2025 Exhibit

Kristina Alexander

Aída Almanza-Ferro 

My works are a tribute to memory, love, and home. Two places that shaped me, one with paws and the other with roots. 

Echo: At the heart of this piece is Echo, my 19-year-old bulldog, who passed away on El Día de los Muertos, November 2, 2024. His departure on a day meant for honoring the dead feels like an invitation to remember him not with grief, but with love and gratitude.  

Echo was more than a pet; he was my living reminder of unconditional love, my quiet witness through joy, growth, loss, and change. His presence lingers in every space of my house, in the way light touches the floor where he used to nap, and in the small, sacred rituals of daily life. This work carries his spirit, grounded in the belief that love, like memory, never dies. 

Home: This work is a visual collage of my childhood home in México. It’s a mosaic of memory, faith, nature, and love. Each image tells a story: the Mexican flag dancing against a cloudy sky on the roof; the crucifix and San Miguel Arcángel guarding my home; the floral tiles and blooming white flowers that my parent's water with patience and care. 

And there’s Pinky, mi chiquita hermosa, our family pet who brought us closer together and reminded us daily of what it means to love deeply.  

This collage captures more than a place—it reflects the space that shaped how I love, how I see the world, and how I carry my culture with me, across time and across borders. 

Jennifer Anderson

This quilt was created for my father who lost his house in Hurricane Harvey. It was an "in good faith" gift for when he had a home to hang it in. The quilt was created in one of Melody Mauch's collage classes.

Jennifer Arnold

Jennifer Arnold resides in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she has maintained a studio practice since receiving her MFA from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2009.

Objects, architecture, and nature within and near her home inform Arnold's work. She communicates her observations, with often delicate pieces, and integrates her thoughts into photography, collage, sculpture, utilizing a photographic technique Canvas Peels. The Canvas Peels are her most unique works. The process began as an accident, and fortunately, through tireless experimenting, was able to reproduce it and control it. Each leaf is photographed individually from a plumeria plant, printed on canvas, and then the image is released from the canvas leaving a transparent, archival image/object. These images are pliable and are adhered to a wire armature creating an object both real and surreal.

Arnold serves as Co-Chair for the Board of Directors, and Chair of the Exhibitions Committee for K Space Contemporary; a 501(c)3 non-profit contemporary art space in downtown. She served as adjunct professor as well as the academic advisor for the arts at TAMUCC for many years. She is now Assistant Professor of Art and Director of University Galleries for the Department of Art + Design at TAMUCC.

Skally Benitez

Dominic Burch

My photos explore the beauty found in everyday moments while working at TAMU-CC, often overlooked. Using a cell phone gives ease to capturing brief snippets during a typical workday while around the Coastal Bend. Serenity Now captures a serene pelican on a rare calm/foggy morning on San Antonio Bay, that is normally choppy and chaotic.  

My photos explore the beauty found in everyday moments working at TAMU-CC, often overlooked. Using a cell phone gives ease to capturing brief snippets during a typical workday while around the Coastal Bend. Enjoying Baffin Bay captures a student kayaking to a sampling site on a tranquil morning while a film crew documents research being done in and around the often-turbulent Baffin Bay.

Amber Click

Scorched at Both Ends is a visual representation of the emotional and psychological toll of teacher burnout, inspired by narrative data collected from a qualitative research study. The painting shows the participant—faceless, with a chaotic tangle of black and white lines in place of his head—symbolizing the mental overload and fragmentation teachers can experience. The surrounding quotes are taken directly from the participant, offering raw, unfiltered insight into his daily struggles: lack of support, overwhelming workloads, emotional exhaustion, and the quiet battles waged behind classroom doors.

The contrasting colors in the background—cool colors trapped between burning edges—convey the duality of passion and pain, dedication and depletion. The quotes are painted on burned, torn paper, suggesting the fragility of the teacher’s voice in a system that often fails to hear them. Glittered embers along the edges hint at both the remaining glimmers of hope and the consuming fire of burnout.

This piece honors the resilience of educators while also bearing witness to their suffering. It invites viewers to confront the reality that loving teaching and feeling broken by the system can coexist. Scorched at Both Ends challenges us to listen more closely, support more deeply, and recognize the human cost of a system stretched too thin.

Alexis De León

Emma Drumright

Three nights, two dreams

One day at work, I kept thinking about a vivid, emotional dream I had the night before and drew it onto a piece of notebook paper. The next night, I had another dream, which I then drew at work the next day. On the third day, I couldn’t remember having any dreams, but I drew anyway and eventually tucked all these notebook pages into my bag.

One day, I discovered my water bottle spilled in my bag and soaked the pages I had drawn on weeks before. Once I got home, I hung them on a clothes hanger to dry and, as I did, it felt like I was airing out these watery emotions. 

That moment inspired me to experiment further, using yarn and string to piece these dreams together. The way they hang together sort of reminded me of baby sleep mobiles, and using the clothes hanger, and thinking of dreams and emotions - how they might stick to you like clothes - brought to mind the phrase, “wearing your heart on your sleeve,” which all felt really fitting.  

With this piece, I hope to explore mental health, work, burnout, and our relationship to dreams, while also playing with comic paneling and storytelling techniques. 

Oh my stars!

I made this piece to celebrate my cats - my stars - Melody and Magic, and all of the animals that have helped anyone feel less lonely. 

Brittani Fletcher

Athena Frasca

Caitlyn Gamino

The Feeling of Jazz is a vibrant tribute to John Coltrane, whose sound reshaped the landscape of modern music. In this piece, I wanted to capture not just Coltrane's likeness, but the energy of improvisation — the emotional colors that spill out when jazz takes over the body.

The bold, almost surreal palette reflects the way jazz feels more than how it looks. Saturated greens, purples, and oranges pulse through the composition like notes off a saxophone — raw, expressive, and unpredictable. I deliberately exaggerated gesture and color to reflect the trance-like state Coltrane would enter while playing, where technique gives way to pure emotion.

This work honors jazz as both rebellion and refuge — a sound that emerged from struggle and joy, deeply rooted in Black creativity and spirit. With every stroke, I hoped to echo that freedom, that fire, that feeling.

What Love Will Do To You is a visual tribute to Laufey, a contemporary jazz artist whose music explores the deep ache of longing, vulnerability, and bittersweet romance. Her voice became the emotional palette for this piece — soft but haunting, elegant yet heart-wrenched. I chose a monochromatic violet scheme to evoke the dreamy, melancholic world her lyrics live in — a color that sits between passion and sorrow.

The piece is both portrait and mirror: while it honors Laufey's artistry, it also reflects the emotional aftermath love can leave behind. Her turned gaze and delicate posture suggest a quiet strength amidst ache — the kind of beauty that endures even when it's bruised.

Through layered textures and digital brushwork, I wanted to capture not just a likeness, but a feeling — the haze of memory, the sharp sting of heartbreak, and the strange comfort found in melancholic music. This is what love will do to you. And yet, somehow, we keep listening.

Jesse Glover

Side Eye My two hobbies are photography and fishing. I try to combine them as much as possible, when I’m doing both. I always have my fishing pole with me, I always have my camera with me. I was out wade fishing one day and after I got done, I came back to this little boat launch over by Ingleside by the Bay. It had a fish cleaning station next to it. This brown pelican set up on this mooring tie and just stared at me with one eye the entire time I was sitting there cleaning the fish. I finished up and said you know what? I’m going to take a picture of him, so I got things put away, pulled out my camera and he sort of perked up a little bit. I got some great photos and he got a great meal, I gave him the remains of the trout that I had caught that day.

Concrete Perspective So I was out fishing again another day and I pulled under the Causeway on the Portland side over by Indian Point Pier to throw a cast net for some minnows. When I pulled up, I just happened to look straight down and realized I could see from one side of the Causeway to the other, straight down between the pillars. The color of the water, the way it changed, it was just gorgeous. Even before I got the cast net out, I pulled my camera out, snapped some pictures, got some different perspectives of it. This was the best one, I hope everybody enjoys it.

 

David Hill

Sphinx, August 2020, 11”  x 11”

Everything I make is a sphinx. This painting features the end of a hollow toothpaste tube ripped off, spray-painted silver, with a face cut into it. Decapitated, it lays on a nest of purple yarn, smiling. It relates in form to another important subject to me, the Jack-O-Lantern. Viewers like to ask artists what their work “means,” as if finding a “right answer” from the primary source was the goal. That question also surreptitiously vets the artist and their ability to “explain themselves.” I can only speak about my intent. What the piece means is something else. How is meaning different from intent? That’s the kind of puzzle a sphinx would ask.

 

Diana Ivy

Euro Mount Fall Grapevine Wreath -This grapevine wreath with the European mount (skull & antlers) and fall foliage is by far the LARGEST wreath I’ve ever made in 25 years of wreathmaking.  A friend who was downsizing gifted me the grapevine wreath because I would have never purchased one this large.  I stared at it and the Euro mount separately for a few years, not knowing what to do with either.  Finally, the vision emerged for what I now call “Billy Bob” because the design seems very Texan to me.  A wreath base of that scale needed a focal point to match the scale, and the Euro mount provided just such a focal point.  Including the lush fall foliage was easy after securing the mount to the wreath, which was a real challenge.  The mount is so heavy by itself that it had to be rigged safely onto the wreath base.  Luckily, brown wrapped heavy-duty floral wire did the trick.  I’m thrilled to have my first creation entered into and accepted for the Islander Faculty and Staff Exhibition, happy to be among other creators/artists.  Huge thanks go to Professor David Hill for his encouragement and his expertise on rigging and hanging art/crafts in all kinds of places.  Enjoy!

JinSun Kim

Duckie Kowalski

Slow Dancing- I’ve been decorating the area around my record player and thinking of ways to incorporate music into the art without being in your face with band names or logos. I took lyrics from one of my favorite band’s songs and created lino prints from them. Slow Dancing is the second track from Lucero’s Tennessee album that was released in 2002. This song tells the story about a memory of a couple dancing at the end of a night out. This always hits home for me as I worked in and around the music industry for many years and the best moments were all at the end of the night when everything was winding down and you knew you had to make that moment last.

The Last Song- The Last Song is track eight off of the Lurcero album Tennessee. This song is more of a feeling to me, the excitement of seeing a band and just enjoying the moment. Music moves people and this song captures that. Hopefully this print highlights those perfect moments that live music creates. The last song, the last drink and just laying it all out there. This is a simple graphic of a glass on a table, but it captures a moment in time. Setting your drink down to enjoy that last moment.

Lisa Louis

Ruby Mehrubeoglu

Birthday Present - This piece combines the knowledge of engineering and sciences with art: I teach a course on digital image processing where one of the concepts covered involves color image segmentation. Color-based image segmentation entails taking a digital color image, which can have 2²⁴ (167,77,216) different color representations, and reducing the total number of colors used for the same image. Human eyes are not sensitive to the many colors exhibited in a color image, even though the full color range may contain important information for engineering/scientific analysis. The process involved taking a color photograph obtained with a digital cell phone camera and reducing the number of colors used. The image was represented using seven color segments (seven-level color segmentation). Color segmentation was achieved through the binning of pixel values using MATLAB, a programming tool used by engineers and scientists. Similar to the idea of a limited color palette used by Andy Warhol in “Marylin”, and Salvador Dali challenging the resolution of the eye and interpolation by the brain in “Lincoln”, the segmented digital image was created. The color combinations were selected to enhance the contrast in different segments based on the available Lego pieces. The work contains 2,304 Lego pieces on a Lego base plate. Lego pieces took three years to collect from different Lego stores. The finished work was presented as a birthday gift to someone very special.

 

Katelynn Phelan

This invitation was made for the 2025 TAMU-CC President's Ball themed "Into the Blue." The concept was to feel elegant and nautical. The intricate, delicate detail of the laser cut gatefold encapsulates the main invitation card. The insert is a shimmer royal blue paper stock using white ink and silver foil. This invitation won the Gold ADDY award for the American Advertising Federation Awards in 2025.  

The rebrand concept for Yoplait was born out of the necessity to compete within the current yogurt industry. The big name brand has fallen to third best seller, and should consider capitalizing on the fact that they partner with local dairy farmers globally. This rebrand hones in on that and showcases a fresh, new, organic logo and fluid design elements to accompany the bold photography. 

See more at designedbykatephelan.com

Joe Peña

As an experiment in an advanced painting course, I tasked students to create a work with a personal approach both inside of the composition as well as out.  First, an object of importance was chosen such as a childhood toy or a family heirloom; second, students carefully painted their subject matter on a surface of meaning including articles of clothing or wood from a piece of furniture; and lastly further personal objects were selected to add to the work’s substance. The result is a heavily layered painting of significance.  This was my piece completed with the students: The painting is of a putty/ palette knife belonging to my grandfather, carefully hung on the wall, adorned with objects found in his outdoor shed that were distributed to us. Its importance may not be of interest to others, but to our family.

Scott Pool

Phebe Raglin

This wig was created as part of a Himiko Toga cosplay from My Hero Academia which I wore at Corpus Christi Comic Con 2024. Cosplaying involves dressing up and representing both fictional and real-life characters (although fictional recreations are more common). I am passionate about this hobby, and love how it helps grow my creative skillset as I shapeshift into these characters. This piece represents the creative process of designing and constructing a wig that embodies the character I am cosplaying, and it also challenged me to learn more and take risks!

The wig is built from a base cap and synthetic hair; it was dyed using two shades of synthetic fabric Rit dyes. It was my first time dyeing synthetic fibers and required experimentation throughout the process. After the dye, it required extensive detangling and cutting (Mane n’ Tail detangler is essential!). I used a steamer, smoothing spray, layers of hair spray, back combing, hair glue, and tacky glue to give life to it, particularly with turning the synthetic hair clips into her iconic buns and shaping the strands’ points. I used hair clips and quilting pins to style and secure the hair.

The styling process required me to balance accuracy and recognizability with wearability and durability for convention wearing (and wind). This piece was an opportunity to explore new methods and techniques that expanded my knowledge and engaged my creativity. I look forward to continuing to learn and sharpen my skills!

Leandra Urrutia

Personal myths and mystical objects help me make sense of experiences that impact my body and mind but are beyond my control. I approach the unknown and challenge the status quo using fiction and invention. My imagery includes samplings of objects, materials, and beliefs from Western and Eastern traditions. Using female intuition I fabricate narratives, seeking to connect that which will bring new meaning to tired ways of thinking and living. Sculptural hybrid forms provide a vehicle for sharing my perspective and exorcising my fears.