Dante Monteblanco '20 | Senior Capstone Exhibition

Dante Monteblanco '20 is a featured artist in the 2020 Senior Capstone Exhibition, a virtual gallery showing that represents the culmination of four years of undergraduate work that ends in a yearlong art project created by graduating senior art students.

"Tribute"

As both a Designer and Fine Artist, my thinking process is a constant conflict between a desire to commoditize the familiar and an obsessive need to understand if I’m alone in my own experience.

Design often defines itself as a harmony of Art and Math. Embracing and exploring this relationship became a crucial element of my project because it let me explore the idea of connectedness through a universal language.

Connectedness, or the potential lack thereof, often defines the nature of our existence as people. My work investigates this: manifesting the complexities of an individual as a simplified symbol of opportunity. These 3D-printed symbols collectively represent community, specifically the community of Pacific University, and are created with the capacity to connect to one another to form larger structures, which speaks to our ability to connect with other people and share experiences and time.

I will soon be leaving this community. This project presented me with the opportunity to reflect on the connections I've made during my time in the Pacific community and celebrate the beauty that came as a result.

"Design often defines itself as a harmony of Art and Math."
—Dante Monteblanco, '20

I invite viewers of this exhibition to explore my work as a means to find themselves— or at least, a representation of themselves— and accept it with pride. With it, I hope we allow for the connections made in this life to combat the individualistic ideas of modern society and the mental illness it has brought along with it— empowering the viewer to create their own beauty of connection.

—Artist Statement, Dante Monteblanco '20