2023 STUDENT COMPETITION WINNERS

As humans, we are a collective whole. We share common spaces, interests, and aspects of our lives. When passing through a space, one walks in the present where past humans have been before and where future humans will be. We leave everlasting impacts on the spaces we encounter. The interactions within a space between humans is sacred. It leads to a potential to meet someone new, to share ideas, to feel seen. Humans have the ability to transcend time and space through the synergistic force that pulls us together. Though we all live infinitely different lives, we all share the common trait of being human and occupying space. This unites us. We gather in space, move through space, occupy space, sit in space, be in space. Though we may not physically or verbally have any interactions with the others occupying the space with us, there is a shared understanding that we are all in that space for a shared reason. Prior to encountering people in a space, we are all strangers. Once in the space, those strangers become seen, understood, and recognized. Humans are meant to interact with one another. There is an unspoken bond between humans within a space, quite frankly an indescribable one. Everyone within the same space shares a similar interest. Though it may be nothing more than a crossing of paths, humans connect to one another when being in the same space - a connection that cannot be broken. These light paintings represent humans moving through space and time; though taken at different times, once the images are overlaid on top of one another, points of intersection can be identified at different moments in time.