Visual Arts Alumni Stories

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MFA PAINTING, 2016

Kamal Ahmad is a Kurdish artist that strives to bring out the beauty and hope of art in these tumultuous times. Before Ahmad graduated with a MFA in Painting at BU in 2016, he lived in the Kurdistan Region where he saw war and bloodshed dominate his country. Ahmad is able to be confident in his art and in himself largely because he was able to overcome the barriers that withheld him from his practice.

Ahmad calls art “a mission”, and he finds success in this claim by making his art representational as a way to bring awareness to him and his people. His works give viewers a direct link to his cultural identity and deep ethnic background. At an exhibition held at Mass MoCA, called Parasomnia in 2019, he expressed the pain and feelings of grief during the war against ISIS and the Kurdistan Region by sculpting 85 figures of different sizes, as well as several paintings. He covered sleeping bags and beds with pictures of destroyed buildings and cities in his country that was destroyed by ISIS. The ability to show yourself and your history to the world is one of the greatest virtues for Ahmad’s career as an artist.

Ahmad encourages young aspiring artists to bring out the unique story within each of us. He emphasizes that it’s not the wars, bad stories, or crazy scenes that make us different, but our personal memories and experiences that we can’t shy away from. In the beginning, Ahmad started off by sculpting others because it was easier than representing himself. However, now he is working on a self portrait he started over quarantine. By focusing on his own story, Ahmad defines himself in his artwork to become a self-fulfilling artist.

Bostonia Article Featuring Ahmad

BFA PAINTING, 2008

After graduating from BU in 2008, Autumn Ahn embarked on a unique MFA experience—one that didn’t involve going to a university at all. Her undergraduate studies in Painting fueled her ambitions, leaving her hungry to continue her education in the visual arts. After weighing her options, she concluded that living in Paris, France, would stand in for her Master of Fine Arts. She dove in to its art scene, devoted herself to a disciplined studio practice, and left with connections that would serve her career for years to come.

She participated in Art Basel Miami (2013), the WRONG(again) Biennale Istanbul/ NYC (2015), and the Bogota Art Fair (2016); performed at DA Project Space (2014) and the ICA Boston (2015). She is now preparing for her first solo show in New York City.

Her highly conceptual work, which often takes the form of performances and videos, is rooted in the ideas she learned in college. “At BU, drawing professors taught you how to see, not how to draw,” she says. “That changed a lot for me.” For Ahn, being able to see has meant finding opportunities—and artistic inspiration—in the formative experiences of her life.

BFA SCULPTURE, 2008

While Annie Albagli’s works are conceptual in nature, the fundamentals she studied as an undergraduate Boston University remain pertinent in her artistic practice today. Faculty members taught her the formal qualities of art, framing the way she looks at and thinks about artwork today. Her peers were just as important. “We kept each other going,” she says. “It was the informal exchanges at 3:00 AM that were so significant. We were exhausted, but excited about what we were doing.”

The energy in the studio kept her working, instilling within her a work ethic that later would help her through her graduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and in her studio practice today.
Since graduating, Albagli has participated in residencies in New York, Maryland, Texas, California, and Jerusalem, to name a few. These have allowed her to work within landscapes that support her artistic, site-driven research, providing an important sense of place for Albagli’s environmentally and community focused works.

Albagli stresses that she is just beginning her career. A long road stretches ahead, and Albagli sees it as fertile ground for future art making.

Explore Annie’s Website

BFA PAINTING, 2010/MFA STUDIO TEACHING, 2011

By the time she declared herself a Painting major at Boston University, Sarah Bielicky had it all figured out. She would remain at BU after her undergraduate studies, pursue an advanced degree in Studio Teaching, and entering the world of arts education. That’s exactly what she does today—if you define the term broadly.

She never thought that her background in Studio Teaching would bring her into the world of art dealing, and she never predicted that she would beat out Art History graduates for a high level job at a Chelsea gallery. Today she is the Director of Manhattan’s Jim Kempner Fine Art, living out a dream she never expected to have.

BU’s five-year Studio Teaching program had been preparing her for it all along. “My assistantship in the print shop was helpful because I now sell prints. It gave me a great basis for understanding the printmaking process and knowing contemporary artists.” Ultimately, being able to impart that knowledge helps sell the work. The good rapport she has with her former faculty is evident, and their connection continues to this day: she sees her every year at New York’s IFPDA Print Fair.

Whether she is speaking to a casual observer, an experienced collector, or a group of schoolchildren, Bielicky’s job is to educate people about the artwork. Thanks to her graduate degree in teaching, she communicates ideas with ease. At the gallery, Bielicky knows she’s found her passion. She enjoys being involved in the art world, and takes pride in being able to help both artists and buyers.

BFA PAINTING, 2002

After four years of undergraduate studies at Boston University, Matthew Cerletty stood by for his big launch. For most artists, that’s the stuff of dreams, but for Cerletty, it was a reality. He had talent to begin with, and after four years at Boston University, he had the whole package: the ambition, the skills, the connections, and the portfolio he needed to get his first show.

Within months of graduating, he would debut his paintings in the heart of Chelsea, get a review in the New York Times, and begin preparing work for a solo exhibition. Within a year, he would exhibit in shows with his heroes—such painters as John Currin— and within five, he would show his work in Tokyo, Paris, and Russia. By the ten year mark, Cerletty would be tapped for a group show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The momentum he carries today—that which got him into Flatlands, a five-person exhibition Whitney Museum of American Art in 2016, among so many other exhibitions—has an origin point, and that locus is Boston University. “The professors took a ton of time for me. They gave me critiques outside of class, and one professor gave me his old books.” Among them was a very special book: that of John Currin. He became a fan of the great painter, but would never guess that the names Cerletty and Currin would appear on an exhibition card together. The stuff of dreams? That’s what Cerletty does for a living.

Explore Mathew’s Website

MFA PAINTING, 2005

“You walk down the halls and you smell paint,” Hannah Cole remembers of her experience at BU. She was a budding art historian when she entered the program, but when she took her first painting class in the School of Visual Arts, she became engrossed in a centuries-long legacy—the adoration oil paint. “Something that I appreciate is that BU instilled within me a real love for painting. That has never left and it’s been a fire that has burned ever since,” she says.

By May of 2005, near the tail end of her MFA, a wealth of opportunities knocked on her door. She was sought out for an exhibition at Boston’s Alpha Gallery. Next, she was awarded BU’s prestigious Kahn Career Entry Grant, which gave her the critical resources she needed to focus on painting. That same year, she completed a residency at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Since then, she has picked up representation in Brooklyn’s Slag Gallery; exhibited in Italy, Spain, and Switzerland; and received multiple national and international fellowships.

Looking back, Cole recognizes the importance of her BU peers in developing the career she has today. “I think the peer group teaches you as much as the school does.” What’s more important, Cole adds, is that the peer group becomes a support group after graduating; essential partners with the common goal of living the artist’s life.

Explore Hannah’s Website

MFA SCULPTURE, 2017

To Catherine Della Lucia, the element of touch is a source of inspiration, a necessity for craft, and an important method of communication in her sculptures. Della Lucia graduated from Boston University with a MFA in Sculpture in 2017 and continues to live in Boston. She is now a lecturer at Brandeis University and a practicing sculptor.

Formed through a “hands-on labor intensive” process, Della Lucia’s works involve many elements of personal narrative that are specific to certain communities or experiences. After making quick sketches and 3D renderings, she does a lot of power carving and hand chiseling of ceramic or wooden pieces to fit them together without glueing or screwing the modular pieces. It is as if “they’ve grown together”. Though challenging, she enjoys transforming rigid material into soft and fluid texture. In her art practice, the sense of touch serves her to find focus and “hear things that [she] might not normally hear,” as if using a “different brainwave”. It is also important to help her “connect with… somebody, an idea, a thought, a place, [and] personnel…” During the pandemic, Della Lucia finds inspiration by considering how tangible objects, like trophies, may be meaningless to others, but can hold personal meaning to the owner. Her current work explores the relationship between the function of these objects and the reason for them belonging in a personal space.

Della Lucia’s motivation to be a teacher derives from her relationship with the great instructors at BU. The freedom in the classroom and her instructor’s thoughtful guidance helped her build strong relationships. She advises students on the importance of expanding social circles and emphasizes to support each other by sharing ideas, resources, or opportunities, and by providing each other feedback within their artist communities. Della Lucia will continue supporting the dynamic arts community in Boston through her practices as a sculptor and as an arts educator.

BFA GRAPHIC DESIGN, 2006

For the entrepreneurial-minded, Boston is a place of inspiration. As one BU alumnus, Dave Delmar Sentíes puts it, “It’s a place where new ideas can take flight. It’s a big enough city to have a market, but it’s not New York, where the tracks have already been laid and greased.” Delmar, who graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2006, is the Executive Director and Founder of Resilient Coders, a Boston-based organization devoted to diversifying technology, making the field more accessible to underserved populations. His program rewards the brightest team players with a world of opportunities—hackathons, boot camps, stipends, apprenticeships, and job connections—all laid out on a newly leveled playing field.

To generate revenue, the organization takes on design and development projects for clients. It is here that Delmar puts his graphic design and English degrees to work. “A big part of my job is story telling,” he adds with a nod to his English minor. ”People respond to stories rather than numbers and metrics.” Like so many BU students, he internalized the creative energy that surrounded him, and this momentum led him into his passion. After seeing the spirit of innovation in his city, in his University, in his professors, and his peers, he had to know that it was within him as well. Ignited by ambition, he got to work. Now he changes lives.

Explore David’s Website

Bostonia Feature: Opening Doors

BFA PAINTING, 2005

Holland Dieringer finds her muse hiding in a collage of life experiences: yesterday’s ideas, today’s inspiration, and tomorrow’s promise. They all come together in a single work of art, sometimes quite literally. Using test prints from her undergraduate printmaking classes, Dieringer creates collages that often make their way into her paintings. They are the simple starting points to complex ideas. Throughout her career, from administrator at the Rubin-Frankel Gallery to artist and yoga teacher in the greater Boston area, she has kept her college experience close at hand.

It’s a continual challenge for an artist to sustain a practice for a lifetime, and Dieringer has, for years, looked to her BU professors as role models for this. “The lasting impact of the teachers was the balance that they showed to us.” She says, “They were very grounding.” Today, Dieringer follows their example. She grounds herself through yoga and meditation, and teaches eager yogis who wish to do the same. Her art practice, a meditative process in its own right, fits seamlessly into this profession, and the inspiration flows both ways.

The intangible benefits that Dieringer took from BU are just as important as the practical launch it gave to her endeavors in the arts. Dieringer has guided her career down a winding road, and thanks to a solid educational foundation, she’s found success – and happiness—at every turn.

Explore Holland’s Website

BFA PAINTING, 2004 • MFA STUDIO ARTS TEACHING, 2005

Throughout our lives, teachers play an important role in the development of who we become when we’re older. Meghan Dinsmore embodies this, teaching art to high school students and serving as the K-12 art director for her school district. Dinsmore graduated from BU in 2004, completing a BFA in Painting and an MFA in Studio Arts Teaching. In her practice, she makes sure to incorporate what she learned from her program, professors and peers at BU.

Dinsmore loves to create art. In her current practice, she stays inspired by the things around her and continuously pushes the boundaries of her art. She is working on abstract dreamscape paintings as a way to stay connected with the environment around her. Nonetheless, she continues to create small sketches from observation that are easier to make in her home studio during the pandemic.
As a teacher, Dinsmore is continually inspired by her students. She maintains a constant creative flow with her classes, encouraging them to “… explore and create these little worlds”, to ensure her classroom remains a free and open environment to investigate your artistic self and the world around you.

Dinsmore’s word of advice for an artist is to “stay true to yourself and do what you love.” BU taught her to value a strong foundation in the principles of art, and to also expand that practice, ensuring not to stay ‘stuck’ in one place. To this day, she continues to practice and share these lifelong lessons.

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN, 2017

After graduating from Boston University with a MFA in Graphic Design in 2017, Joshua Duttweiler moved to Texas to work as a graphic designer and Assistant Professor at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Besides his passion for graphic design, Duttweiler credits his love for the school environment and exposure to great instructors as a reason for becoming an instructor. His experience as a Teaching Assistant during his graduate studies also inspired his future career.

Duttweiler finds inspiration for his graphic design work primarily from collaborations with fellow artists, and from responding to specific current events. He describes his work as a “conductor or a conduit” for voices that are not often heard. Duttweiler is always aware that his designs can influence others’ perspectives since “designers and artists have the ability to connect with people either on an emotional level or on an intellectual level”. Therefore he closely observes how people interact with his work in public. Feedback from BU faculty and peers trained him to be critical about his own work in order to develop all aspects of his designs. Currently Duttweiler is preparing an interactive exhibition, entitled Archipelago 15° 7′ 2″ S , at the Art Museum of South Texas, that examines a historically black town in Texas that became abandoned due to infrastructure projects.

As a teacher, Duttweiler shares important skills he learned at BU, including taking experimental risks in their design practice, while also developing the students’ collaboration and critical thinking skills.. He does this by challenging them to push beyond their initial ideas and against large societal systems that most people have grown accustomed to be comfortable with. Duttweiler plans to continue his career as an instructor, while continuing his journey of observing, researching, and responding to his surroundings.

MFA PAINTING, 2015

“You need to survive.” Despite realizing the challenges and frustrations that come with being an artist, Shannon Forrester is an artist that relentlessly fights against social injustices in her practices. After graduating from BU with a MFA in Painting in 2015, she centered her career around fighting against misogyny, racism, and homophobia. She vividly remembers looking through her 800 page art history textbook and finding not a single woman to be represented. Realizing that until the status quo is challenged, everything remains the same; Forrester sought change.

Currently, Forrester is working on effective methodology that reveals how painting can serve as a means of mental healing. She wants to alleviate the dynamics and trauma caused by social inequities. Her excitement for this project derives from her own experiences of using rich colors in her paintings and from her passion of wanting to help others.

Forrester fights to give a voice to women and young girls, especially in the arts. She encourages women to remember “that you are worthy of your work that is just as good as anybody else’s.” Through her work with the Practice and Standard Committee on Diversity Practices at the College Art Association, Forrester believes the discussion of equity and diversity are part of the most meaningful things that come out of it. She recognizes that painting can play an important role in that mission.

BFA PAINTING, 2006

Jacquelyn Gleisner graduated BU summa cum laude with a painting major and an art history minor. The rigorous academic and studio requirements suited Gleisner, who was a serious student with an eager mind. Professors taught her to push the scale of her work and raise her already ambitious standards to the next level. “I was very lucky to be pushed to make big, bold paintings,” she remarks. Such ambition can only be achieved through self-discipline, a habit that BU painting majors can’t do without. Today that commitment to move beyond her comfort zone has translated into large-scale geometric abstractions that unfurl on paper scrolls dozens of feet in length.

Gleisner’s art career quickly gained steam. In 2008 she was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship for artistic research in Helsinki, Finland, and became a columnist for Art21—a job she retains to this day. In 2015, she was one of three artists selected to travel with the Art in Embassies Program to Botswana, Africa. It it is safe to say her art was well received: the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Botswana chose one of her paintings to give as a gift for the President of Botswana, in addition to the painting that hangs at the Ambassador’s residence.

The record reflects that Gleisner is the master of her own life success, but she admits that it helps to have the BU network at her disposal. Presently, she is working with her undergraduate professor, Hugh O’Donnell, to organize an exhibition in Washington, Connecticut. Even as time rolls on, Gleisner’s education keeps giving, and the learning never stops.

Explore Jacquelyn’s Website

BFA PAINTING, 2003

Ever since she came into BU as an undergraduate student, Alexis Granwell has grappled with the languages of painting and sculpture, wondering where and how their lateral lines may intersect. It took her years to realize her goal of making a sculptural painting—an effort that had to germinate into maturity—but her desire to do so began in her freshman year at BU. Today, she is a painter, a sculptor, and a printmaker with a solid education beneath it all. A strong foundation of drawing—which all BU School of Visual Arts students receive in their fist year—supports all facets of her multidisciplinary approach to art. “BU gave a clear understanding of foundational drawing,” she says. “I appreciate that I got that background.”

Granwell’s technical skills gave her confidence to venture into three-dimensional media, and her subsequent body of work has proven its strength. In 2015, she was awarded a $10,000 Independence Foundation Grant, which supported an influential printing residency at the Dieu Donne Paper Mill. In addition to being a practicing artist, Granwell is a curator within the artist-run project space that she helped found ten years ago. The thriving nonprofit, Tiger Meets Asteroid, has locations in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and it exhibits work by artists from around the US. With a network that sprawls across the nation and a mission to connect the art conversations within it, Granwell’s project space hinges geographically distant art communities together. There is no doubt that the young artist has gone the distance to connect the arts, effectively breaking down the spaces that obstruct artistic dialogue.

Explore Alexis’s Website

BFA GRAPHIC DESIGN, 2012

Alyssa Clare Hoerston applied to BU in 2008 with a vision in mind, a vision of the strong woman she wanted to become. Visiting the School of Visual Arts for the first time, she saw its strong female leaders and immediately identified with them. They were, as she says, “shining examples of what I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to be in a place that was supportive of wome.” And she found that at BU.

Hoerston, who now lives and works in New York City, has become an accomplished woman in her own right, turning a BFA in Graphic Design into a robust career. Since her first internship at InStyle Magazine, which she completed during the summer of her junior year at BU, her trajectory has launched her upwards. She landed a job in the tablet department of InStyle, helping them format the magazine into a digital edition. After two years as the art director there, she followed an urge to move out of the publication business and straight into the world of fashion.

Now, as the artistic director of Tommy Hilfiger, she uses her graphic design training every day, for it takes combination of technical skills and aesthetic decisions to lead branding campaigns. She credits much of her technical skill to the fact that BU’s graphic design program is rooted in fine arts. “Learning how to sketch, paint, and sculpt informs a holistic view of design,” she says. It also inspires. Hoerston vividly recalls a lecture by a painter, Jenny Saville, as one of the most formative moments of her studies.

If you want to see what an ambitious graphic designer can do with a BU diploma, there’s an app for that. Hoerston recently headed up a program to create and launch the Tommyland Snap:Shop App, which won a prestigious Clio Award for excellence in design, advertising, and communication.
It is the whole environ of BU that drives the ambition of budding designers like Hoerston. It’s the people that inspire you to lead, the campus that imbues you with knowledge, and the city of Boston that surrounds you with endless opportunities for growth.

BFA PAINTING, 2015

Undergraduate students within BU’s School of Visual Arts earn their BFAs by demonstrating a commitment to creativity. When they begin their first jobs after college, they realize that the skill, like the degree itself, gives them the ability to take on a variety of career paths. Liz Morlock, a 2015 graduate of the Painting program, took her BFA outside of the studio, finding success as the Assistant Director of Samson Projects, a prominent Boston art gallery. To get her start, Morlock relied on the BU network. Professors within the School of Visual Arts are also practicing artists, so they hold the all-important ties to galleries in Boston and beyond. By capitalizing on connections from her sculpture professor, she lined up an interview at Samson Projects and got the job as an intern.

This unpaid position was her ticket in, and she was able to establish herself in the artistic community through four different jobs in her first year. In addition to working at Samson, she became a studio assistant to one of the gallery’s artists, an office manager for a photography studio, and a cataloger for a private collector. Her success in her new position at Samson Projects, which she attributes in part to her unique background in painting, has given her satisfying status and visibility in the art world. For fourteen years, the gallery has been on the cutting edge of Boston’s art scene, and Morlock and her colleagues are sure to keep it that way.

Photo by Diana Levine for Boston Magazine / dianalevine.com

BFA PAINTING, 2003

After graduating from BU with a BFA in Painting in 2003, Michelle Murillo furthered her artistic practice, receiving a MFA in Printmaking from the University of Alberta. Currently, she is an Associate Professor and Chair of Printmedia at California College of the Arts (CCA). Through combining her BFA and MFA, Michelle makes strides in defining her art by expanding the vocabulary of print and the multiple within an interdisciplinary context.

Michelle centers her art around maps, a continuation of her previous work with ancestry, but this time focusing on her cultural identity through specific places such as her ancestral homelands. She delved into historic maps, connecting that to printmaking, as many of these old maps were originally created as prints of etchings. The physical and material process of printmaking is important to Michelle and exploring new techniques is what she says “gets her into the studio.” Despite the current limitations of the pandemic, she takes this as an opportunity to find new and different solutions, such as digital reproductions of her work or even setting up her own little print set up at home!

Michelle’s time at BU taught her the importance of a supportive and critical community. She is constantly looking to engage with creative people. She finds that anyone’s creative practice will sustain them for years to come, especially by keeping connections with the people in your artistic and personal community. Her practice of archiving maintains those connections to her families that she uses as a mode of communication. Print has not only a practical use, but has the capacity to translate so much more than words could.

BFA PAINTING, 2015

The earthy pigments, the sable brushes, the mineral spirits — to painters, these are the instruments by which alchemy can manifest. The most passionate among them have a reverence for these materials, a devotion to the art form, and it is a gift when they become teachers. Artist Rebecca Ness learned this early on. She was only six years old when she took her first painting lessons from Jack Highberger, a BU School of Visual Arts graduate who had attended the university during the tenure of artist Phillip Guston. Years later, Highberger encouraged her to apply to BU, to dig her roots deeper into the painting lineage from which she had sprouted.

For Ness, BU had the perfect balance of traditional and contemporary modes of working. Thanks to her undergraduate studies and her formative years studying with Highberger, Ness believes in the alchemy of oil paint—its ability to transcend its own materiality. Her oil paintings have, indeed, transcended: beyond the paint, beyond the frame, and into the realm of her career. In the mere two years since she graduated from BU, Ness has been a part of twenty group exhibitions, has completed a residency at the Chautauqua Institution, and has attended the New York Studio School Drawing Marathon. After BU Ness went on to earn her MFA at Yale University, and continues to use paint as a vehicle for transformation. She noted that she is in a position of questioning, yet she sits securely as a firmly-rooted disciple of Boston University’s painting tradition.

Explore Rebecca’s Website

BFA PAINTING, 2009

From September to May, the lights in the BU painting studio shine on, day and night. The students that cycle through the space, burning the midnight oil, are the ones who form the community within the university’s rigorous painting program. In the spring of 2009, Sarah Pater was an integral part of it, a senior on the fast track to commencement. After graduation, she bid Boston farewell, moved to Philadelphia, PA, and, as fate would have it, wound up back in a circle of BU friends. Her shared experiences with three of Philadelphia’s BU alumni ignited the friendships that would channel her directly into the city’s art scene and introduce her to two artist-run spaces: FJORD and Tiger Strikes Asteroid.

Though her artwork speaks for itself, her connections to these galleries—both established by BU graduates—couldn’t have hurt her exposure. So far, she has exhibited at FJORD on three occasions and was recently included in a show at Tiger Meets Asteroid. Pater completed a residency at the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation in New Berlin, NY, has been featured in the Northeast issue of the influential New American Paintings magazine, and has been a part of seven exhibitions, including a group show at Brennan and Griffin in New York City. Gaining a foothold in a new artistic community has been important to Pater’s success. Little did she know, those undergrad nights under studio lights were sowing the seeds of a new BU community, miles away from Boston.

Explore Sarah’s Website

BFA PAINTING, 2007

Rachelle Reichert came to BU to pursue painting, but from the beginning she was interested in the distinctions that separate art from other disciplines. After her professor’s suggestion that she reach out to other programs of study for reference, Reichert contacted the BU Medical School. This move began an important dialogue between art and science that persists within her work today.

Reichert still keeps an art practice rooted in research and engaged with a larger community. Her concerns, which have turned towards environmental issues, have led her to become involved in matters as varied as water politics, climate change, and the health of the San Francisco Bay Estuary. Over the years, her interactions with people from other fields have opened her up to wealth of opportunities, including speaking engagements and exhibitions at the California Climate Change Symposium, the State of the Estuary Conference, and the American Geospatial Union Meeting. In conjunction with her last exhibition, Reichert held a talk with a former NASA scientist, who, as she says, has been visualizing the earth—just as she has—for years.

Somewhere between the initial research and the execution of her sculptures, drawings, and installations, Reichert’s works transcend their materiality, becoming powerful art objects and steps towards interdisciplinary dialogue.