Pride

Senior Lela Troyer, majoring in Communication Design with a minor in Japanese, created Pride, a response to changing and balancing identity. The subject of the painting, a sandhill crane, symbolizes the Myaamia people and culture. Troyer describes struggling to accept her identity in Myaamia because of how it contradicts a preexisting identity she made for herself.

“Fully embracing oneself as both an individual and a community member can feel like a confinement to the expectations of others,” says Troyer, “but one important truth in life is that you are always you no matter how much nuance there is to that definition.”