Category: Alumni Story

Tucked in the back of Arizona Arts Live’s soothing audiorama installation near Centennial Hall is a small replica of El Tiradito, a popular wishing shrine in downtown Tucson.

For landscape designer and School of Art alumna Micaela Machado, helping create the sculpture out of hemp blocks and the surrounding garden was a chance to celebrate her Mexican-American roots.

“El Tiradito is special to my family, so it was a real honor to recreate it with love,” said Machado, who grew up in Nogales, Arizona, before moving to Tucson and attending Salpointe Catholic High School. “In all my designs, art and landscape, I try to honor the past and protect the future.”

Her past has been pretty special, too. After receiving a BA in studio art with a minor in business in 2007 from the University of Arizona, she landed a cool job as a local artistic fabricator and went back to earn her master’s in landscape architecture from the U of A. That led to Machado starting her own natural building company, Old Pueblo Hemp, which specializes in hemp-lime construction.

Visitors can see the El Tiradito replica inside the “Cuk Ṣon Audiorama” until Dec. 10. The open-air auditorium, just east of Centennial Hall, lets students and others rest in the company of nature and music. Cuk Ṣon is derived from the Tohono O’odham name for Tucson, referring to the 17th-century O’odham village “at the base of the black hill,” now “A” Mountain.

The School of Art recently spoke with Machado about the installation and her career:

Q. How did you get involved with the Audiorama project?

A. I was invited to collaborate on this project by my good friend and design buddy Carlos Arzate of Arzate Design Group. El Tiradito was Carlos’ idea, and when he suggested that we do it out of hemp, I jumped at the chance. We worked out the concept together, and I helped him source the plants, but it is his design. On install day, I was there for the hemp build and to unload and place plants while Carlos and the crew placed boulders. I used to work for Arzate Design Group, so we used to do installs together all the time. Carlos has been ultra-supportive of my choice to pursue contracting and starting my company, and he was happy to give me the opportunity to highlight hemp building in an artistic way.

Q. How did you get to know Carlos?

A. We met through a networking event. And not two weeks later, we were cast together on a TV pilot show in London. It was a landscape design competition show, and Carlos and I recreated an Aztec Pyramid in the middle of the English Countryside. Our tagline was: “We’re bringing the Raza to your English Casa!” It was a bonding experience, and we’ve been family friends and design partners ever since.

Putting this garden together again with Carlos has been a trip down memory lane. We even tagged our old TV producers to show them we are still at it. So, it’s pretty awesome that we are still “Bringing the Raza to your Casa” with this project. From Aztec pyramids in London to El Tiradito at Centennial Hall, we love to highlight our heritage.

Q. How did your childhood impact you as an artist and landscape designer?

A. Growing up on the Arizona-Mexico border and all its mixed culture has influenced my life completely. I am of both cultures. Mexican and American. I speak Spanish and English. “Soy del rancho,” but at the same time I’m super Americanized. It used to feel divided and like I’m not enough of either, but now it feels like a gift I’ve been given. I can connect and communicate with both cultures. I get to be a part if both worlds. I’m not divided. I’m the whole enchilada.

Q. How did your School of Art degree and business minor prepare you for your career?

A. Following my mother’s footsteps, I’ve always been very artistic, and thanks to her I was always very supported in pursuing art into a career. My father the lawyer, on the other hand, was a bit more realistic about my choice. He said that the only way that he would pay for me to go to art school was to get a minor in business, so I could be prepped for the real world, too. At the time I thought he was being dramatic, but in hindsight it really was very valuable advice.

My art degree and business minor really helped me figure out a plan on how to make money while making art — without having to sell my art to a gallery. Through the recommendation of my sculptor instructor, I got a fantastic job as an artistic fabricator for a (Tucson) company called Cemrock, and it really changed my life. I was totally happy traveling, making great money carving, sculpting and painting rockwork all over the country when the Great Recession hit, and we all lost our jobs.

Q. Is that what led you to pursue your master’s in landscape architecture?

A. I was devastated and realized that my position wasn’t as stable as I would want it to be. And by pure silly coincidence, I learned about the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture or CAPLA, and I was super intrigued. I was already manipulating landscapes and creating habitats through my rockwork, and I felt like this was the perfect next step for me. With my art degree, my business minor and my work experience with Cemrock, I felt my portfolio was strong and I was accepted into CAPLA.

Through CAPLA, I learned about a new passion of mine which is sustainable design. I thought I’d be designing golf courses and theme parks, but I learned what a great opportunity and the important responsibility we have as designers to make better choices for our planet and our future generations. Especially here in the desert. It’s so important that we are designing to be in sync with nature. Things that excite me now are native plantings, water harvesting, solar power, food self-reliance, wildlife habitats, natural building materials.

Q. What attracted you to hemp construction, and what are the advantages of the material?

A. I was super happy being a sustainable landscape designer, but my life was disrupted when I learned about hemp. I’ve always been a cannabis advocate — the only plant that can house, clothe and feed you — and when I learned that you could build healthy homes from it, my mind was blown away. Currently, our traditionally built homes are not energy efficient, leach thousands of toxic chemicals and don’t last long enough. But there are so many benefits to building with hemp blocks. They are all natural, can save up to 70 percent in heating-cooling bills and are fire-, mold- and pest-resistant. They are sustainable — you can grow your own building materials — sequester carbon, last for thousands of years and are biodegradable. The price is also comparable to current building methods.

I had to get my hands on hemp, and when I did, it was a clear message from the universe that I should be building healthy hemp homes. So now I’m a licensed, bonded and insured general contractor that specializes in industrial hemp builds.

Q. How do you build with hemp?

A. There are several ways, but I specialize in “block making.” It’s a simple formula of hemp hurd, plus lime binder, plus water compressed into a building block that will last thousands of years. I’m blessed to have this information passed on to me, and now it’s my job to build healthy homes for our future. Hemp building is the way, and I’m excited that Tucson is onboard. It’s funny how this Audiorama project is the culmination of my career and life path. I just built a sculpture out of my own hemp blocks in a beautiful garden at the U of A. What a trip!

Q. Do you have any advice or tips for students at the School of Art?

A. Wear many hats. Art can lead you in many different directions, and it’s such a strong background that it can apply to many careers. Try the different hats out and see what makes you feel best. My career now is not what I thought it would be, but I let my life experiences and passions lead me. Gotta find those jobs that feed your creative side — while still paying the bills.

Before and after earning his BFA in Studio Art, Mike Srsen worked as a graphic designer for Arizona Athletics and for a local advertising firm. But he found his real calling — teaching — when he went back to get his master’s in Art & Visual Culture Education at the School of Art.

Nearly 20 years later, Srsen is now a “legend.”

The longtime Flowing Wells High School graphic design teacher has been named the 2024 Pima JTED Central Campus Legendary Teacher. JTED is short for the county’s Joint Technical Education District, which works with business, industry and 14 member public school districts to provide tuition-free Career and Technical Education programs to 22,000 high school students each year.

“When I sat down with professors in the art education department … it  was like something clicked for me, and I knew like, ‘Oh this is what I’ve been supposed to be doing my  whole life,’” Srsen said in a Pima JTED video. “So, my masters thesis was to create a new class for Flowing Wells’ art department and I added a single section of graphic design and it was kind of a hit on campus.”

That success led Srsen to start the Flowing Wells Central Campus JTED program. More than 100 students learn each school year how to be a creative professional by developing workplace and technical skills, including Adobe software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

Srsen oversees a student-business in which students produce design, print, silkscreen and embroidery work for paying customers. Upper-level students even earn college credit, while in high school, thanks to a dual-enrollment agreement with Pima Community College.

“They work with clients and customers. They see the extra work that goes into it, that’s not just  creativity, but it’s financials and billing and ordering supplies and dealing with people’s moods and personalities,” Srsen said. “Creativity is part of it, but it’s definitely not the whole picture of becoming  an artist in adult life.”

Srsen also takes his JTED students on field trips. Each year, they visit the University of Arizona School of Art for workshops and tour its facilities.

“Renowned for his his creativity, leadership and dedication, he has grown the JTED program into a bustling hub, empowering students through design, entrepreneurship and real-world experience,” Pima JTEd said in an Instagram post.

Srsen, who earned his BFA in 2001 and MA in 2006 from the School of Art, also taught studio art classes at Pima Community College as an adjunct instructor.

“I feel really fortunate to get to have my whole life revolve around art and creativity,” Srsen said, “and to be able to share that with the world and my students in meaningful ways every day.”

Even before the Oscar-winning film “Oppenheimer” hit theaters, University of Arizona School of Art alum Ernesto A. Trujillo created a striking collection of mixed-media prints that portrayed his father’s thoughts and fears of nuclear destruction as a defense industry engineer.

Trujillo first presented the gallery online in December 2022, but the public can now see his solo exhibition, “The Oppenheimers’: One is Dad, Dimensions of Engineering,” through June 7, 2024, at Pima Community College’s Desert Vista Art Gallery, 5901 S Calle Santa Cruz. The show features 23 prints.

A special projects professional at Pima’s Desert Vista campus, Trujillo also teaches business classes as an adjunct instructor at the college.

“It’s been a unique experience working as an artist and having other careers,” said Trujillo, who also is an insurance agent and web designer and consultant in Tucson.

The School of Art recently interviewed Trujillo, who earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2004 and his Master of Fine Arts in 2010 — both in mixed media.

Q. How did you come up with the idea for your exhibit?

A. I started the concept for “The Oppenheimers” in 2020, before the pandemic hit. We were developing some WiFi stations for students at Desert Vista Campus who wanted to use our computer lab to continue their coursework. … With social distancing in full force, I needed to make some measurements based on the (room) plans. I remember I had my dad’s engineering Leroy measuring and calculation kits on my bookshelf. As I worked into the night, I thought about all the spoken and non-spoken projects this kit must have seen. 

I also remembered the last conversation my dad, Ernesto O. Trujillo, and I had regarding his time in mechanical engineering. He quoted, “Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” from the Bhagavad Gita, which Robert Oppenheimer also used in his reflections to describe himself. This part of my dad’s life was an enigma because he chose not to speak of it too often. When he did share experiences, I listened. I was amazed at the ingenuity that he discovered and the innovative genius of his colleagues and team members. 

My dad suffered a lot throughout his life, knowing that his work was part of a large-scale destruction. Seeing him wrangle with his past while he was moving forward in another career was tough.

This sparked the question, “How would the visual representation of his unique stories look?” (Below: images from “The Oppenheimers’: One is Dad, Dimensions of Engineering”)

Q. Could you elaborate on that visual representation?

A. I started to write down my father’s stories from memory, as many as possible. I researched notes and memos; I had some pictures of him at work. Then, I spent time sketching, drawing, and making images. 

(The exhibit is partly influenced by) my series called “DDoS Chicano.” A DDoS attack is a Distributed Denial of Service attack, a cybercrime that prevents users from accessing online services and sites. It’s a subcategory of the more general denial-of-service (DoS) attack. The genre combines cyberpunk, technology, cognitive intelligence and Chicano art elements. I look at our humanistic touch points through the lens of computer information systems, trying to find the most efficient ways to connect to others.

I have been involved with information technology, cybersecurity, and cognitive intelligence or superintelligence for over twenty years. This genre fascinates me, and we live in extraordinary times. We have been taking leaps and bounds with processing capacities and learning exponentially. I’m curious if we will take technology down the path to help mankind improve our quality of life everywhere. 

In 2022, I did an online show with some test images and wanted to see an initial response. During the last six months of 2023, I finalized some of the work and was ready to show “The Oppenheimers” for 2024.

Q. What did you think of “Oppenheimer,” which won Best Picture and six other Oscars?

A. I had read several journals and stories about Robert Oppenheimer and other great minds of the time. I always wondered if a movie would be made about this incredible mind. Surprisingly, it came to fruition; I was stoked. I hope that Carl Sagan is next.

Director Christopher Nolan’s vision and all the splendid actors and actresses (conveyed) a sense of the inner turmoil that affected all the people involved in the atomic program. The moral and human dilemmas that challenged Oppenheimer and his team still exist.

Unfortunately, humans are attracted to a mindset of destruction. Imagine if we placed the same amount of innovative genius to create better circumstances for life. Our minds and souls would be free to do all that is possible for humankind. 

Q. Do you see a lot of parallels with your exhibit and the film?

A. Look carefully at the signs, symbols and marks of innovative destruction in my exhibit. Their display calls us to remember that we can change our immediate and foreseeable future as a civilization to a positive outcome. Out of some horrible, we can create a new one that will be the standard for advanced citizenship. My father’s story is proof that it can be better.

Q. How much influence did your dad have on your life? 

A. My father passed when I was 18 (in 1999 at age 61). It was a tragic experience; I inherited his insurance and investment firm overnight. Thus, I started my career in business. (Trujillo is also a licensed agent for the Kino Insurance Agency). Before my dad passed, we would have some heated arguments about my future. I wanted to go into engineering as he did. However, he would not support the future. He wanted me to pursue business or something in the arts. Uniquely, I ended up doing both. 

Q. Speaking of which, how does your art education help in your roles at Pima College?

I teach a Business eCommerce Introduction course … focusing on marketing, cybersecurity threats and eCommerce business strategies, concepts in data analytics AI and algorithmic programming. The other course is Business Information and Intelligence.

It’s been great using all my visual communication skills to fortify these concepts in a visual format. I am developing a unique learning system that connects uniquely with each learner to simultaneously deliver visual communication that best meets that person’s learning style under universal communication traits for all languages and genres of learning. 

Q. Who’s inspired you, both at the School of Art and professionally?

A. One of my mentors was Alfred Quiroz, a School of Art emeritus professor. I love how his artwork “tells a story.” He also takes a natural multimedia approach to expressing and creating these stories. For Alfred, a 2D and 3D all-at-once approach is a way to solve a visual problem. You have an idea to convey; use everything around you. Andy Polk, another School of Art emeritus professor, influenced my technical awareness of how printmaking, specifically lithography, can be robust and delicate simultaneously. Looking at the work carefully, you can recognize all forms of printmaking in every image. 

Edgar Soto, vice president of the Desert Vista Campus and Pima College’s previous Arts and Humanities dean, also helped me understand the value of good communication and investing in our students and community. Others who’ve helped me are David Andres, director of the Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery on Pima’s West Campus, and Dana Roes, dean of the Arts Division, as well as the Desert Vista Gallery and Fine Arts program at Pima.

Without their assistance, “The Oppenheimers” would have remained on the storyboard.

Ernesto A. Trujillo describes some of his other work

• Ernesto A. Trujillo’s website

The University of Arizona Alumni Association has named Barbara Grygutis (BFA ’68, MFA ’71) the College of Fine Arts 2024 Alum of the Year.

Grygutis received her BFA in Studio Art in 1968 and her MFA in 1971 from the School of Art and she went on to become an award-winning public artist widely recognized and honored for her imaginative and compelling public art projects.  

“She’s one of only a handful of pioneering women in the world who work at the scale of city building, infrastructure design, and shaping large, active public spaces,” wrote Jack Becker, a public art magazine publisher in the introduction of the book, “Public Art / Public Space: The Sculptural Environments of Barbara Grygutis.” 

Creator of more than 75 large-scale projects, her work can be found throughout the United States, with several major examples in Tucson and Southern Arizona. Her connection to the university is also embedded in the heart of the university’s Arts District in the form of the “Front Row Center” sculpture project and the surrounding Arts Oasis. 

“This fall, Arizona Arts is celebrating the 25th anniversary of this commission by revitalizing these works as part of significant improvements to the Arts District,” said Andy Schulz, vice president for the arts. 

“Barbara has noted that ‘putting works of art into the public domain brings ideas into the public realm, and allows everyone to be part of the experience,’” said Schulz. “This ethos of deep civic and community engagement aligns strongly with the values of the College of Fine Arts and with the university’s land-grant mission.” 

A long-time resident of Tucson, Grygutis mentors School of Art students through internships at her art studio and judges aspiring artists’ project proposals through Sculpture Tucson. She was a critical participant in the school’s spring 2023 career forum entitled “Life Lessons from Alumni.”

“Here at the School of Art, we tell our students to “focus their passion” and effect meaningful change in today’s world,” said Karen Zimmerman, School of Art interim director. “Barbara’s passion is evident in her iconic public artwork that enhances the environment, enables civic interaction, and reveals unspoken relationships between nature and humanity. And she continues to help the next generation of artists nurture their passion by stressing innovation and life skills.”

BARBARA GRYGUTIS

During her celebrated career as a public artist, Barbara Grygutis has been commissioned to create over 75 large-scale works throughout North America and internationally, in settings including sculpture gardens, public plazas, gateways, memorials and monuments. She also has exhibited sculptures at venues like the Smithsonian Institution, the Bronx Museum and the White House.

In her work, Barbara uses varied materials — an array of metals and stones, brick, cement, ceramic, concrete, glass, and tile — to create public spaces that enhance the built environment, encourage civic interaction and reveal unspoken relationships between nature and humanity. For each piece, she engages the public by identifying themes meaningful to the specific site and community. Barbara’s work has garnered numerous awards, and she has received the National Endowment for the Arts’ Individual Artist’s Fellowship.

A two-time graduate of the University of Arizona, Barbara has remained dedicated to the university, the School of Art and the Tucson community. She mentors students through internships at her studio, judges project proposals for Sculpture Tucson and has participated in the school’s career forum. She also created the Front Row Center and Arts Oasis sculpture garden outside the Marroney Theatre on campus.

Barbara’s iconic work demonstrates her passion and enhances public spaces around the world, and her support for students nurtures the next generation of artists.

Past College of Fine Arts
Alumni of the Year 

2023-24 … Barbara Grygutis (BFA ’68, MFA ’71)
2022-23 … John F. Meyer ‘82

2020-21 … Lindsay Utz ’03 | video

2019 … Brad Slater ‘96 | video

2018 … Guy Moon | video

2017 … Sue Scott | video

2015 … Craig Huston | video

2014 … Jeffrey Haskell ’64 | video

2013 … Elizabeth Murphy Bruns ’67 | video

2012 … Henry E. Plimack

2011 … Peter D. Murrieta ‘88

2010 … Joan L. Ashcraft

When Kaitlyn Jo Smith received a prestigious early-career artist fellowship from Wellesley College, she thanked her professors at the University of Arizona School of Art for “believing in me and my work.”

“Graduate school taught me to think bigger, dream bigger and trust in my instincts,” said Smith, a 2020 Master of Fine Arts graduate in Photography, Video and Imaging whose interdisciplinary art focuses on America’s working class and the implications of automation on labor and religion.

Smith joins a long list of other recent alums and current students in the MFA and Art History/Art & Visual Culture Education programs to earn national recognition and realize their dreams. Some examples include:

• Ricardo Chavez (current Ph.D. student): Tyson Scholar in American Art
• Kendall Crabbe (Ph.D. ’22, AVCE): Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Runner Up-Award in Art Education
• Karlito Miller Espinosa (MFA ’19): Whitney Independent Study Program
• Tehan Ketema (MFA ’22): First Wave Arts and Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Martin Krafft (’20 MFA): Residency at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York
• Naseem Navab (MFA ’19): Artists in Residence, Art Produce Gallery, San Diego
• Marina Shaltout (’20 MFA): Residencies at the Creative Centre in Stodvarfjordur, Iceland and at New Mexico State University
• Alex Turner (MFA ’20): Grand Prize, FOCUS Photo L.A. Summer 2021 Competition
• Bella Maria Varela (’21 MFA): Early Career Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin
• Kenzie Wells (’20 MFA): Residencies at the Wassaic Project Artist Residency in New York, Oxbow School of Art and Artists’ Residency in Michigan, and Penland School of Craft in North Carolina

“Our graduate programs are incredibly strong right now, and there is no better evidence of that than the success of our students after graduation,” School of Art Director Colin Blakely said. “Kaitlyn Jo is a perfect example. She pushed her work in new and truly innovative directions during her time here, and the recognition associated with this fellowship is a great and well-deserved validation of that.”

In late April, Smith received the 2023-2024 Alice C. Cole ’42 Fellowship in Studio Art at Wellesley College near Boston. The $35,000 award is intended to support outstanding artists at an early point in their career, by providing the necessary time to develop their art relatively independent of financial pressures.

“The work that I make is a direct reflection of my experiences growing up in a working-class family in rural middle America,” she said. “The fact that these stories resonate with others is validating for me not only as an artist, but as a young adult trying to understand my place in the world.”

Smith is from Sycamore in northwest Ohio, a town of about 800 people, where she joined 4H in fourth grade and took one of the youth organization’s photography classes. “I’ve been obsessed with images ever since,” she said. “I’m extremely fortunate that my parents have always been incredibly supportive in all of my creative pursuits.”

She was just a teen when the housing market crashed in 2007-08, leaving most of the adults she knew out of work. She earned her BFA in Photography from Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio before joining the University of Arizona School of Art’s Photography, Video and Imaging MFA program in its first year of expanding into technology.

“Kaitlyn entered as a traditional photographer-based artist but quickly pushed the limits of the medium and her own work to compel viewers to feel the despair of the U.S. manufacturing labor market’s waning,” Regents Professor Sama Alshaibi said. “Many of her art pieces involve the use of material that has been altered, replicated, exploited and out of place.”

Added Alshaibi: “I’m thrilled that Kaitlyn’s practice has been recognized by the Wellesley College Art Department as spanning Sculpture through an expansive lens, including new media and deep-learning production, social practice and virtual domains.”

Smith calls the graduate program at the School of Art “a pressure cooker of brilliant minds and high expectations.”

“Throughout my entire experience, I felt supported by a group of (faculty) mentors who I genuinely believe wanted me to succeed: Sama, Martina Shenal, David Taylor, Cerese Vaden and so many others,” Smith said. “I miss the intensity of critiques and the space for criticism in a nurturing environment.”

Smith’s “American Standard” MFA Thesis Exhibition project, put on hold until 2021 because of COVID, reflected her roots in the Midwest. She was longlisted for the 2021 Lumen Prize in Art and Technology (London) and received the College Art Association’s Services to Artists Committee Award for her video “Lights Out.”

Her “Fixtures” and “Lights Out” installations, which make the workers and the products they produce visible, are on display at the Arizona Biennial exhibition until Oct. 1 at the Tucson Museum of Art. 

“American Standard pushed me both conceptually and technically,” Smith said. “I’m even prouder of my most recent exhibition ‘Mass Production.’ It was the first solo show I have had since grad school and consisted of four entirely new projects. Since its installation, I have noticed a big shift in the way I see myself — I no longer felt like a student, but a professional.”

“Mass Production” ran from March 19 to April 30 at Bells Projects in Denver. The exhibition connected the repetition of Catholic mass to the rituals of factory production, Smith said.

“Each of my Catholic grandmother’s seven sons has worked in a factory,” she said. “When I think of their collective prayer at her funeral mass, I think of my father and his brothers on the assembly line. ‘Mass Production’ questions whether the learned rituals of Catholicism have conditioned them, and other blue-collar workers, for habitual lives of monotonous labor. …”

During her fellowship, Smith said she’ll continue “to explore the ways that automation and artificial intelligence are rapidly changing our understanding of work and how we structure our lives.”

Smith will take several trips to Wellesley, Massachusetts, but will remain based in Tucson and continue as an adjunct instructor at the School of Art. She’s taught various classes, including Introduction to Photographic Concepts.

“Kaitlyn has been a great asset to our extensive image/photography program because she has the ability to uniquely link established artistic techniques with cutting-edge technologies for relevant purposes,” Alshaibi said.

Smith’s work uses 3D printing and scanning “as a way to visually present the monotony of both automation and skilled manual labor,” she said.

“I love teaching. I love learning from my students,” Smith said. “There is something so inspiring about being surrounded by and helping realize so many wildly different ideas. I’m incredibly passionate in what I do and hope that I encourage that love of exploration and discovery in my students. Art is not easy, but I can think of nothing more rewarding than creating something out of nothing. I love watching my students experience that accomplishment.”

As part of her fellowship, Smith will give an artist’s talk at Wellesley this fall and work with students there. “While many of the subjects in my work have roots in the Midwest and Rust Belt, I believe that a lot of the themes are universal,” she said.

Smith’s work and teaching are important now more than ever because they combine science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, with the arts, Alshaibi said.

“While Kaitlyn produces exquisite and poetic work in photography and found archives, it’s her capacity to fully embrace innovation and creative risk-taking that sets her apart from others,” Alshaibi said. “She has personal experience with what it takes to uphold tradition while developing and inventing for the future.”

As for her own work, Smith said both her “American Standard” and “Mass Production” projects have left her with “more questions than answers, but I think that is why they’re successful.”

“I make art to try and understand the world around me,” Smith said. “I don’t understand it yet; there is more art to be made.”

• Kaitlyn Jo Smith’s website 
• ArtConnect interview

Postcards make Camden Hardy happy.

Designing and mailing them — and, of course, receiving them — helps him connect with other artists and stretch the limits of creativity, a process he says that “simply cannot exist in cyberspace.”

It’s why he started the Postcard Collective 13 years ago as a Master of Fine Arts student at the University of Arizona School of Art, and why he’s now leading a storytelling project in which his fellow Ph.D. students are making postcards for a class co-taught by Professor Ellen McMahon.

“Postcards promote an ethics of care that is often at odds with our culture of fast-paced, transactional consumption,” Hardy said.

“To create and send a postcard to another human being is to deliberately forge a personal connection without any guarantee of reciprocation,” he added. “To receive a postcard is to be reminded that someone cared enough to reach out. The relational dynamic between sender and recipient is a poignant reminder that our wellbeing is directly tied to that of others.”

McMahon is co-teaching the course, “Art Research in the Unruly World: Questions, Forms & Methods” (SCCT 510),  through the SCCT Graduate Interdisciplinary Program — a class that brings together faculty and Ph.D. students like Hardy from different units across campus.

Hardy, a doctoral candidate in Applied Intercultural Arts Research (AIAR), gave each student in the class three stamped and addressed postcards with the prompts “space / place,” “time” and “identity” printed on the back. Students responded to the prompts on the front of the postcards in whatever form they desired — words, images, collages — and then dropped them in the mail.

Hardy collected the postcards to compose a visual narrative, which was on display in early May in the School of Art’s Visual Arts Graduate Research Lab, 1231 N. Fremont Ave. An opening reception was held May 2 in the lab’s Palo Verde graduate gallery.

McMahon is ecstatic about the collaboration with Hardy and other students from units such as the School of Art, Agriculture, Anthropology, Educational Psychology, East Asian Studies and AIAR. Most are minoring in Social Critical and Cultural Theory through the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP).

She also worked with Hardy on her 2013 co-edited book “Ground/Water: The Art, Design and Science of a Dry River.” Beyond his personal project for the book, he provided beautiful images for the inside covers and the section dividers, McMahon said.

“Camden is soft-spoken and humble about his work,” she said. “He’s generous, persistent and dedicated to cultivating a creative community around him wherever he is.”

Hardy received his BA in Media & Theater Arts Photography from Montana State University before getting his MFA in 2012 at UArizona, where he started the Postcard Collective as an effort to maintain relationships with artists in different cities and regions.

“We hold seasonal postcard exchanges — about four per year — in which approximately 30 artists create and send postcards to each other; each participant receives a postcard from all other participants,” said Hardy about the exchanges, which are themed with prompts such as “The Sound that I Saw.”

For Hardy, the May exhibit at the School of Art brings back memories of the Postcard Collective’s first exchange in the graduate gallery toward the end of the Spring 2010 semester. It was busy time.

“Graduate school is a pressure cooker,” Hardy said. “A group of young artists suddenly find themselves surrounded by like-minded individuals, all with the shared goal of learning about themselves and how to make their work in the most authentic way possible, faculty and peers challenging them at every turn.

“Looking back, it is truly remarkable to consider what graduate school inspired us to make of ourselves.”

After getting his MFA, Hardy worked and taught at Southwest University of Visual Arts for the next eight years while the Postcard Collective gathered momentum. Hardy said postcards from the collection have been exhibited inside and outside the United States in a variety of contexts.

Hardy decided to return to UArizona as a doctoral student to “explore the ways in which communities of practice can facilitate and support unifying discourse among artists,” he said — and he’s using the “evolution of the Postcard Collective as a space for artists to conduct their own research and connect with each other.”

“Let’s be honest: we’re going through some dark times,” Hardy said. “Our culture has been flooded with divisive, toxic rhetoric that has pitted us all against each other.

“Art, on the other hand, can be the cure. It has the power to remind us of what it means to be human, and that we are all in this together.”

• The Postcard Collective
• Camden Hardy website
• Instagram: @camdenhardy

From his first job designing sofa ads for a small firm to developing a national advertising campaign for Walgreens, John Meyer has always understood the importance of making the right “pitch.”

It’s a skill he learned as an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona School of Art.

“The School of Art created a more focused foundation that helped bring out my talents to make myself more marketable,” Meyer said. “The U of A in general … also encouraged creativity and independent thought – while exposing me to other cultures and backgrounds.”

Now an award-winning creative director, marketer, strategist and image maker, Meyer (BFA 1982, Studio Art) is being honored as the College of Fine Arts’ 2023 Alumnus of the Year — one of 15 alums being recognized by the university.

“I have developed campaigns from A to Z – Adobe to Zima. I would have to say that Walgreens, ‘At the Corner of Happy & Healthy,’ was my favorite because of the rebranding,” Meyer said. “I was responsible for the new creative campaign (in 2013), which affected over 100 million customers nationally.”

Meanwhile, Meyer and his former agency, Innerspin, squared off against another Los Angeles agency during the second season of the AMC television reality series “The Pitch.” The two firms battled to see who would help Bliss, a spa-inspired skincare company, launch its latest product, “Fuzz Off,” in the episode that aired in August 2013.

Innerspin won, led by Meyer, who devised an idea of a removable purple mustache sticker with the hashtag #fuzzyourself, which would be posted in various nighttime hotspots. “I love the stuff this guy does, I gotta tell you,” Meyer’s then-colleague, Elcid Choi, told Bliss executives during their pitch.

“It gave our whole agency an opportunity for exposure,” Meyer said. “We shot for 6 to 8 weeks in Los Angeles.”

Meyer had come a long way from his first job after graduation, working with a small design firm out of Huntington Beach, California. He rendered photos for Sunday newspaper print ads of sofas and chairs and worked on other local accounts, “which enabled me to create in several different categories – branding, retail and promotion.”

He secured his first big client, Burger King, during his next career move to JWT, a global advertising and branding agency.

“I didn’t give up,” Meyer said. “I kept improving my odds.”

Besides Walgreens, his other mega clients have included Apple, Taco Bell, Starbucks, Subway, Levi’s, McDonald’s, Chevron, Absolut Vodka, Pom Wonderful, TD Ameritrade and Virgin.

He’s now the chief creative officer of Absolutmeyer in Scottsdale, a firm he founded in 2015. “We’re finishing up a national rebranding effort for 3E Energy Drinks: ‘The Better for You Energy Drink,’” he said.

Meyer understands the importance of giving back, both to his alma mater and charities.

“Teaching helped me understand the next wave of talent coming out of the university and gave me such a sense of pride,” said Meyer, who assisted students in getting internships with his firm and others across the country.

He also designed a series of Tucson-centric greeting cards, with a patriotic and western theme, while working with students in the Letterpress & Book Arts Lab run by Professor Karen Zimmermann, assistant director for the School of Art. “The cards are beautiful,” she said. 

A few years ago, he taught an Illustration and Design capstone class at the School of Art that focused on portfolios, branding, promotion, ethics and financial issues.

“It’s been the best part of my career to give back to the school,” Meyer said. “It’s been very rewarding to have the ability to help mentor such deserving and talented students.”

Meyer has volunteered creative support for several non-profit groups, including the L.A. Epilepsy Foundation and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. “We’re on this planet to serve others,” said Meyer, who is grateful to doctors who helped one of his three children with epilepsy treatments.

“Hopefully, my career path and highlights will inspire others to achieve more than they dreamed,” Meyer said.

His advice to students?

“Give more than you’re paid to do ­– money will follow,” he said. “Visualize your future and stay positive. Keep pounding and don’t lose the faith.”

• John F. Meyer: 2023 CFA Alumnus of the Year