This was the first year that the Media Arts and Communications seniors were given the opportunity to do a senior gallery show.. and their last (for now).

On a similar note, the Graphic Design major closed its doors when Media Arts came in, but the major’s remaining seniors stayed.

In one big great metaphor, these majors are closing their doors (for now) as well as wrapping up the 2025-2026 school year with the last senior exhibitions of the year.

Let me walk you through my experience of planning, creating, and setting up my final senior exhibition, as well as the fantastic work that my fellow seniors put in at the Lowden Gallery.

Early Days

I decided the overall theme, message, and design of my show pretty early on, sharing my brainstorm with my fellow exhibitors. The name was definitely still up in the air, but I wanted to create a very multimedia (go figure) showcase, mixing music, visual arts, and written journalism with passion/spirituality.

I ended up keeping almost all of the original ideas in my pitch as you’ll see later on.

In our first big meeting with both Graphics and Media Arts seniors, we bounced many setup ideas off of each other, trying to find some kind of common ground and somehow merge our shows.

Did this work out? No. Was that okay? Completely! There were some people still figuring things out, but there were also individuals very locked onto the visions they had for their senior showcases. As long as we were able to figure out how to share the space, compromise was necessary.

Locking it Down

Around the point where advertisements were due, I still had no idea if I was going to merge with someone. Merging meant sharing a larger space, but it also meant having to mix up my original idea.

I’ve always been okay with compromise, but I also wanted everyone to be happy with the outcome. I found that I had similar ideas as other gallery members, but not enough to where it warranted a switch.

After a lot (and I mean a lot) of back and forth, I decided that going solo was best for me. Now all I had to figure out was what I wanted the title to be…

I ended up with the name “Songbird” in my head like an earworm, as I thought it fit my vision so well. Media Arts and Communications majors use their voices to spread information, to create, and to learn. When birds sing, it’s not just a beautiful tune, but a way to communicate with their fellow birds. 

We are the songbirds of the world.

And after some internal debate about whether or not I should spell it as “Songbyrd” (I know, it’s corny), I got some outside advice to go with the classic spelling (thanks, Aerith!).

Cut to some fun photography and photoshop action– enter my final exhibition advertisement.

Time to Start

Did I wait a little last minute to start my paintings? Maybe. But I digress; my plan was to paint the favorite and most impactful albums of each of the Media Arts seniors, including myself. The central focus or faces on the painting would be covered with mirror vinyl so you could “reflect” on it (get it?).

The chosen albums are as follows:

So Called Chaos by Alanis Morissette, For Me.

What Could Be Better by The Happy Fits, For Parker.

Greatest Hits by Waterparks, For DJ.

The Family Jewels by MARINA, for Aerith.

Sour by Olivia Rodrigo, for Lily.

Five 12×12 paintings due by the end of April? What could go wrong..

Okay, nothing really went wrong, but it still got a little high stress nearing the end. I even had my dear friend DJ (thanks, DJ!) switch up their album choice to a similar one by Waterparks because, one, I didn’t know where the mirror vinyl would go, and two, my goodness that would’ve been a pain to paint.

So, recap:

G̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶H̶i̶t̶s̶ FANDOM by Waterparks, For DJ.

Now back on track, I actually find painting really therapeutic. Luckily, I’m also a very quick painter and once I get into the groove of things it’s hard to stop until I finish.

As the focal point of my senior exhibitions, I’m very happy with how they all turned out and how I managed to finish them before the deadline.

For my interactive section, I pieced together my journalism and graphic design assignments from my time here at LVA into a yearly collage. My plan was to have our gallery’s visitors “peel back the layers” of the wallpaper and take a walk down *my* memory lane.

Set-Up and Opening

I used an unhealthy amount of velcro dots in my gallery (takedown was fun…).

We utilized the tools that were provided, courtesy of Mr.Salmon and Mrs.Stroud’s tool box, and got BUSY.

Set-up also took ridiculously long, and apart from multiple missed classes, it was undoubtedly worth it. Being together with the Media Arts and Graphic Design seniors, playing music, cracking jokes, helping each other– it ended up being such a memorable experience.

Everyone’s spaces flowed so well together, even with wildly different concepts and ideas being held in the same space. In my heart, they all represented memory, the experiences and people we met along the way, and our connections to our passions.

Thank you, LVA. Thank you, Media Arts and Communications. Thank you for being a home away from home for me, and thank you for letting me put the colors in my mind onto this wall.