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Awards celebrate undergraduate achievements

Eleven students in the Arts Division were recognized with Deans’ Undergraduate Awards for outstanding academic achievements at the closing ceremonies of Student Achievement Week on Friday, June 9. Three of those students – Ian Pines, Vanessa Raabe, and Matt Waxman – also were named recipients of Chancellor’s Undergraduate Awards.

Pines, a Porter College senior, was recognized for “An Anti-Aesthetic History of Idolatry,” a project consisting of 10 paintings by Pines and 10 corresponding essays written primarily by his brother, Maxwell Pines. Art professor Frank Galuszka, one of Pines’ faculty sponsors, characterized Ian Pines and his work as “outstanding.”

“The quality of his thought, and the translation of this thought into a visual language that is expressive, descriptive and emotionally charged while being simultaneously formally robust, inventive and masterful is without compare among the students in art that I have encountered in UCSC over the last 10 years,” Galuszka wrote in a letter of support for Pines.

Raabe, a Crown College senior, received her Deans’ and Chancellor’s awards for a seminar paper titled, “Sex, Lies, and La Virgen: The Struggle for Chicana Self-Identity in El Teatro Campesino and the Works of Alma Lopez and Yolanda Lopez." History of Art & Visual Culture professor Carolyn Dean, who sponsored Raabe for the awards, called the paper “well written, cogently argued, and thoroughly researched.” She also characterized it as “highly original in its approach to contemporary Chicana artwork.”

Waxman, a Porter College senior, was honored for “City within a City: Cinema, Architecture, Environment,” a student-directed seminar he taught during spring quarter 2006. He started developing the syllabus in spring 2005, and met regularly with Film & Digital Media professor Chip Lord as the course developed. Lord, who sponsored Waxman for the awards, says that he expects to use Waxman’s syllabus as the basis for a course for the new Film & Digital Media graduate program in 2008.

Below are the eight other Deans’ Award winners, listed by department.

Art

• Darree Diane Hyun, for a series of interactive performance art pieces "The Victoria Lee Series." Sponsor: E.G. Crichton.
• Andrew Newcomb, for a series of silver gelatin photographic prints "Salton Sea, 2006." Sponsor: Norman Locks.

Film & Digital Media

• Anna "Jade" Fox, for a video narrative "Oiseau Mort Fille Morte" (Dead Bird Dead Girl).  Sponsor: Gustavo Vasquez.

History of Art & Visual Culture

• Jayson Naona, for research paper "Getting Stupid with Words and Phrases" and "Signs of Awakening." Sponsor: Raoul Birnbaum.
• Molly Woodward, for research paper "Radical Participation: The Blurring of 'Self' and 'Other' in Nikki S. Lee's Projects." Sponsor: Martin Berger.

Music

• Lauren Bomse, for her Senior Music Recital of Solo Piano and Piano Duet. Sponsor: Mary Jane Cope.

Theater Arts

• Thomas Lazur, for his acting role in "The Buzzz!" Sponsor: Mary-Kay Gamel.
• David Socha, for his direction of "Parole, Drugs, and Mexico." Sponsor: Doug Holsclaw.

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