Many artists took a step back from the canvas last year. The period of self-isolation offered artists the chance to reexamine their artistic inspirations and motivations, as well as to experiment with new mediums and creative processes. USC artists experienced this uniquely, as they were abruptly separated from a community of student artists when campus shut down last spring.
Four of these artists — Zoe Alameda, Clement Thomas, Selin Aydin, and Alex Carmen — have used the return of in-person student events as an opportunity to share their art. They often vend at the same events and make up a unique, mutually-supportive community.
Read more about each of these artists, and view galleries of their work below.
Zoe Alameda - UNRADMOTIONS
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Zoe Alameda, a junior studying fine arts, first coined the term UNRADMOTIONS as a username for an Instagram account she used to share her artwork when she was 15. Now, it’s the title of an art project inspired by reflections of herself, the Los Angeles punk scene, and the post-internet world.
Alameda’s products include prints, magazines, stickers and handmade clothing. Although she does sell her artwork, she wants people to see UNRADMOTIONS as more than a business.
“I don’t really consider UNRADMOTIONS to be a brand, it’s more just this project of work that I put out with products that people can buy,” Alameda said. “Sometimes I find it hard that people just see me too much as a storefront and not [know] that there’s a person behind everything, and that this is actually just my artwork.”
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Alameda was vending her work at parties and live shows almost every weekend. Although she felt particularly immersed in the L.A. youth art and punk scene at the time, she was overwhelmed by constant selling.
“I didn’t understand the balance between having my personal time and being able to put myself out there,” said Alameda. “Lockdown, even though it sucked, was very necessary for me because it gave me a chance to work, refine my skills, and just understand myself better and the kind of work that I wanted to make. I feel like my style has shifted as well.”
After this time of self-reflection and development, Alameda was ready to share her work again. Finding a community of student vendors at USC has been integral to the return of UNRADMOTIONS to the USC area.
“I was so excited to start vending again and to finally find other people who were also looking forward to that as well because I didn’t have any friends [before the COVID-19 pandemic ] who were also vending. It was just me. But now that I know other artists, I love that I can spread this thing with them,” Alameda said.
At the forefront of the project, ultimately, is Alameda’s personal taste.
“I put myself first and like I make the projects that I want to make, and luckily people receive it well,” said Alameda.
See more of UNRADMOTIONS on Instagram @unradmotions or at unradmotions.com.
Clement Thomas - Very Bad Things
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Although COVID-19 brought challenges for artists, Clement Thomas, a junior studying design, found a way to turn these “very bad things” into something good.
Thomas cited lockdown boredom and fatigue as a founding motivation for his brand Very Bad Things (VBT), which he started after the pandemic sent him home to Philadelphia.
“Over quarantine, I was getting tired of everything I was doing, and I was doing a lot of visual art, and I was getting more into digital,” said Thomas. “And I realized I wanted to start a project, something I haven’t done before and something I could dive really deep into since I was trapped in my house with my family.”
Although Thomas has experience in visual art and design, VBT is his first formal venture into fashion. He found this new medium of clothing design particularly exciting due to its interactivity.
“For me personally, the idea of having my art out and about [where] people can interact with it, and they can pair things with it, I feel like there’s no better way for me to express myself artistically,” said Thomas.
Thomas said he is largely inspired by the “nonconformity that’s expressed in street art,” and that he wants his artwork to harness a sense of rebellion.
Thomas uses a cut-and-sew method to repurpose and redesign thrifted items and then screen-prints his original artwork onto the fabric. His bedroom is his studio: he does most of his work on the ground next to his bed. Most of Thomas’s works are one-of-ones, meaning each piece is unique.
“Rather than make one piece and then put all this work in to reproduce it so a bunch of people can buy it, when I create one piece… it becomes its own piece of art. It’s a canvas,” said Thomas. “When I’m looking for blanks, I’m not thinking about which will look the coolest, I’m thinking about which is the most distressed, which has the most character.”
Thomas started vending at events this semester, and he lauded his friends’ support for VBT as a major source of motivation. He’s tried not to get too hung up on the business aspect: his favorite part of selling has been people getting to observe the quality of his work in person.
“That’s why I do it, because it makes me happy. The vending and the marketing aspects of it — the potential to have an actual brand — those are just pluses,” said Thomas. “But at its core, this is just me doing what I love, which is awesome.
See more of Very Bad Things on Instagram @verybadthings.us.
Selin Aydin
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Selin Aydin, a junior studying fine arts, summarized her art as “based in detail,” “experimental in medium” and dealing “with the practice of manipulation.”
Studying art since she was a child, Aydin gained experience primarily in painting. However, pandemic lethargy encouraged her to experiment with different mediums.
“I was at home with my parents for half of [lockdown], and I was kind of too sad to get up and do anything that was physical like painting. So I did a lot of stuff on my laptop and Photoshop,” Aydin said. “It was just the circumstances I was put in, and that’s kind of like the way my art got produced.”
At the core of Aydin’s work is detail: she seeks to honor her subjects through attention to their finest features.
“When I work in so much detail, it’s reverence to a subject that I’m painting because I’m just laboring over the smallest details like for like a month,” Aydin said. “When other people view my art, I would like them to have that same experience where they’re noticing all the details.”
Aydin only started vending at events in September after returning to the USC area. Her actual paintings are not for sale, but she sells prints of her work.
Since she’s shifted to working more with digital mediums, Aydin said that prints are a great way to actualize her work into the physical world. Sharing her work by vending has given her motivation to make more art.
“It’s been really validating in that, prior to this, I didn’t really have other people’s feedback other than in art class or [on] social media,” said Aydin. “Seeing people actually have interest in buying my art has given me a little bit more confidence.”
Alex Carmen - Fort Reno
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Alex Carmen’s biggest inspiration has also been one of Carmen’s biggest obstacles.
Carmen, a sophomore studying fine arts, created the Fort Reno clothing brand, which draws inspiration from the skate community of Carmen’s hometown of Washington D.C. But Carmen had to work to gain acceptance from this community. Carmen’s journey with Fort Reno has been shaped by an effort to reconcile Carmen’s personal background with Carmen’s artistic inspirations.
Carmen asked Annenberg Media to refer to Carmen by name in lieu of pronouns.
Carmen first created Fort Reno as a freshman at USC, inspired by a group of skaters Carmen befriended on campus and a class project that made Carmen reflect on Carmen’s relationship to Washington. The name Fort Reno comes from the urban park and popular DC skate spot of the same name.
“My whole life, I’ve been really interested in skate culture, graffiti culture, hip-hop — anything street, really. I’ve been writing graffiti since I was like seven,” Carmen said.
Carmen admitted that Carmen started Fort Reno partially because of the pressure of being surrounded by creatives at USC, a motive Carmen became increasingly conscious of and actively combatted.
“When I came to L.A. from Washington, D.C., I saw that everyone was up to something [and] everyone has something to do here. Everyone’s starting their own projects and whatnot, and I kind of got wrapped up into that culture to a fault,” said Carmen. “I loved how revered artists were here, which is very different from what I was used to.”
Carmen said that when Carmen started Fort Reno, Carmen felt completely rejected by the very DC youth scene Carmen was trying to represent. According to Carmen, it was less about Carmen’s privileged background — Carmen attended a private high school in DC — and more about the amount of time Carmen had been present in the DC skate community.
During lockdown when Carmen returned home, Carmen made an effort to invest more time in the community. Carmen said that Carmen successfully “made amends” and “cleared [Carmen’s] name” during this time. In addition to reconciling with the DC skate community, Carmen also used this experience to self-reflect and examine Carmen’s privileges.
“When I came home for quarantine I got checked because I experienced a life that I was sheltered from before,” said Carmen. “And not to say that I understand the life of an underprivileged person... but what I did learn is where I stand, and that honestly was a really beautiful thing, personally.”
This newfound awareness, Carmen said, has motivated Carmen to make the approach to Fort Reno more natural and less exploitative.
“I also stopped trying to work with people because I thought they would help my business, which I used to try to do, but now I’ve just had really wonderful people along the way who aren’t really great talented skaters, and I just hang out with them, and we make videos,” said Carmen.
One of the greatest joys of being back at USC, Carmen said, has been building an in-person consumer base. Carmen said that this semester has been so successful that Carmen has been able to shift focus entirely from Fort Reno’s online shop to in-person vending.
“I kind of stopped working on my online presence because my in-person presence has really been doing well,” said Carmen. “Again, every weekend I have this opportunity. People kind of already know what it is.”
See more of Fort Reno on Instagram @fort_reno or at fortreno.online.