FINALE | American University, Washington, DC

Alisha Rao

Instagram: @alisharao_
Major: Studio Art

My project focuses on spirituality, religion, and specifically ritual. My intent was to create a project in which I could embody the elements of ritual across three religions (Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism) in order to convey the universality of spiritual experiences and practices. I worked with lots of mediums including photography, video art, watercolor, ink, oil paint, and screenprint, in order to convey the diversity in rituals and the elements that are present in them.

When I started at AU, I was very unfocused with my art, and had difficulty connecting with particular themes in my work. I knew that I liked thinking about bigger concepts, but I couldn’t connect them through my art making, and often just made pieces for the sake of making them. As my skill has grown, I have started to introduce conceptual thinking into my process, which was difficult at first, but eventually became second nature. This led to me connecting with the particular themes of religion, spirituality, and philosophy in my work.

I would say that my favorite class at AU was an even split between Digital Photography and Advanced Screenprint. Digital Photography was one of the first classes I took here, and it helped me break the ice in a new environment and start with something that I knew a bit about already. I took Advanced Screenprinting in the fall of my senior year. It taught me to love the process of creating again, after spending so long stressing about getting work done, and was one of those classes that made art creation feel meditative and peaceful.

Photo: Elena Zimmerman