I want to directly thank my advisory committee and administration for their support, guidance, and encouragement over the course of this journey. I was a stranger and a young adult, my committee did a superb job of making sure I didn’t lose my way as I grew to know and love the community over the course of my education. Thank you. 

Wendy Ernst Croskrey 

Da-Ka-Xeen Mehner

Dr. Zoe Marie Jones 

Carol Hoefler

I would like to thank my parents and my family for their support and faith in my academic endeavors. Art is not the most reassuring of professions for anybody involved, and their encouragement truly made this possible. Thank you for talking me through insecurity and times where it seemed like everything was going wrong. Thank you for supporting my academic pursuits even when I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going. 

Thank you for your patience and your love. 

Dr. Michael Walter

Ratna Djuhadi 

Yohan Walter 

I want to thank my fellow MFA students for coming together and creating the most beautiful little art hive I’ve ever had the privilege of being a part of. This group is the first that has made me feel like I was really part of the flock. Three years dragged and flew by, and I am so thankful to have gotten to know you all. Thank you for showing me what the spirit of Alaska really is, thank you for letting me into your worlds and teaching me so much about the possibilities of this wild new place. Thank you for helping me see that people are not creatures to avoid, and that sometimes it’s okay to ask for help once in a while. 

Theresa Woldstad

Jeffrey Zhang 

Allison Juneau 

Max Bartch

LJ Evans

JR Ancheta 

Melissa Steiffel 

Xochi Harbison 

Wendy Connelley 

Sky Roehl 

Thank you to the UAF Fine Arts Department for giving me a home and a beautiful place with such a dazzling variety of people. I’ve never felt so at home in a campus setting before, and I will treasure these memories for the rest of my life. 

Thank you to every person who supported my art career. Friends, family, acquaintances, clients. This would not be possible without commissions, trades, donations, and gifts of materials, money, food, studio space, and equipment from my beloved community. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU. I could not have done any of this without you. 

Thank you to all of my old and new friends who have stuck around and watched this magnificent, morbid mess come to fruition. Thank you to my friends who have talked me through hard nights and impossible conditions and listened to my endless rambling about disgusting curiosities. You have seen and felt what goes on behind the curtain, and I love your bravery and strong stomach <3 

Finally, thank you to the COVID-19 virus for giving me an involuntary eight-month long extension, mandatory studio time, and the most catastrophic shell of a semester I’ve ever had in my life. This pandemic put a lot of things into perspective, and as I close this chapter in my academic career I see that this will be a chaotic new world for all of us. Luckily, chaos is full of opportunity.

Godspeed, and good luck. Take care of each other. 

-Indi