Congratulations Class of 2020!
It is an honor and a pleasure to congratulate the seniors whose final semester and senior thesis exhibition were so suddenly interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, they and their professors persevered, and it is clear from the work featured in this catalogue that their hard work paid off.
To watch our students develop their skills and ideas, refining and adjusting, sometimes discarding, moving through experimentation and discouragement to self-discovery, is wondrously rewarding. We watch them fill their quivers with the knowledge and confidence to build upon as artists and send them off to change minds, change hearts, change the world – in large and small ways.
The exceptional work in the 2020 Senior Thesis Catalogue explores personal and sometimes painful subject matter. The works use symbolism, allegory, and metaphor to question reality and memory as well as the complicated topics of disassociation, grief, and motherhood. I encourage everyone to watch the provocative videos the students created to discuss their work, and I thank them for sharing such thoughtful and self-revelatory reflections.

Paula Owen
President
Southwest School of Art
2020 Senior Thesis Exhibition Catalogue