A text message — not a stage announcement — is how Kaitlyn Redies learned she had won first place at Washtenaw Community College’s Student Art Show.
“I was out of town, just stepping into a hotel room, when I received texts from my friends congratulating me for winning,” Redies said. “It was a complete shock. I’d been having doubts and worries about pursuing art professionally, wondering if I could really make work that resonated with others.
"Learning that I’d been honored with this award rekindled the confidence I’d been lacking to choose to pursue a career in the arts.”
Unable to attend the awards ceremony, Redies is now reflecting on the moment — and the deeply personal work, “Bedrot,” that earned her the show’s top honor.
Redies, a 25-year-old pursuing a Fine & Performing Arts associate degree, brings a lifelong passion for art to her work. Originally adopted from Seoul, South Korea, she grew up in Washington and Montana before moving to Michigan in 2013. Homeschooled and a 2017 high school graduate, she has explored a variety of artistic mediums.
“I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember,” Redies said. “Growing up, I was fortunate to go to public schools with wonderful arts programs, as well as taking extracurricular art workshops and camps. I had parents and teachers who were encouraging and supportive of my passion for drawing, painting, and just about any medium that allowed me to create.”
Her winning piece centers on the concept of “bedrot,” a relatively new term used to
describe spending extended time in bed, often scrolling on a phone. While sometimes
framed as self-care, Redies said her work explores its more difficult emotional realities.
“I wanted to capture the complex feelings and experiences that often come with unwanted or excessive bed rotting," Redies said. "These include isolation, apathy, dissociation, depression, stagnation and detachment.”
To convey those themes, Redies carefully constructed the composition and symbolism within the piece.
“To create a piece that evoked these ideas, I focused heavily on composition, symbolism and lighting," Redies said.
She explained that the portrait orientation, with the figure resting near the bottom of the composition, creates a sense of heaviness that fit the piece. The light sources are exaggerated the clock looming overhead is set at an impossible time for an analog clock. The headboard resembles prison-like bars and the mirror is meant to symbolize the feeling of being stuck as time passes.
"It’s a piece deeply personal to my lived experiences, but also reflects the burnout my contemporaries face in a world characterized by the attention economy,” Redies said.
The show was juried by Teresa Dunn, a professor of Painting and Drawing at Michigan State University, who said “Bedrot” stood out as a piece of artwork that “speaks to the time we live in and presents a moment that is in equal parts ordinary and compelling.”
“The tug of technology and the world within the screen is so alluring that it can keep us from experiencing in the real world. The screen’s light shines in rich colors while the grey of the walls and the vertical bar of the headboard and mirror that reflects nothing keep the figure pushed heavily towards the bottom of the picture plane. There is a glimpse of green, of life, outside the window in the corner, but somehow that rectangle doesn’t possess the same kind of incessant pull of the phone.”
For Redies, completing “Bedrot” was an achievement in itself.
“To be honest, I almost didn’t complete ‘Bedrot’ because I was doing my own bedrotting. I struggle a lot with both mental and physical health issues that affect my daily functioning," Redies said. "Despite these struggles, and even quite literally drawing on some of them, I want to continue to feel the joy of creating and sharing my work. I hope that it can help others feel the same way.”
All 110 Student Art Show entries were created as an assignment for a Fine Arts or Digital Media Arts class at WCC. Dunn noted that while the impetus for the artwork was a studio assignment, “the winners’ pieces rose above and beyond that to embody rich visual and conceptual ideas that leave the classroom walls behind.”
MORE ART SHOW WINNERS
SECOND PLACE
Student: SKIII
Entry: “IMTHEMAN2K25,” music video
Class: VID 276: Video Graphics I
Judge’s comment: “I was really impressed with "LA-IMTHEMAN" by Skiii for the video’s capacity to tell a story, not just through the music, but through a complex building and layered quality to the moving image. What first drew me to this piece was that the video does not feel like a class assignment; there is an authenticity and fluidity that is interwoven throughout. I wasn't thinking about how it was made, instead I was entangled in what I was experiencing. I really responded to the pacing and transitions as successful visual strategies that reflected the lyrical and musical intervals, rhythms, rhymes, multiple points of view, and general vibe of the music. The video felt both exactly right and also unpredictable; I was engaged and entertained through the entire piece. The artist's voice, the present tense were clear and strong.”
THIRD PLACE
Student: Linnea Nooden
Entry: “Freeing the Next Generation,” ceramic
Class: ART 128: Ceramics II
Judge’s comment: “I choose this incredible object “Freeing the Next Generation” by Linnea Nooden for its seductive materiality. What looks to be metallic tendrils breaking out from nodules that are simultaneously egg-like and sponge-like, which cling as if they were barnacles to some other kind of lifelike but nameless form. Life emerging from life emerging from life. What draws me to this piece is not the story it tells but what it keeps hidden. The mystery is what is so intriguing and leaves me wondering and curious about what could still be revealed. Each type of form has a unique texture and surface, yet all seem to have a symbiotic relationship to each other, suggesting transformation, growth, and possibility.”
PROMISING ARTIST,
TWO-DIMENSIONAL
Student: Selvi Aquiles Sanche
Entry: “Selve and Cleo,” marker and pencil
Class: ART 111: Basic Drawing I
Judge’s comment: ”Exciting use of color, unique point of view, dynamic composition, playful and lively!”
PROMISING ARTIST,
THREE-DIMENSIONAL
Student: Lillith Barron
Entry: “Peter,” wire sculpture
Class: ART 108: Three-Dimensional Design
Judge’s comment: ”Love the combination of the found object with the created form, whose colors, textures, and forms play together delightfully.”
PROMISING ARTIST,
VIDEO/ANIMATION
Student: Solimar Alonso
Entry: “Calls to Home,” video
Class: Digital Video
Judge’s comment: “Compelling and relevant cultural narrative weaving together tender and vulnerable personal moments, intertwined with news media sources.”
PROMISING ARTIST,
PHOTOGRAPHY/GRAPHIC DESIGN
Student: Faith O’Keefe
Entry: “Untitled,” photography
Class: PHO 111: Photography I
Judge’s comment: “Beautifully composed, moody light, mysterious space, and great use of concentric grids in framing of the deep space!”
PRESIDENT’S CHOICE AWARD
Student: Theresa Nestorak
Entry: “Colorado Beach,” acrylic painting
Class: ART 125: Painting II
Selected by: WCC President Dr. Rose B. Bellanca
DEAN’S CHOICE AWARD
Student: Monica Hoeffel-Murphy
Entry: “Flow,” acrylic painting
Class: ART 125: Painting II
Selected by: WCC Dean of Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences Anne Nichols
DEAN’S CHOICE AWARD
& PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
Student: Amber Roy
Entry: “You Can Burn Books, But Not Imagination,” wire sculpture
Class: ART 108: Three-Dimensional Design
Dean's Choice Award selected by: WCC Dean of Business & Computer Technologies Eva Samulski
People's Choice Award selected by: Popular vote
Tags: Awards, Ceramics, Digital Media Arts, Digital Video Production, Drawing, Fine Arts, Painting, Photography, Student Art Show