For my Senior Studio Seminar class, my fellow art students and I had to create something that reflected our passion and what we learned throughout our four years at DePaul. When we were first assigned to make a project proposal, I knew I wanted my project to include shadows and reflections. I have always been fascinated with shadows and reflections because of how they challenge permanence, create multiple realities, and are proof of existence. Because of this everlasting fascination, I knew my senior project had to be something big.
At first, I started to create a physical collage of photographs I had taken of reflections. I wanted to create something you could perceive from multiple angles, but I wasn’t confident in how my first draft came out. The concept was there, but I was having trouble bringing my idea and passion to life. I knew I wanted to create both shadows and reflections, but how could I? I started sketching an idea with reflective objects, which are somehow hanging, while also creating shadows on the back wall.
My final idea was difficult to explain to everyone; while shopping for supplies with my mother, I was buying fabric, foam board, and vinyl, and she was probably thinking, “What on earth is she about to create?” I was telling everyone to just trust the process. My classmates didn’t quite get it either. My objects weren’t hanging until the last week before they had to be packaged up and sent to the DePaul Art Museum to be installed, so they were just silver objects lying on the floor. No one understood except for our spectacular professor, Jessica Larva. She has been the most helpful, caring, and understanding professor that we have all had. The whole class collectively agreed that we have never felt so secure and helped by a professor. She made the process of creating a huge senior project in just 8 weeks very relaxed. So, during the critique with my random reflective objects, I had to explain my concept to the class, and I have never seen so many puzzled, unnerving faces. But Jessica was right by my side. I could have used simple reflective objects, but I wanted it to look handmade. I wanted to create rough objects to reflect the imperfections in reality. Rough objects reflecting on us to remind us we exist. One of my professors said my project reminded him of the Leonard Cohen quote: “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”.
Because I am a photographer and designer, creating an installation was pretty out of my comfort zone. I wanted to create more than just reflective objects, and I knew I wanted to include birds in the installation. Jessica had the best suggestion that I laser-cut birds out of acrylic. I signed up for a laser-cutting workshop at DePaul's Idea Realization Lab, and someone from one of my other classes was the instructor. It was super fun to learn a new skill, and I laser-cut 5 birds. I was super happy with how they came out, and I think they were a great addition to the project.
The opening exhibition at the DePaul Art Museum took place on June 12th, 2025. It was a fun experience. Everyone’s friends and family came to support them, as well as our beloved professors. The room buzzed with joy as everyone admired the artwork, and the students were thrilled to see their hard work displayed in a gallery setting.
Overall, the process was amazing, and I made some great connections with other artists in the class. I created something unlike anything I have ever done, and I am so proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone. I didn’t just create anything, I created an experience. As a photographer, I am often the observer, but throughout this process, I became a creator of an experience.
Artist Statement
"Witness to Existence" is an interactive installation exploring the fragility of time and impermanence of presence. Suspended reflective objects and transparent acrylic birds cast moving shadows across a backlit wall, shifting with light and the viewer’s own movements. These projections represent moments that are fleeting, beautiful, and intangible visible only when light and object join.
The reflective materials mirror fragments of the viewer and the surrounding space, creating multiple realities. The transparent birds, laser cut and suspended in motion, reference fleeting thoughts, memories, or lives passing through, always felt, rarely grasped. Viewers do not just observe the work; their presence alters it, casting their own shadows into the scene and becoming part of the composition.
This piece is about how we witness ourselves and others, through reflection, through shadow, through brief encounters that may never repeat. It challenges the idea of permanence and invites the audience to consider what it means to truly see something or someone in a single moment. The installation becomes a space for quiet observation and contemplation.
