based pieces made with found and resourced materials to make abstract and experiential art.

As a double major in Studio Art and Psychology at Beloit College, Grace uses her art to serve as a self directed therapy. similar to mindfulness and meditation, or a form of coping mechanism to help alleviate stress and anxiety.

The process behind her work is what inspires her to keep making her art. ln the moment when she is working on a piece, Grace is not planning out how forms take shape or which side is the top, rather she is focusing on the repetitive tactile experience of weaving the current string that is threaded through her needle.

Each piece Grace stitches is made with the purpose of capturing a single moment in time, effectively acting as a journal entry for the day or however long the mental stressor has been weighing on her mind, each piece serves as a coping mechanism, or a by-product of her original work.

Working in round forms helps Grace to accomplish this mental disconnect she uses during her process to form the finished piece. The end result is never the point, but rather the process behind her work is what inspires Grace to continue and push her art further.

Personal Acknowledgements

“Thank you Gwen, Nicholas, Emily, Leah and Jim for being my unconditional support system. You’ve always believed in me and will always inspire me to keep making art. I love you all very much.”

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More of Grace’s work can be found on Instagram @death_by_gpa.