Artist Biography
From Stony Brook, NY, Amelia Lisa is a 3D sculptor. While Amelia’s primary focus is ceramics, she often utilizes multiple media, such as aluminum wire and wax. Her artwork consists of abstract stylization of organic forms and incorporates various rough textures. Similarly, in her capstone artwork, she incorporates rough textures in her menorah sculpture to simulate the textures of stone. Her capstone project contains themes of growing up in an interfaith environment. Amelia will earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art with a 3D Concentration from Endicott College in Beverly, MA. At Endicott College, she was featured in the Endicott Review, which features works by selected visual and performing art students in the Visual and Performing Arts programs. Amelia also recently had the opportunity to intern at 2 Rivers Ceramics Studio in Newbury, MA. Here, she furthered her knowledge of her ceramics skills and improved her abilities and techniques. After graduation, Amelia Lisa plans to pursue her Master’s in Arts and Design in Museum Studies, where she will be completing her program online.
Thesis Abstract
This senior capstone project investigates the properties of interfaith households and their impacts on children who grow up in such environments. Religious identity plays a significant role in shaping childhood development and self-perception. The literature review examines the intersections of an interfaith upbringing with religious skepticism and identity formation. It focuses on how religion influences mental health, how skepticism shapes faith perspectives, and how self-image is constructed within these contexts. These topics are also interwoven with personal experiences to highlight the real-world implications of these findings. As an arts-based research, a sculptural installation was built to allow viewers to visualize the impact of religion on personal identity. The sculpture consists of an upside-down menorah representing how religious beliefs can become “warped” or corrupted throughout one’s life and nine wax figures representing key aspects of personal identity. However, since this capstone involves interfaith environments, crosses from the Catholic religion are also hidden throughout the installation to symbolize how one religion is sometimes pushed to the background.