Through Another Lens 

By Omauri Byron-Edwards

Introduction

Through Another Lens is an independent Art and Design project, funded by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR). The focus of this project was to create dialogue and context to different themes of the human experience such as mental health, interpersonal relationships, and the relationship between society and intersectionality. My research is guided by two questions: a) What environment or factors influence a college students’ mental health? and b) How does society influence our perceptions of race, sexuality, class and gender? 

The significance of Through Another Lens involves the start of challenging discussions between students and families while portraying identities overlooked in Art History. Themes such as mental health, interpersonal relationships, and intersectionality are critical. A lack of comprehension for any of them results in obstacles in how they navigate their own life, as well as understanding other people and their truth. 

Thanks to OUR, I received funds, and I was alleviated of financial endeavors to obtain my materials. This allowed me to focus solely on my body of work during the summer of 2024. 

Process

I started the process by brainstorming ideas to answer my research questions. I narrowed my inquiry to focus on the loneliness of college students, stress from academic obligations, and the relationship between black men and toxic masculinity. After gathering sources, I reached out for volunteers to be models for my paintings. This required meeting up together, discussing my questions, staging reference photos, and setting up backgrounds and props. After gathering all this information, I made sketches to decide on a final composition relating to each concept.  

Securing the funds from OUR, I utilized new art materials to create my paintings, along with my reference photos and final drawing as a guiding point. 

Process photo of Omauri Byron-Edwards painting. 

 

“solitude” by Omauri Byron-Edwards, 36”x 24”, oil on canvas, 2024. 

“solitude” 

The intention of this painting is to answer my first research question relating to factors impacting the mental health of college students. Many assume that students living on campus share the mutual goal of education and this creates an easy avenue to interact with one another. However, this is simply not the case. Students are often met with obstacles to engaging in social lives. In 2007, research conducted on 268 university students determined that psychological well-being was one of the main factors of predicting loneliness. (Bhagchandani 2017). 

There are obstacles such as academic pressure, social anxiety, introversion, living away from home for the first time, or recipients of friendships not being interested. This makes the process of making friends more difficult and overwhelming, causing emotional discomfort. College students enter what could be considered the most harsh and confusing part of adulthood. Part of one’s survival is to have the social connection that is desired, to make us feel appreciated, understood, and vulnerable. Loneliness causes students to feel empty inside, alone, and unwanted. This heavily impacts how they value themselves, interpersonal relationships along the way, and other symptoms such as depression. 

“malachite” by Omauri Byron-Edwards, 36”x 24”, oil on canvas, 2024. 

“malachite” 

This painting focuses on the second research question about society’s relationship with race, gender, sexuality, and class. Specifically, the painting explores society’s relationship with black men, and how society perpetuates toxic masculinity to black men.  

There are combinations of systems set up among Black men involving cultural and social factors. Black men exist in a society where their identities are portrayed by harmful stereotypes, exhibiting aggression and hypermasculinity. The misrepresentation from media and communities molds societal expectations and perceptions, thus solidifying toxic beliefs about what masculinity is. This started a cultural stigma that would discourage Black men’s expression, emotion, and vulnerability. As black men are desperate to protect and assert their identity, many would adapt to the norms that were designed for them. Consequently, they fall victim to a toxic cycle of emphasizing dominance, violence, and emotional suppression. To emphasize the danger of toxic masculinity, I chose to involve an abstraction of a toxic stone called malachite as a symbol of society’s expectations for black male identities. 

Black men aren’t monoliths, and we must understand the importance of experiencing identity development as oneself. When black men become more open to complexity and engage in healthier behaviors, such as expressing emotions and vulnerability, it restores the representation and mental well-being of our identities. 

“cortisol” by Omauri Byron-Edwards. 36”x 24”, oil and collage on canvas, 2024. 

“cortisol”  

This piece reflects on the relationship college students have with academic stress, which negatively impacts their mental health. Presently, students struggle with staying accustomed to their competitive academic environment. This is all while students also face constant pressure from financial burdens, future employment, and career decisions. These significant obstacles inflict alarming amounts of stress, which impacts their mental and physical wellbeing. In an article from Transformation Education, a study shows that over 60 percent of students report feeling stressed daily, indicating a high amount of stress among the student body.  

With this alarming rate of stress among student populations, this calls for action in which institutions address their students’ problems and create better support systems so they can navigate their academic careers easier. 

Conclusion 

As far as the question of what’s next for Through Another Lens, I will continue the series. As my research questions are complex and broad, there are more ideas that I want to expand on. Through my process of this project, I received massive support and great reactions to my work. Many students on campus shared how they felt validated by the subject matter in my work such as loneliness, depression, or academic stress. Personally, I think it’s important to have work such as Through Another Lens, not just because it conveys a message, but because it’s a contribution to the community. By opening discussions between other students that relate to my themes, communities could gather new perspectives and challenge their thinking. 

References 

Bhagchandani, Revati K. Effect of Loneliness on the Psychological Well-Being of College Students, Jan. 2017, www.ijssh.org/vol7/796-C009.pdf. 

Etowa, Josephine, et al. “De-problematizing masculinity among heterosexual African, Caribbean, and Black Male Youth and men.” Canadian Journal of Public Health, vol. 113, no. 4, 15 Mar. 2022, pp. 611–621, https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-021-00596-3. 

Diversity, National Center for Institutional, et al. “Let’s Discuss the Complexities of Black Masculinities.” Medium, Spark: Elevating Scholarship on Social Issues, 25 June 2024, medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/lets-discuss-the-complexities-of-black-masculinities-ce09b157701f. 

“Lonely Students at Greater Risk of Mental Health Problems, Study Finds.” Targeted News Service, 2017. 

Transformingeducation.org. “Student Stress Statistics [2024 Update].” Transforming Education for People, 23 Sept. 2024, transformingeducation.org/student-stress-statistics/#:~:text=1.,major%20contributor%20to%20student%20stress. 

Artemisia Gentileschi: Forgotten Italian Renaissance Artist

By Caitlyn Haley

I was inspired by the Boston MFA’s exhibition “Strong Women in Renaissance Italy.” Most of the work in the exhibition was done by women. In my project funded by an OUR Student Research Grant, I did what the Boston MFA did not. I picked a single woman artist from Italian Renaissance and produced a self-portrait of her life and her work. I chose Artemisia Gentileschi because her work was the most featured in the exhibition.

I compiled data from books written about Gentileschi with personal observations from the exhibit to create a poster highlighting vital information about an artist that history forgot. Gentileschi’s contributions were important. Combining my majors—Art History and Graphic Design—I created a visual résumé about her life, the subjects of her work, what she painted, and her achievements.

Poster designed by Caitlyn Haley

Rather than bog down the audience with pages of details, the poster conveys vital information in a visual one-punch. My hope is to make the information accessible to everyone, regardless of discipline or interest. Not everyone is a history buff. However, I think everyone deserves to have their story told. The aim of the project is to correct history’s failure to inject Artemisia Gentileschi into the mainstream consciousness alongside her contemporaries like Leonardo da Vinci.

Access@UMassD

by Eden McKenna-Bateman and Evan Grant

Exploring accessibility on campus was an interdisciplinary independent study, funded by the OUR. The project was focused on the architectural and spatial history of UMass Dartmouth and how *access* to spaces and resources has become available, modified, and contested– spatially and architecturally speaking– over the years. We first began by visiting the archives of the university, where important drawings and blueprints by its main architect Paul Rudolph (1918-1997) are housed. We wanted to know how Rudolph crafted his vision and in what ways he conceptualized accessibility. We then studied the physical transformation of the campus over the years and finally placed our focus on the current campus with added buildings and renovations that have modified the original design. In particular, we studied how physical access impacts the  function of our present day campus and its diverse communities. After conducting our architectural history research, we began to use our knowledge of graphic design to give an “image” to our research. The purpose of creating a bold image was to bring awareness about issues of accessibility, not only for special needs student population, but also for those students who wish to have better access to resources available on campus. Instead of doing our work behind closed doors, we wanted to engage students and faculty in our research. For the graphic design portion of this project we also explored the different ways in which we can make a more impactful presentation. We explored several activist projects on US campuses. We studied patterns, fonts, colors, and compositions that are employed in effective activist projects.

 

Poster designed by David Grant & Eden McKenna-Bateman for the final phase of their project.

Paul Rudolph. Aerial views of the campus at the Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute (SMTI/UMass Dartmouth), ca. 1963. Ink on linen. Courtesy of UMass Dartmouth, Claire T. Carney Library, Archives, and Special Collections.

 

Our overall objective with this study was to create collaborative and interactive projects between students and professors addressing various accessibility issues on campus. The goal was to bring awareness to issues of accessibility and its significance for student success. A substantial part of this interactive project drew on the student body’s thoughts and opinions. While the campus meets ADA requirements, those requirements only fulfill the bare minimum due to many ADA regulations being outdated, and often do not fully meet the needs of students with disabilities. The inequality in accessibility at UMassD is non-inclusive. Our study was research-focused and project-based. Throughout the course of this project, we researched and conducted interviews/surveys, and collaborated with students and faculty of various professional fields to create and deploy four projects throughout our campus that address accessibility issues while allowing students to share their thoughts and opinions on the matter.

 

 Eden Mackenna-Bateman and Evan Grant and snapshots from their installations

 

We secured funds from the OUR for multiple installation projects. We had a CVPA Elevator Survey, consisted of art installations in one elevator in each college as well as the library. The installations consisted of printed maps with roadblocks labeled, with cut vinyl applied within the elevator asking a question that students can respond to via sticky notes. In hopes of creating a broader scope to reach people, we promoted our project through pencils and stickers that spread awareness within the student body. Another installation project was Access Tours, consisted of an interactive experience that followed our original map of campus inaccessibility through the use of signage and pathway markers that allowed students and faculty to experience the roadblocks that people with disabilities face when navigating through our campus. Our third project was a collaboration between Access@UMassD and the University to integrate our findings into the interactive virtual campus map. Our fourth and final project, the Access@UMassD Exhibition presented our thesis through a display of all our research and documentation of our projects within a series of popup installations. This included the results of our first three projects, documenting student and faculty experiences, which consisted of stories, photographs and physical pieces from the installations, accompanied by a presentation and takeaway items such as information cards and pamphlets. We plan to present the outcome of this research to campus administration. Regardless of the final outcome, we want to take this opportunity to say that this research has been very informative. We learned how to conduct collaborative research projects; in our studies, we also learned about the ways in which architecture can limit or extend our access to resources and ideas; additionally, we learned how graphic design can play a significant role in various civic campaigns. We are grateful to our mentors Professor Pamela Karimi (Art History) and Michelle Bowers (Graphic Design) who guided us through this project. We are also grateful to the OUR that funded our project.