mixed media

I use my art practice to express the dualities, issues, questions, feelings and conflicts of a bi-national, bi-culture, and bi-language woman identity - pain, belonging, struggles, cultural loss, self-esteem, acceptance, and inclusion. My practice transports the audience into the experience of being in my world - emotionally and physically - by utilizing Painting, Installation, Sculpture, and Photography. This is portrayed by using elements such as body language, facial expressions, objects, shadows, and nature. My use of iconography is important to represent both the Mexican and American cultures, inspired by the symbolic metaphors of Frida Kahlo. My depiction of dualities is influenced by Cindy Sherman and Ana Mendieta. The colors used in the work reference the national flags, culture and emotions. The materials, such as tissue paper and paper mache, interpret the Mexican handicraft and piñatas, and chicken wire and wire fences relates to the barbed wire and fence of the U.S. and Mexico border. In the U.S., some of these issues are shared between the Chicanx, Latinx, immigrants, women, and minority communities. My work, as well as this paper, decolonizes art and is made to represent the people that resonate with it.

Language—both spoken and written—has, is, and always will be susceptible to spin, manipulation, obfuscation, and misinterpretation. This paper explores how communication's inherent vulnerability has long formed the core of my conceptual inquiry. As a visual artist, I am a tireless experimenter—with both ideas and materials. The foundation of my interdisciplinary practice is my artist's books, which have been referred to as "patchwork quilts of the subconscious." Projects related to my book practice include performance videos along with text-based drawings, paintings, and sculpture that may be characterized as both personal and social critiques. As the inherent nature of humans remains impulsive and fallible, these works may illuminate our unconscious reluctance to convert rational awareness into a more positive and sustainable life practice. My final thesis project will demonstrate emboldened approaches to these facets of my practice. I will present up to thirty new artist's book entries, a dozen new hand-sculpted UNBOUND book prints (up to 7 x 10 feet), five new text-based works on paper and canvas, and one new wall sculpture fabricated in mirrored stainless steel.

In this paper, I examine how stigma against mental illness informs my artistic process, the current state of this stigma and how it manifests in society, and methods for combating and overturning the resulting ableism. This paper begins with a survey of my practice. I approach my work from an overall perspective, and investigate processes, themes, techniques, and mediums. The second half is dedicated to the pursuit of a single theme: anti-stigma intervention. I focus on a concrete examination of the current stigma against mental illness in the United States, and propose ideas for avoiding tropes, stereotypes, and depictions that reinforce it. Following this, I provide examples of current work from other artists and myself, as we strive to undo the ableism present in today's media. Throughout the paper, I reference thought and literature by two disability advocates/activists: Johanna Hedva and Mia Mingus. The accompanying thesis artwork, an installation titled "Purgatory" that constructs a typical psychiatric waiting room with supplemented, unusual props, explores the idea of existing in a physical place that is both familiar and unfamiliar, leaving viewers with an uneasiness similar to that which is commonly associated with seeking psychiatric treatment.

My work investigates narrative through elements of cinematic and photographic storytelling. I create illustrations that draw from symbolic languages to recontextualize the meaning of photographic imagery through the use of ink and paper. My thesis explores the symbolism of objects as they relate to one another in thematic collections and utilizes a rhythmic composition to shift their relational context within a given piece. I'm interested in collection as it relates to objects and associated meanings. A collection is an accumulation of items that are brought together with the intention of bringing order to otherwise isolated elements of a visual group. Objects that lead a solitary existence are reduced to the nature of their being and function, but when existing as part of a collection, their interrelations bring them into contextual symmetry and they function as category or an area of study. I am a collector because it allows me a sense of control and understanding about the world around me and my place in it. Every item in my collection bears a status and a meaning, and I want to develop and expand that meaning through my thesis work.

This thesis paper attempts to identify problems encountered by queer and trans individuals in the Minneapolis area. A number of interviews were conducted by Jordan Moen in Minneapolis during 2017 and 2018 with LGBTQIA identified individuals as well as heterosexual, cis-gendered allies. The final thesis project was centered around three individual interviews with transgender women. As a transgender individual and Minnesota native, Jordan Moen seeks to learn more about how to develop a chosen family, seek out trans and queer inclusive communities, and find places of safety and inclusion throughout the United States. She explores issues of inclusion and exclusion in community and family dynamics. As example, she analyzes symbolic language such as hobo codes, the use of camouflage in rural spaces and in art, and the queering of low, ordinary construction and craft materials. This thesis is a statement of Moen's continued research towards creating a queered-utopian society.

This thesis attempts to recreate a memory landscape through the reconstruction of specific moments in my past. It is focused on the reformation of the Dawson Timbers, a pivotal landmark of my youth. The goal of the work is to create a physical, all encompassing environment for the viewer to enter and interact with. This space provides an opportunity for the viewer to engage in experiencing the maker's point of view, while simultaneously building narrative from personal history. The installation starts with a two-dimensional hanging wall piece, which is connected by a crocheted trail, leading the viewer into the basement. Once in the basement, the viewer enters a room, which is the three dimensional rendering of the painting upstairs. In essence, a flat snapshot of a landscape transforms into a tangible woodland territory; navigable and present.

Initially working in the digital realm, I felt the need to step away and began to use analog collages to illustrate my concepts, experience, and memories. I found increasing inspiration and community through social media, by finding the collage communities on the Internet, and joining several collage-related groups. Now I meet and collaborate with collage artists from around the world, currently I have collaborated with over one hundred artists from several countries. I have put together the book "We said hello and shook hands" to showcase and house the many collaborations I have been a part of. My collage works follow a tradition of using collaboration and technology to further the art form. Through the collaboration process I am able to combine my creativity with other artists to create a work of art that I could not otherwise do on my own, creating an exciting synergy. Through this community, I have gained many friends, knowledge and a home for my artistic endeavors. Further, I have gained world-wide influences and a creative perspective from working with many artists of diverse backgrounds.

My written thesis explains the concepts in "BioNuminescence", my Graduate Thesis Installation, which celebrates the fascinating beauty of small animals and plants. The name of the exhibition is a compound word that suggests the sacredness of the ecology. It fuses the prefix "bio" (which references the biological) with the word "numinous" (which indicates the presence of the sacred) into a pun on the word "bioluminescence," (i.e., the emission of light from living organisms like fireflies and glowworms.) The theme of radiance generated by living beings is made into an aesthetic analogy for the amazing ways in which smaller organisms "light up" the world. If form is to follow function, then the function of my art is to share beauty with others, and I design my forms towards that purpose. Insofar as visual delight can uplift one's spirit by pleasing the senses, my thesis proposes that there is an ethical aspect to the effect which beautiful adornment can generate. My art is thus highly ornamental, and combines different processes in order to provide a richly decorative atmosphere. My written thesis supports my work by exploring the significance of the experience of beauty through cultural, psychological and existential frameworks.