Three art majors finally reach the finish line

On April 30, the Emmanuel Gallery hosts the spring B.F.A. Exhibition. UCD art majors will display their projects and breathe a little easier, secure in the knowledge that they're facing the final hurdle before graduation. The Advocate has been following three photography students - Laura Hamilton, Carly Rose Moser, and Theo Mullen - along the path ("Series tracks progress to senior thesis," Feb. 28, and "The future slips into frame for art majors," Mar. 14) and we are pleased to present some of their images for our last installment.

Laura Hamilton

Laura Hamilton's project, which features the strongly voyeuristic element that informs all of her work, is tentatively titled "Our Space." In the boldly composed images, Hamilton portrays the details of daily life as they might be seen through the eyes of a Peeping Tom. Her lens captures isolated fragments - the truncated image of a limb, the brief glimpse of a woman's lower body - with unflinching honesty.

Despite her achievement, Hamilton won't have much time to relax and reflect. She's been accepted by the graduate program at Rutgers University, so her immediate future involves packing and all the logistics that accompany moving to a new city. Still, her relief is palpable. "It's a great feeling," she says, "accomplishing a body of work that's taken a year to unfold."

Carly Rose Moser

Carly Rose Moser's project explores the relationship women have with their bodies and the disconnect between reality and perception. Titled "Refract," it is a meditation on body dysmorphia - a condition that results in having distorted images of one's body - and its aftereffects. At turns lighthearted and searing, the images encompass everything from the banal - the application of makeup - to the disturbing: the use of a razor wielded against a young woman's flesh.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Moser busied herself with framing her photographs and considering her future. The next step is clear: She'll take a month-long trip to Australia to participate in the International Scholar Laureate Program's delegation on journalism, which instructs students on the finer points of the fourth estate. It won't be all work, though - Moser will squeeze in trips to a rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef, and then she'll take brief vacations to New York and Washington D.C. After that, Moser will decide where to pursue a graduate degree, and determine if she wants to become a photojournalist or a documentary filmmaker.

Theo Mullen

For Theo Mullen, several of the images in his final project, titled "Subtext," carry personal meaning. Sprinkled in amid pictures of Denver and outlying areas are images of New Orleans, where he grew up. He had the opportunity to revisit his boyhood home due to a grant he received from the Undergrad Research Opportunity Program (UROP) at UCD. His mandate was to document the Crescent City's reconstruction following its decimation by Hurricane Katrina. "I like to think that what I am making will fit into a historical context in the future," he says. "In the end, I am interested in place and the ordinary object, and what their provenances are."

For the future, grad school is calling, but Mullen plans to spend some time working on various exhibits first. The Smokebrush Foundation in Colorado Springs will show some of his New Orleans prints this October and November. Next spring he'll be involved with a show at the Lakewood Cultural Center. After the dust settles, he'll decide on graduate programs and whether to pursue photography or his other passion, sculpture.

April 30 - May 4, 2007

Opening Reception: May 3, 4 - 7 p.m.

The exhibition and the opening reception are free and open to the public.

Emmanuel Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (303) 556-8337 www.emmanuelgallery.org

Metro State College of Denver B.F.A. Thesis Exhibition "Artosaurus Rex"

April 27 - May 10, 2007

Opening Reception: April 27, 6 - 10 p.m.

Center for Visual Art 1734 Wazee Street (303) 294-5207

The exhibition and the opening reception are free and open to the public.

Center for Visual Art Hours: Tuesday - Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday 12 to 5 p.m. www.mscd.edu/news/cva/

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