Meet Art and Art Education Masters student, Courtney Treglia—recipient of A&H Community and Diversity Student Grant. Treglia's research and art practice are concerned with self reflection and developmental prosperity utilizing different media including printmaking, animation, collage, and painting.
Growing up in a family that took pride in the arts, Treglia was encouraged to explore all avenues of creativity—from 20th century art to 80s and 90s anime and sci-fi. Today, Treglia's inspiration comes from Artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo whose artworks mirror their own life experiences. Unlike Van Gogh and Kahlo's love for self portraiture, Treglia avoids using herself as subject of her artistic practice. Instead, she finds it "more relatable and versatile to transform subjects into something other than me, more alien".
I loved sci-fi and always had my head in the clouds. I wanted to be up in space with the stars and aliens.
Joining the Art and Art Education program at Teachers College is where Treglia truly found her creative calling. In the printmaking studio, Treglia experimented with a range of techniques that synthesize media such as animation and painting.
"After creating an animation in the printmaking studio about healing from physical illness, I realized my art is a way for me to heal and other people should have that creative outlet to heal even if they do not consider themselves artists. We all need art, not for a driven goal, but for our developmental prosperity. In western school systems, we have grown up to believe art is only for the talented, wealthy, or the skilled. My research in art and art education is an attempt to dismantle this belief, asking adults in every opportunity I can to reject this assumption and make art!"
My artwork has always been about processing what I am going through or what I am struggling with like current events, mental illness, and other concepts.
Treglia's dad's passing on the night of her 28th birthday led the artist to express grief through artmaking and made her ponder on the question: "what about the people who wouldn't turn to art for their grief?"
Dear in the Headlight. Print by: Courtney Treglia
This question continues to be a driving force in Treglia's research and in the A&H funded collage making workshop that invites "people who lost a parent as a young adult to see if making art can help them with their process of grief. Collage is a very welcoming process for getting into art and processing emotions so I knew it was the best medium for my inquiry."
One Summer Mourning. Print by: Courtney Treglia
Treglia's A&H Community and Diversity Student Grant supports an experiential study that seeks to understand how participants process grief through the art of collage making.
"Art-based research shows participants can uncover more information about their traumatic experiences through visual storytelling than verbal so I hope they find this process to be introspective and enlightening."
Interested in attending the workshop? Please email Treglia via: ct2815@tc.columbia.edu
Event Details
The Fragmentation of Collage and Grief
Date: Saturday, February 22nd
Time: 1:30PM in Macy 447
About A&H Diversity Events Grants
The Department of Arts & Humanities strives to foster diversity, inclusion, community, and social justice, as well as to support student initiatives that work toward these goals in creative and participatory ways. The A&H Diversity Events Grants supports a series of Diversity Events that creatively engage members of the student body, foster a sense of community, and change public spaces at Teachers College, Columbia University. Diversity Grants are open to all current Arts & Humanities students and student groups.