STILL in MOTION

ONLINE PRESENTATION

Still in Motion Home  //  Leslie Elsasser - Introduction  //  Selina Roman - Mind Currents  //  Christian Cortes

PHOTOGRAPHY
Roxi Cato - US Army  //  Wildalys Class - US Air Force  //  Agustin Collazo Jr. - US Navy and Marine Corps  //  Michael Congdon - US Army  //  Giovanna Delacruz - US Air Force  //  Amanda Dodd - US Army  //  Dawn S. Hargrett - US Navy  //  Evan Fountain - US Air Force  //  Mark Freeman - US Army  //  Robert Kidney - US Coast Guard  //  Mikko Maki - US Marine Corps  //  Alicia Morales - US Army  //  RaeAnne Swanson - US Air Force

VIDEO
James Alexander - US Air Force  //  Wildalys Class - US Air Force  //  Dwight English - US Army  //  Loretta Fields - US Army  //  Mikko Maki - US Marine Corps  //  Matias - US Marine Corps

Leslie Elsasser - Introduction

Still in Motion is a presentation of thirty-seven photographs and nine videos created by seventeen USF and Tampa Bay military veterans. The artwork was produced during two Breaking Barriers summer workshops led by photographer Selina Román and assisted by Christian Cortez. The photography workshop focused on still life, memory, and place by means of objects and landscapes shaped through a variety of lens-based and digital techniques. The video workshop stressed the utilization of several approaches to narrative and filmmaking, along with the introduction to a variety of video practices. Due to COVID 19, the workshops were conducted virtually, and each artist created photographs or videos with their own cellphone cameras. These original images and videos tell personal stories, frame quotidian moments, and convey memories. Several artists explore landscape as an actual, tangible place, while others express their invisible and often intangible interior landscape. Still in Motion presents these personal and individual voices to both the local and larger civilian and veteran communities.

Veterans and their families face many challenges related to war, deployment, and the return to civilian life. As a result of their service, many veterans cope with physical, and often invisible conditions, which affect not only service members but also their spouses, children, extended families, and friends. It can be difficult to find words to articulate these hidden conditions, and to express internal thoughts and feelings which escape everyday language. Breaking Barriers offers participants an opportunity to communicate visually and develop a voice through artmaking.

I would like to thank all seventeen of the artists represented in this catalogue for their bravery in service but also for their bravery in undertaking a new creative endeavor. I deeply admire their courage to venture into unknown territories. Each year I am moved and believe it is nothing short of heroic to plunge into the art world, and to learn a visual language (sometimes for the first time) while being both behind and in front of the lens. We thank them for sharing parts of their selves and their stories with us, the viewers.

I would also like to thank the USFCAM team who worked diligently to make this catalogue and Still in Motion a reality as we emerge from the unprecedented challenges of the global pandemic. The successful outcome of Breaking Barriers is due to the professionalism and inspiration from all who have contributed. Thank you to Selina Román and Christian Cortés for their knowledge, artistic vision, and organization, by which they led the participants to shatter their glass ceilings. To Margaret Miller, Director of USF Institute for Research and Art, for her support and leadership. To Randall West, Deputy Director of USFCAM, for his support and guidance. To Don Fuller and Martha De la Cruz, CAM’s media team, for their graphic genius in creating the program’s publicity, social media, and most of all, this catalogue. To Shannon Annis and Eric Jonas for their framing and installation expertise. To Amy Allison and Ana Vidal, enthusiastic and sedulous colleagues, and allies of the participants; their strengths made Team Breaking Barriers exceptional this year. To our cross disciplinary partners on the USF Tampa Campus, Dr. Steven Wilson, professor in the Department of Communication, who is spearheading the assessment with his crew including Denis Debeck and Ana Vidal. To our community partner The James A. Haley Veterans Hospital and Art Therapist Merrilee Jorn, who have helped us improve the program and who will exhibit Still in Motion at Haley in 2022. To Wally Wilson, Director of USF School of Art and Art History, and Forrest MacDonald for their printing collaboration. I would also like to thank Dr. Larry Braue, Director, and Jason Miller, Associate Director, of the USF Office of Veterans Success for their continuing support. Thank you all for the pleasure and privilege of working with you.

I am immensely grateful to our funders. Breaking Barriers is made possible by the Community Arts Impact Grant Program of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, Love IV Lawrence 2020 Waves of Change Grant, and additional support from the ACE Arts for Community Engagement Fund and the Florida Department of State.

LESLIE ELSASSER
Curator of Education
USF Contemporary Art Museum

For more information:
Email Leslie Elsasser at lelsasse@usf.edu

Breaking Barriers is a project by USFCAM in collaboration with the USF School of Art and Art History, with Support from the USF Office of Veterans Success, Community Arts Impact Grant Program of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, Love IV Lawrence 2020 Waves of Change Grant, and additional support from the ACE Arts for Community Engagement Fund and the Florida Department of State.