PNCA Portfolios

Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/10177/40651

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 31

Aidryn Hinderhofer 2024
(2024-12-06) Hinderhofer, Aidryn
“Following the Light” is a picture book that deals with themes of personal resilience, community, and queer identity. The story follows a small insect faerie named Moth. They are a mail courier with one last package to deliver who, upon getting distracted by a grove of glowing plant life, finds that they’ve lost their way in the surrounding forest without a light to guide them. Moth wanders until they find their way to another faerie’s door. They introduce themself as Firefly and offer to show Moth to their final destination in order to finish their delivery. “Following the Light” is a 8x10”, 48 page, self ended picture book dummy intended for an audience of older children from the 4th to 6th grades (9-12 years old). The entire book is brought to the rough sketch stage, toned in black and white. Two important spreads, as well as the cover, are finished entirely. The whole thing is compiled in a dummy ready for publisher consideration.
Albany Case 2025
(2025) Case, Albany
Through creating a pitch bible for an animated feature film including character designs, backgrounds, and supplemental illustrations, I used the characters of anthropomorphized racehorses to explore themes of male relationships, their nuances, the dynamic shift that defines a romantic or platonic relationship, and to make an authentic and accessible narrative of male-male love. Targeted at general audiences, Off the Bit seeks to bring queer stories to a broader demographic and to remove the stigma of queer stories being only for adults. Following the story of the characters Sterling Silver, Lord Desmond, and Little Red, this work’s focus themes are self-acceptance, finding your own peace, found family, and adjusting to major life changes and how those changes affect the relationships a person has.
Ale Uriarte 2024
(2024-11-19) Ale, Uriarte
This is a visual development project, in which I developed a story around three young witches who are all misfits in their own disciplines. In a world in which magic is slowly disappearing, and you can only practice the kind of magic you are born with. An unconventional friendship is born between a healer who would rather break bones instead of fixing them, a necromancer terrified of the dark and everything spooky, and a summoner who is unable to summon in the conventional way who comes from a background of all witches with food related powers. In this project I will show character designs, interactions, prop and background designs and key story moments, which I plan to develop further once I graduate into a visual novel or, if possible, an animated project pitch in the future.
Alishba Rahim, 2024
(2024-11-25) Rahim, Alishba
Digital Girl World is a teaser and trial episode showcasing the viewer’s attempt at survival after being transported into a horrific version of PNCA. Your only ally, a young, hyperfeminine girl named Nami helping you find a way out of this liminal space PNCA. Can you trust this girl? She looks sweet, but something about her feels…off. Through a merging and contrast of hyperfeminine and retro horror game aesthetics, internet-core and analog elements. I will create a narrative that reclaims hyperfeminine women’s sense of autonomy in the horror genre. The genre is a psychological horror, animated as a visual novel. In the plot of the teaser, after the viewer is transported into the liminal space PNCA, they are immediately chased by shadow people. There the viewer meets Naami, who helps you out by solving a puzzle, which unlocks the elevator, allowing both Naami and the viewer to the next floor. Naami then introduces herself and informs you that the school creates puzzles depending on what the shadow people and the environment want. The two process to explore the floor, and stumble upon a Monster door that wants something to eat. Naami guides you along with a puzzle, unlocking a locker that reveals a still-beating heart. Naami fills the heart with blood and feeds it to the Monster Door. After the door is satisfied, the elevator door opens, indicating the puzzle is solved and the two are free to go. The viewer feels relieved that someone as reliable and totally not suspicious as Naami is there by your side. The core of my thesis is merging a retro horror-game aesthetic with hyper-femininity to reclaim women's sense of autonomy in animation by recontextualizing traditional feminine traits. Most media depict the 'girly girl' as vain, unintelligent, and basic. Someone who has not earned their agency. This correlates with how the interests of young girls are seen through similar lenses of lesser value. Instead, misogyny encourages both men and women to invest their me with traditional masculine, interests/fields/appearance, which are more respected and important in society. This is especially relevant in horror movies, where the hyper-femme girl who is neither the ‘succubus’, ‘femme fatale’, or ‘final girl’ is treated to be insignificant and weak—the victim. This is all exemplified through Digital Girl World’s main character Naami. A smiley and sweet feminine girl, with an ‘off-side’. The goal for the future is to create more episodes where Naami’s true nature gets revealed before it is too late for the viewer to do anything about it. Therefore, crowning the girly Naami as undefeated, forever more. In the plot of the teaser, after the viewer. Link to Digital Girl World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnUi2lI2H44
Alyssa Morris-Hatch 2025
(2025-04-23) Morris-Hatch, Alyssa
Aloma, who comes from the waves of sound and fabrics of space, ensures all souls arrive safely, but will theirs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41zdtUznfWU
Beth Starkey 2024
(2024-11-19) Starkey, Beth
Monsters of Aslamere is a 36-page concept art book, detailing an early civilization fantasy world, with the intention of using it to pitch a video game. The first part of the book details the cast of characters. Part two shows several of the original monster designs created to fill Aslamere’s world. Part three is several finished illustrations used as key art for the feeling of the game. Aslamere is filled with fantastical monsters that still control most of its territories. The people struggle to survive each day, hunting monsters that are just as likely to turn around and return the favor by hunting them. All of this starts to change when a young hunter and aspiring researcher named Kai sets out from their village, along with their small winged familiar, Vanati, determined to create this world’s first monster book. Kai grew up fascinated by monsters rather than fearing them, and so explores every corner of Aslamere to hunt down every monster, gathering information about each of them in different ways. With some luck, food, and a gentle hand, Kai is even able to tame some monsters to bring back to their village. Doing so helps their people expand and open up greater possibilities for farming, crafting, hunting, and traveling for Aslamere, setting the trail for animal domestication in this world.
Brady Wolchansky 2024
(2024-06-24) Wolchansky, Brady
MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL SYNDROME, A Micro-Cinematic Experience features the premier of an experimental short film I wrote, co-directed, and starred in called, Manic Pixie Dream Girl Syndrome, an adaptation from a comedic monologue of the same name I performed at an all-female group art show in 2023. This tangential monologue begins with, “you guys ever hear of the expression ‘all beautiful women are crazy’?” The 5-minute short screens at looped intervals in a makeshift microcinema constructed alongside a pop-up museum of “artifacts”; a behind-the-scenes look of the filmmaking process, including but not limited to props, costumes and images from the film’s set. The complete installation revolves around my investigations of the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” (MPDG) character archetype, as seen in popular romantic films such as, Some Like it Hot with Marilyn Monroe, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and 500 Days of Summer with Zooey Deschanel. In cinema, the MPDG is portrayed as an artsy independent woman who often rejects societal expectations of classic womanhood and domesticity. While the MPDG is presumed to be free-spirited and independent, she is still defined by the expectations of a predominantly male protagonist and is mostly restricted within the confines of said male protagonist’s own personal goals and growth, and rarely displays any self-actualization or true personhood. This exhibition aims to recreate my own version of the MPDG, examined from a modern, feminist lens. Through the aesthetics of filmmaking, stand-up comedy and intermedia installation my hope is to show empathy with those who can relate and rouse awareness of the MPDG trope’s negative effects in others.
Daisey Pastrana 2024
(2024-11-16) Pastrana, Daisey
Pitch for a 2D animated show in Spanish of 5-7 minute episodes and a teaser of Las Aventuras de Puff y Fluff. As Puff and Fluff are learning the young audience is also learning math, science, and school of life. This shows target audience is children of 4-10 years old. Puff and Fluff are anthropomorphic rabbits whose world takes place in Oaxaca, Mixteco, Mexico. They live in La Loma de Conejo, a small town in the forest near a rancho They have a large family consisting of Mom, Dad, two sisters, and an older brother. With the help of their family, they are learning to navigate the world around them and the importance of community, friends, culture, traditions, and habitat. With their curiosity about the world around them, they are constantly learning about their ecosystem and their place in the world.
Emma Schoeni 2025
(2025-04-16) Schoeni, Emma
Revision is a messaging campaign designed to create a narrative of possibility and agency for women’s sports. It is designed to inspire, to actively subvert gender expectations, and to challenge social paradigms to reclaim negative narratives surrounding women’s sport with a sense of agency. It is a celebration of athletes and a celebration of creativity. It is a multimedia endeavor, blending design and illustration in different ways to emphasize its message. That message centers on creating a culture of support for women’s sports and inspiring young athletes everywhere to keep playing. It aims to balance the challenges being faced with celebrating the success, progress, and the positive impact of women’s sports. This is a project that celebrates all I have learned and continue to learn from sports and visualizes what I believe sports can become.
Erin Boberg Doughton, 2024
(2024-07-25) Doughton, Erin Boberg
The written thesis Now it’s a Party explores the tensions and possibilities of performance in visual art spaces, with a focus on why and how artists create ephemeral, embodied work in spaces designed for the care and display of objects. The title is taken from a common phrase exclaimed after a glass is broken at a house party. Like a good party, a performance often involves breaking something - a glass, a rule, a social code. Performance relies on a shared (if temporary) belief in the value of process over product, people over objects and the collective over the individual. The exhibition Now it’s a Party extends the thesis to the gallery as an open studio where visitors are invited to share meals, practice simple magic tricks and experiment with creating and recreating documents of performance. Unlike traditional magic - where the magician does not reveal their tricks, everything in the gallery is real and revealed. Visitors are offered a menu of solo and collaborative scores to be performed with domestic objects including tables, chairs, tablecloths, dishes and brooms, revealing the often invisible labor of art-making and caretaking. The objects and actions vary from day to day, documented in an accumulative archive of photographs and ephemera. The documentation includes two primary scores - Do Over (tablecloth trick) and Ghost Broom. The performers in the photographs are Erin Boberg Doughton, PNCA Alum Crimson Ravarra and PNCA student Malique Pye. All photos by Mario Gallucci.
Francis Bagby 2024
(2024-11-20) Bagby, Francis
“The Urban Adventures of Pigeon Girl” is a 24-page black-and-white comic strip zine which marks the starting point for an ongoing series. It’s written first and foremost to be a satirical young-adult comedy, while touching on themes of anxiety, social awkwardness, and queer romance. The titular Pigeon Girl must deal with everyday problems while living in downtown Port Detritus circa the early-2000s; it’s a city teeming with monsters, mutants, aliens, and everything in-between! But other than that, it’s pretty normal. Her escapades toe the line between ordinary and absurd, with the setting and surrounding characters exaggerating mundane experiences like buying a CD into over-the-top chaos. She’s often pushed into new scenarios by her outgoing friend Kitty Cactus; Kitty doesn’t know it, but Pigeon Girl has a massive crush on her, which helps motivate the plot in their stories together. While the comic is based on my personal experiences with young adulthood, it’s intended for a broader audience including readers from ages 14 to 25 who value unconventional and lighthearted perspectives on the subject.
Grace Angeline Feucht 2024
(2024-11-22) Feucht, Grace
An immersive exhibition that captured God’s presence in the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. A gallery space filled with work in a variety of mediums that engaged people with the content through all of their senses. Visitors immersed themselves in the nature of the Pacific Northwest as they walked into the exhibition, leaving their preconceived notions of fine art and the gallery space behind. A hiking backpack sat upon a beach blanket with a pile cassettes, books, and a bible just outside the door. A quiet recording of ocean waves crashing on the beach on cassette played from a tape recorder by a display of custom view-masters. The audio recording drew people in to the nook of the gallery space where 3 view-masters sat upon a cedar shelf with 6 unique custom reels compiled from collections of film photos the artist took around the Pacific Northwest. Each reel contained 7 photos and was sorted into 2 reels of the beach, 2 reels of the forests, 1 reel of the mountains and 1 reel of the Puget Sound. Just around the coroner were a set of 3 colorful stained fused glass pieces that caught the sunlight as it streamed in through the window like stained glass in a church. On the largest wall were 3 large oil paintings. Inspired by the impressionists, the artist emphasized each individual brushstroke that comprised the larger landscape. As viewers left, there were 3 hand printed and illustrated prayer cards inspired by different parts of the Pacific Northwest including Mount Hood, Multnomah Falls and Indian Beach.
Isaac Soto 2024
(2024-11-25) Soto, Isaac
Heavy Liquid explores instability and bodily transformation through the visceral qualities of painting. Drawing inspiration from surrealism, cosmic horror, and bodily metamorphosis, the work is influenced by films such as Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982). Through experimentation and a commitment to unpredictability, the series evokes the uncanny and unsettling, challenging conventional perceptions. Comprising three paintings—Engorged Exit, Cavity Search Jungle, and Putrid Corruption—Heavy Liquid invites viewers into a visceral confrontation with the unknown. The work reflects a personal journey of breaking habits, embracing imperfections, and exploring the fluidity of form. These paintings examine themes of transformation and the instability of flesh, dissolving boundaries between abstraction and reality.
Jacob Reppeto 2024
(2024-11-19) Reppeto, Jacob
I curated an exhibition, consisting of 18 newly made images, all utilizing 35mm film. I also created an installation piece, consisting of a bed, to further push the messaging with this body of work. I also created and performed a performance piece, referencing my depressions and growing up discovering my true identity. I investigated my identity, my traumas and how my hardships have contributed to my character in my 23 years of living. I created this work to be a continuation of my body of work I showed at PNCA in March, “love letters in las vegas,” a collection of work that was a love letter to the people, places and things that kept me alive, this body of work, “burning pages in las vegas,” is connecting the things that tried to kill me.
Jaivon Freeman 2025
(2025-04-16) Freeman, Jaivon
I created this work using adobe software like Premiere Pro and Audition for recording and video and sound editing. I went with these materials because they are materials that I’ve used for previous video projects. To create this video I started the research process and created a script as well as recording the audio. I also decided to include archival footage as well as my own footage from attending wrestling shows. I planned to make the video a mix of entertaining and informative, but decided to keep this one informative because I believed it fit this topic more.
Jordan Flowers 2024
(2024) Flowers, Jordan
Introspection: the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional process. This set of three paintings and three embroidered doilies simultaneously evokes feelings of isolation and connection, as well as growth.
Kendall Carnell 2024
(2024-12) Carnell, Kendall
Cafe Mocha, is a young adult graphic novel series about navigating the chaos of adulthood, while also exploring themes of relationships, mental health, and family. After moving to a new town for college, Moka, our kind yet nervous bundle of joy, struggles to adjust to her new surroundings and make new friends. That is until she meets and falls in love with Kohi, the town’s most eccentric inhabitant. Cafe Mocha, will be a graphic novel series consisting of a total of four books. Presented at thesis was the first chapter of the series, which follows the story of Moka trying to get to work on time and Kohi coming to her rescue. This chapter consisted of 12 fully colored pages that mixed digital media and traditional media, mainly watercolor for the backgrounds. I took the watercolor backgrounds and scanned them into Clip Studio, to correct any imperfections, and tweaked them to fit the style of the comic. I have printed a prototype of the comic to be presented as a proof of concept to be pitched to a publisher or to be used for a kickstarter.
Kota Abe 2024
(2024-11-21) Kota, Abe
Japanese manga is used not only for traditional entertainment, but also for advertising and educational purposes. My objective is to show American readers new uses for manga by combining American comic culture with Japanese manga culture, and at the same time, to promote understanding of Japanese culture.
Laura Livingston 2025
(2025-04-15) Livingston, Laura
Picture a world beyond our own, where the differences between us is what makes us strong- Welcome to the Galaxii! This line of unique and vibrant dolls are ready to accompany children across the farthest reaches their minds can imagine, teaching them that we don’t have to look, sound, or even think alike to form lifelong connections. Each Galaxii member has their own unique build and special characteristics that help them to conquer the unique challenges of their environment and make them special in their own way, and every child can learn to embrace what makes them special alongside their new intergalactic friends in this new journey of friendship! This presentation will explore the creation and ethos behind six unique characters , and how they’ve each been modeled into compelling and interesting doll designs.
Lena Gonzales 2025
(2025-04) Gonzales, Lena
The Silly Billy Sticker Sheets are five pages starring my original characters, Silly Billys, engaging in various scenes and activities. Each page has a theme that the stickers correspond to, such as Food, Ocean, Big City, Day in the Park, and Fashion Week. These sticker sheets act as a lighthearted satire of everyday life with a dash of odd cartoonish humor. This product is for entertainment purposes and acts in tandem with a wider pitch for a future merchandise brand starring the same characters. My main objective with this project is to bring joy and laughter to others when they view this work. The world has become a very serious and scary place, so I want my work to make people feel better and be a reminder to have fun and be silly every once in a while. The Silly Billys will be drawn in various ways and sizes (multiple heads/feet, arms/no arms, etc). This diversity of their forms is meant to replicate real people and the diverse communities we live in. These sticker sheets and their themes reflect our ordinary world and activities through a nonsensical lens while promoting living life to the fullest, even through the stupidest of means. Although its main purpose is to entertain, it is also a weird love letter to life and the things in it that give the world vibrancy and joy.

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