In December, Art & Design students took one last chance in the Fall semester to showcase their work to the campus community. Senior students got to display said work at the DVC Showcase and BA/BFA Exhibition, with both events offering a wide array of work born out of thoughtful and diverse creative research.
DVC Showcase
On Dec. 6, the Design & Visual Communications program presented “hereafter.” This showcase celebrated the hard work of DVC seniors who spent the last three months engaging with complex research projects about what our futures may look like.
Each student developed a “what if” statement that guided their research and artistic vision.
Alondra Arteaga focused her project on catastrophic and unpredictable weather and how it could foster a culture of intertwined connectivity. Arteaga and other students were encouraged to write lore for their projects, which led Arteaga to write about characters living through this extreme climate.
As an avid writer, Arteaga turned much of her writing and research into journal entries that were used as tactile in her project.
“I thought ‘What would I want the user to experience while they’re reading these things?’” said Arteaga. “It took a lot of trial and error and a lot of sketches.”
The work is centered on Arteaga’s desire to discuss climate justice in an empathetic way that felt immersive, something she feels is often lacking when discussing climate issues. She also had a strong desire to include aspects of her heritage in the piece, leading to lots of Spanish text being used in the final product.
“I have always had a very deep respect for the Earth,” said Arteaga. “Especially being Latina, I feel like whenever I go back home, it always feels like I’m connected to the Earth.”
Grace Zimmermann also centered her work on climate issues, creating a dystopian community in which seed manufacturers had to design a crop that could survive severe weather due to humans losing access to food and water.
“It was more so a warning that this is not a good future,” said Zimmermann. “I wanted the design to be unsettling and make the point that we can never replace nature.”
Zimmermann was inspired by her work on a farm that has involved interacting with customers who do not always understand why and how plants die. She sought to explore that theme with her work, describing this future as one of regression.
“Having [climate change] visually represented is one way that people can start to realize it,” said Zimmermann. “The main issue is that people just aren’t seeing it.”
BA/BFA Showcase
Art & Design’s BA/BFA Exhibition happens twice a year and allows that semester’s graduating class to display art they worked on in their lead-up to graduation.
This group of seniors graduating this December explored a wide array of topics that covered students’ passions and interests outside of their artistic practice.
Madeline Prodoehl’s work documented her journey as a rock climber with a book full of stories, photos, and jewelry with prints from her climbing community.
One of the most important aspects of this piece for Prodoehl was the ability to showcase her love of the sport and community in a public setting.
“I feel like you don’t usually get to have people look at your work outside of class,” said Prodoehl. “Most of the people here make work very meaningful and personal to them. So being able to show the public that work and have it in the public’s eyes is really important and special.”
Kaleb Wendler focused on a similarly physical activity for his piece, documenting biking through Milwaukee on 35mm color film.
Wendler has been a bike messenger for his last two years of living in Milwaukee while also relying on biking as a go-to mode of transportation. He described it as a “huge part” of his life, prompting him to pursue a project that shows Milwaukee through his perspective.
“The project is to immerse the viewer in this experience to acknowledge their surroundings,” said Wendler. “Whether it’s people, buildings, shadows… Just all the things that make Milwaukee unique and the perspective that being on a bicycle gives that person.”
Pavonis Giron took a different approach, pursuing a series of sculptural and two-dimensional pieces that focus on “the vessel form as though they were artifacts found by a far-future civilization.”
Giron describes how the vessels changed without human influence, becoming their own species in a project that is aimed at scrutinizing gender and societal roles.
“Going into my senior semesters, I had become interested in material exploration and knew I wanted to pursue research into work that could degrade or be reconstituted after the life of the piece had passed,” said Giron. “It questions the stories we tell about ourselves, both on an individual level as well as a larger, societal one.”
Story by Jason McCullum ’25
