Graduation | In Step With the Ones Before Us | Hive Harmony | Expressive Abstract Oil Painting by Theresa Zingg

Title: Graduation |  In Step With the Ones Before Us
Posted on theresazingg.com

Graduation season always buzzes with emotion—relief, pride, a little fear, and a lot of reflection. This year, I found myself not just looking forward but looking around and back. It isn't just a show. It was a conversation between us and the ones who came before.

There’s something about that name: Graduation. It feels communal. Like a chorus of individual voices tuning to a shared key. Each artwork was a note. Some raw. Some polished. All honest. I remember standing between canvases and installations, hearing my peers speak through texture, color, silence, and sound. Each of us different, yet somehow, we made sense together.

It hit me then—this isn’t just about graduating. It’s about stepping into a long line of footsteps, muddy and golden, carved out by alumni who once stood exactly where we did. They were scared too. They doubted their voices. And yet, they walked forward. They built paths that now guide us.

I think of artists whose journey didn’t follow a straight line, but who stayed true. Their stories live on the walls, in whispers during critiques, in the quiet encouragement of a professor referencing “what [they] did in their final year.”

And now, it’s my turn.

What does it mean to follow? Not to copy, but to carry forward? Maybe it means I don’t have to figure it all out alone. Maybe it’s knowing I'm part of something bigger—a hive that continues to hum, innovate, push.

That’s the spirit, isn’t it? Ordinary people making extraordinary things by simply showing up. Doing the work. Staying curious. Choosing connection over competition.

So here’s to our class—the newest workers in the hive. Here’s to the peers who pushed me to be more honest in my work, who caught my blind spots, who reminded me why we create in the first place.

Here’s to the alumni, who lit the way with nothing but their own grit and glow.

Here’s to the harmony we find—not by being the same—but by being true, together.

Upward and Onward.

—Theresa

 

   Hive Harmony | Expressive Abstract Oil Painting by Theresa Zingg