A news story recently written by Alex Acquisto Salt ’11 recounted the heroic actions of jogger Rachel Borch during her terrifying encounter with a rabid raccoon, which she managed to drown in a puddle and made headlines:

“Little did she know she was about to be attacked by a rabid raccoon she would end up killing with her bare hands.” — Maine Woman Attacked by Raccoon Drops Rabid Animal in Puddle, Bangor Daily News, Alex Acquisito Salt ’11

Interviewed by Justin Ray of Columbia Journalism Review, Alex Acquisto Salt ’11 admitted that when she wrote the piece, “she did not expect her story would go national, with write-ups of the piece appearing in The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, Esquire, and many others.” Acquisto first noticed the news in a local paper and asked her editor if she could write a story on it, then met with the young woman at her house, who recounted the attack.

The Last Option and Occupy Portland are two projects Acquisto worked on during her time at the Salt Institute of Documentary Studies, which has been recently integrated into MECA. After studying at Salt, she first started working at The Forecaster before moving on to the Bangor Daily News to work as a staff writer.

Follow Alex’s work at: https://twitter.com/acquistoa

We are thrilled to announce that Sophie Cangelosi ’16 had three images chosen to appear on American Illustration‘s exclusive and juried online collection, Best Images of 2016. Over 10,000 entries were submitted — way to go, Sophie!

Sophie Cangelosi, Phantasma, 2016

Sophie Cangelosi, Phantasma, 2016

Sophie Cangelosi, Phantasma, 2016

When Bayside Bowl expanded their bowling facilities, owner and former president of the Maine State Senate, Justin Alfond connected with Maine College of Art. Said Alfond, “Bayside Bowl’s expansion needed local flare and art. Jessica Tomlinson introduced me to a bunch of great artists.” Alfond selected artists Tessa Greene O’Brien MFA ’16 and Sophie Cangelosi ’16 to create two murals. Tessa is the co-founder of The Portland Mural Initiative and Sophie installed a mural for her senior thesis. In less than a week, both artists met with the client to provide initial sketches and revisions. The two different concepts played to each artist’s strengths. Tessa’s text based mural builds off her skills as a painter with Better Letter Handpainted signs. Sophie’s silhouettes are similar to work she did in her senior year. Both murals are located on the first floor of the new addition, which is located across from MECA’s most recent residential housing. Alfond is pleased with the results. “Tessa and Sophie jumped on our mural projects and delivered the punch that we wanted.”

Sophie Cangelosi ’16

Trent Turns 40 and Buys a Van: Behind the Scenes with Joel Tsui ’16

*Note: Joel is exhibiting his work from this experience in Jesus, Take the Wheel: A Photo Exhibition of the Inscrutable United States through the eyes of Not-an-American. The exhibition is on view October 7 through November 4, 2016, in Artists at Work at MECA. Learn more information about the exhibition here.

Trent Bell, a husband, father, photographer, and surfer, is an architect-turned-photographer who runs Trent Bell Photography in Maine. He has been friends with Caleb Johnson, an architect and founder of Caleb Johnson Architects + Builders, since they were teenagers. Both were born and raised as conservative Christians but had slowly lost faith in their religion over the years, precipitating somewhat of a “midlife crisis.”

The obvious course of action was to embark on a road trip with the idea of creating a documentary film that came to include interviews with people from all walks of life, including old friends in Virginia, family members in Georgia, muslims in California, and alien believers in Nevada.

Joel Tsui ’16 majored in Digital Media and also has a Minor in Public Engagement from Maine College of Art. In the summer of 2016 he served as the photographer and director of social media for Trent Turns 40 and Buys a Van.

Joel Tsui ’16

What was your role?
My role was to photograph the entire journey, whether they were doing an interview, arguing with each other behind the camera, or just spending 14 hours driving through cornfields. When I wasn’t taking photos, I was editing and processing them to upload to various social media outlets, from Instagram to Facebook to Steller.

How were you selected? What were your thoughts going into the process?
Towards the end of my college education, Jessica Tomlinson [Director of Artists at Work at MECA] forwarded me an email about a film production needing a documentary photographer. She thought it would be an amazing opportunity for me and that I was a great fit for what they were looking for. Knowing my friends plan years for a road trip, and for a non-citizen like me to be given the invaluable possibility to see the entire country, I decided to give it a shot, so I responded to Trent’s email and we scheduled a meeting the following week.

Trent had a good understanding of me as an artist, and I had a good understanding of the film and what they were looking for. To me, the most important factor whenever I take a job is to make sure both my client (or partner) and I have the same creative vision. People have different preferences and that’s fine, but if you don’t like my work, I clearly wouldn’t be the right fit in the team. Fortunately, our creative visions aligned perfectly, and a few hours later he called me and said, ‘you’re in.’

Going into the project, I had to do a lot of research. Although I’ve done a good deal of travelling and documentary photography, I had never been on a road trip, nor had I really done any social media campaigning, so I spent most of my time before the trip preparing myself for the role. The crew had many ideas and wanted to cover every single social media platform under the sun, but I suggested focusing on a select few platforms for the right demographic: Facebook for the crew’s immediate social circles, Instagram to provide an accessible platform for photographers, and Steller as a daily diary of the road trip.

Joel Tsui ’16

What was the road trip like? What challenges and surprises did you face?
Calling it a ‘road trip’ makes the experience a lot more relaxing than it was, so I just tell people it was a film production. It wasn’t unenjoyable, but throughout the production, I was almost always occupied with something. If I wasn’t taking photographs, acting as a production assistant during formal interviews, processing my work, uploading things to social media, then I was sleeping, and that was really four to six hours a day. That said, I liked it, because I like keeping myself busy, and I wanted to maintain a good work ethic. I thought if these guys could handle the workload, I should also match their effort, and I did, which is a comforting thing to know as an emerging artist.

The biggest challenge was probably time management, because of the multitude of responsibilities I had. Thankfully, the crew respected my decisions and let me decide what I should be doing. For instance, if I had a particularly huge batch of photographs to sift through, I wouldn’t be doing production assisting, and instead would take advantage of the time to do editing work, or prepare content ahead of time to upload. It’s really nice to have teammates that treat you equally as a creative professional instead of just some unpaid intern.

Joel Tsui ’16

There were many surprises—both good and bad. My professor Gary Robinov once said that sometimes while doing documentary work you have to embrace the detours and the unexpected, and that certainly happened in the road trip. Our road trip vehicle of choice was a quaint, right-hand-drive Toyota van from the 80’s that was imported from Japan. A week into the road trip, the van started struggling and we didn’t know why. As we left Yosemite National Park, we found out that our alternator was faulty and would no longer charge the accumulator, and the nearest garage with a compatible part was in Las Vegas. We bought two extra accumulators and beelined to Las Vegas. It was also Independence Day so there were fireworks displays everywhere as we entered the city, seemingly celebrating our safe arrival.

I like to think I proved myself as a worthy component of the crew, a creative problem-solver with a range of skills that came in handy during the trip. I’ve always strived to be a creative individual with the ability to fit in multiple roles, if necessary. Although I was in charge of documenting the trip, I also filled in for various other roles such as being second camera operator during interviews, production assistant when time was precious and an extra hand was needed, or graphic designer to make flyers to hand out. The modularity of skills that the New Media Program at MECA celebrates indubitably shone in this production.

How did you feel after the trip? Anything you wished went differently?
My goals were definitely accomplished. My role in the trip was to generate photographic documentation of the production, as well as keeping the social media platforms populated with content, both of which were achieved and well-received. The Steller publications were the most popular among all the content. Our follower count increased sixfold, we were promoted on Steller’s Instagram feed, and we were chosen as one of their authors of the week.

I had a blast working with these people, so everything was as expected and desired. However, as a crew we collectively wished we didn’t plan over 20 interviews across the country. We had never done a documentary before, let alone one that hits 25 states in 21 days. One of our last interviews was with filmmaker, author, and public speaker Frank Schaeffer. When he found out we packed all that into such a short timeframe, he had one word for us: insanity.

Joel Tsui ’16

How has your education at MECA shaped you as an artist?
This project was undeniably the capstone of my entire college education at MECA. It combined the vast majority of elements I’d learned through Digital Media, Graphic Design, Photography, and Public Engagement. This experience put me to the test in a rigorous and professional environment with a community partner, and really enabled me to exercise all the skills I’ve acquired throughout the last four years. I wouldn’t even have worked with these people if Jessica had not kept me in mind as a candidate.

John Baldessari once gave three pieces of advice to young artists: “talent is cheap; you have to be possessed (which you cannot will); and be at the right place at the right time.” I think he’s onto something there.

Student Perspective: Kristen Savary (Ceramics ’16) from Maine College of Art.

To view more of Kristen’s work, please view her portfolio here.

Student Perspective: Justin Carey (Graphic Design ’16) from Maine College of Art.

View more of Justin’s work in his portfolio here.

Student Perspective: Joel Tsui (Digital Media ’16) from Maine College of Art

View more of Joel’s work in his portfolio here.

Student Perspective: Betsy Lewis (Metalsmithing & Jewelry Design ’16) from Maine College of Art.

To view more of Betsy’s work, view her portfolio online here.