My background in fashion relied on the use of sewing machines as tools to create garments made of new materials. My current artmaking has evolved away from the body and functionality to become relief sculptures in cloth. This work is the embodiment of moments in time and space that have stopped me mid-stride, compelling me to closely examine the details. As a fine artist, I translate these observations of nature into my art by using a needle and thread to hand stitch on reclaimed cloth. I invite the viewers to pause, wonder, and think about their place in the world.

Constructed Self is an exhibition of life-size forms that blur the line between photography and sculpture while being both stable and on the verge of collapse. These damaged concrete columns, slabs, and hand-formed bricks used to create walls are inspired by architecture's support structures to convey my internal psychic framework. Photographs are transferred on the surface of these forms that depict environments where I have processed and experienced my struggles with mental health. This work explores how to communicate and convey the interior and exterior of my emotional self in visible terms while bringing me healing emotionally through the process of making these sculptures.

Brief Artist Statement by Cosmo Jones as part of a 2021 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Green Man Action Cycle” at Cora Stafford Gallery, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas frpm March 15-21, 2021.

Artist Statement from the MFA exhibition: In my recent work, I explore my identity as a first-generation American, using my painting practice to think about early memories of living in-between two cultures. These remembered moments allow a space for me to consider how both cultures merge. Portraying vivid memories through colorful recognizable objects and body parts, memories take on a new context, showing the passage of time, and reflecting on how memories take on new meaning. My desire to save these moments relates to my wish to name what makes me belong, and what marks me as unique, within the two cultures in which I exist.

This work is a developing portrait of women workers who are involved in labor rights advocacy within the context of the maquiladora (assemblage factory) industry in Mexico. I have traveled to do research in Mexico by making photographs and through collecting recorded testimonies from the women workers I come to meet through an organization called the Comité Fronterizo de Obreras. The resulting artwork I make includes photographs, handmade books, video, sculpture and works on paper. Ultimately, my translation of the empowerment and stories of these women workers into works of art are at the center of my practice.

Brief Artist Statement by Loren Jones as part of a 2021 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Objects of Wonder: Journey of Perception” at 23 Design Co., Denton, TX on April 15-20, 2021.

Brief Artist Statement by Matthew Johnson as part of a 2021 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Phantom Pain” in the Cora Stafford Gallery on the campus of the University of North Texas on April 1-6, 2021.

Brief Artist Statement by Marianna Seaton as part of a 2021 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Golden Anecdoche” in the Cora Stafford Gallery on the campus of the University of North Texas on March 15-21, 2021.

Brief Artist Statement by Benjamin Statser as part of a 2021 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Objects of Desire” in the Paul Voertman Gallery on the campus of the University of North Texas on April 14-21, 2021.

I have a desire to make functional objects and seek self-fulfillment through strong craftsmanship. I craft ceramic objects intuitively with an emphasis on the materiality of vessels. I strive to blend expressions of the natural world and the domestic space into functional ceramic wares. My work is a collaboration of material exploration and glaze research. In my practice, I am searching for a balance of human design, nature, and beauty of material. Clay is a seductively tactile medium. I am constantly challenging myself to highlight this characteristic within the finished pieces. Each ceramic piece is full of intentionality and become a record of time. The medium displays a record of moments of impressions and interaction between maker and material. Through the lense of functional ceramics, I create work that is an intersection of maker, object and user within a domestic space.

Surveillance capitalism is pervasive within our everyday lives: turning every movement, emotion, or thought into a commodity to be turned into an ad for us. As our meta-data is bought and sold to third-parties, we are coerced into buying products from targeted ads. This system of behavioral manipulation combines human psychology and emotion analytics to make us nodes within an accurate capitalist network. My work scrutinizes current economic structures through videos, installations, AR and digitally printed garments. In my practice, I satirize data collection, extraction, and commodification through an accumulation of my own user information from large tech companies– including Meta, Google, and Apple. This data is used to digitally produce patterns and create a collection of garments. Through this production of clothing, my work visually represents the symbiotic relationship between consumer capitalism and surveillance capitalism.

I use the domestic as a locale to consider the function of a queer body within the “American Dream.” I frequently remove the objects from their intended uses through various methods of alterations. Breaking things down to queer identity, objects, space, and community, I consider each object as a stand-in for individuals liberated from the pressure of preconceptions and mastery. Each lends itself towards the community identity, serving individually as separate functions within the experience, but also collectively serving as an invitation for on-lookers to join this community that we would define together.

Artist Statement from the MFA Exhibition: "My work represents my personal experience with having learning differences such as Dyslexia, ADD, Auditory Processing Disorder, and others. I create pieces that reflect my thoughts, experiences, and the obstacles that I face daily. I utilize materials obtained from school desks as memories that reflect on the long periods of time we spend siting at desks in classrooms, during which we discover how to process information. To articulate these experiences, I create marks and drawings on recycled pieces of school desks. These marks indicate equations, words spelling, and information that mimics symbols from my own learning experience. Through the inclusion of hidden stones and drawings, I integrate positive associations and humor."