1^st Place

Pablo Francisco Cruze-Ayala for Lamentations across Guachimontones

Description

This artwork explores my personal experience of coming to terms with being an undocumented immigrant. Constructing, rebuilding, and learning the culture of where I am now and of a home I yearn to connect with. Often it is the doors we have to open within ourselves to recognize the systems of erasures we've all personally experienced. This piece is about lamenting the past that's been lost and looking forward to a future we create for ourselves and our identities. This piece is a key painting in my series of recontextualizing undocumented identities and struggles.

Expressing these kinds of struggles and experiences can honor and bring representation to those who've felt left behind culturally. We can move forward with pride and hope within the compassion we give ourselves to lament our past. This painting has UV reactive pigment that tells an underlying story of expression under fear. Exploring the theme of what we as individual feel comfortable sharing and with whom under the right circumstances like therapy, community, etc. I hope this piece can bring compassion and solace to those who have endured immigration, those who worry about loved ones because of their status, or anyone who cares for the immigrant communities and the unique contributions they offer. Symbols of Mexican life and death like the cempaúschil flower, skulls, graveyards, and hearts all go towards celebrating the life we live. It is with an open heart, that immigrants offer their new communities' compassion and in turn, yearn to feel it reciprocated to belong.

2^nd Place

Mors Smith for Home Artist Statement

Description

Love starts with you When learning compassion for myself there has always been one thing that I have struggled to accept, that my body and my mind are my home. I can't tinker with them until they're perfect, and as I continue to live life I might crack, or even break. But I don't need to be fixed. Caring for my needs, and nurturing those around me has helped me heal. Even if it's not how I felt society wanted me to exist. Sometimes we are broken, and that's okav.

3^rd Place

Andrea Fabrega for Mourning Time

Description

Mom died in July 2023 at age 89. About a year before she died, we brought her and my Dad out here from Pittsburgh, PA, their family home for 45 years. The transition was difficult. Dad died 3 weeks later (from ALS at age 88) but mom was now nearby. I starred in the movie, The Good Daughter, the last year of her life. I had great compassion for her but did I have enough for myself? I never imagined I could be so good in that role. Mom became so sweet, appreciative, and loving the last 12 months of her life. It was hard to believe it was mom. We certainly had our ups and downs over the years. I was so grateful I could have all this time with mom. For almost 40 years, we had lived on opposite sides of the country and then we had her a 12 minute drive away. Regular visits were easy and a pleasure-eating ice cream together, going to the aviary or Red Butte or bringing her over to our house or just hanging at the assisted living facility playing with the resident kittens. She wanted her body donated to The U medical school for science (like my Dad did so we never had a formal funeral or ceremony. I had an incomplete feeling about the ending. I started getting down on myself. I wasn't being the good daughter. In my photography class, we had an assignment where we had to explore the concept of time. I wracked my brain for ways to illustrate this concept. Mom collected handmade teddy bears and we had her collection. I had gone over the teddy bears but didn't fully bond with them. For the assignment, I decided to set up a tableau with the bears viewing mom's dead body and take that picture. It was a commemoration from the bears and me. I called it Mourning Time. I also took several other photos with the bears as well for the assignment. Somehow, playing with mom's bears helped me process all those feelings surrounding her death. She would have loved this photo and in fact would have wanted to get involved with the setting up. I know the bears are wondering where mom is.

They miss her attention. They are also wondering why she is holding a rabbit. This was a mass market gift store rabbit, not a hand made rabbit. I think the bears are probably surprised she went so downscale. Mom was somewhat of a snob when it came to her stuffed animals. All these musings and dialogues with myself about this project comforted me. The process of o creating the photo helped me to realize I could overlook any omissions and failings in honoring and loving my mother. I could be kind to myself and recognize what I did. I could have compassion to myself. The process diffused the sharp self-criticism. I could think about mom in a way she would love.