Speakers Abby Spears, Crystal Callison, Liz Bodell and Jerah Chino Share How Art and Design Foster Connection, Community and Growth
Rise and shout! Graduates from BYU’s Departments of Art and Design are officially out in the world. This afternoon, the departments hosted a graduation ceremony to commemorate students for years of hard work, creativity and accomplishments.
Graduates Abby Spears, Crystal Callison, Liz Bodell and Jerah Chino were asked to speak at the convocation ceremony.
Hallie Farnsworth
Hallie Farnsworth
Abby Spears
Abby Spears is an art education graduate who plans to start working as a full-time art teacher starting this fall. She spoke about connecting people and expanding perspectives through art.
Spears began her speech by reflecting on a piece she created titled “Size 8.” The display highlighted inconsistent clothing sizes and the frustration attached to impossible beauty standards. Spears featured the piece in her solo exhibition, “Fitting Room.”
“This show expanded on the ideas of sizing and beauty standards, and gave me a way to express frustrations into something others could connect to,” Spears said. “When the exhibition closed, I read notes left by viewers. One wrote about their struggles with body image and said the work was ‘so eye-opening, yet so hopeful.’”
Spears learned that sharing a personal message with her art allowed others to relate and connect.
“By sharing deeply personal artwork, a space was created for others to have conversations, to understand each other better and to support a community of people with shared experiences,” Spears said.
While student teaching, Spears asked her students to create an abstract piece of artwork. When one of her students was struggling, she encouraged him to embrace discomfort without worrying about being right.
“What had started as uncertainty turned into excitement. Each day, he came to class ready to keep building on his idea,” she said.
Spears said she has learned valuable lessons from teaching and engaging with her students' artwork.
“Watching this young artist learn and discover the joy and excitement that can come when making art reminded me of the reason making art excites me. In my artmaking practice, I’m fueled by the idea of visually sharing my own thoughts and ideas in a meaningful way.”
Spears believes creating and engaging in art can expand perspectives and deepen empathy.
“We need more voices sharing their experiences and ideas so that, through this universal visual language, we can create greater empathy, understanding and community. That is why I believe art holds so much value today,” Spears said.
Crystal Callison
Callison began her speech by reflecting on her creative process, explaining that her artwork often starts with questions rather than answers.
“There is always a moment where I must begin with uncertainty and trust that I will figure things out along the way, " Callison said. “That kind of trust in the process is something I learned long before I started making art.”
Callison described how her parents immigrated from Mexico and built their lives through persistence and creativity. She recalled an experience as a toddler when she stuck something inside her family’s VHS player and it stopped working. Her father could not figure out the problem, so Callison watched as he took the device apart piece by piece to try and understand what was going on.
“He didn’t know if he would fix it, but he believed that if he stayed with the problem long enough, he might find a solution,” Callison said.
Her parents’ willingness to face challenges without knowing the outcome became a foundation for her own approach to both art and life. Callison shared the story behind one of her most meaningful projects, a piece titled “Mash Mash,” which explored memory, loss and the way objects hold emotional significance. Through trial and error, and with support from professor Collin Bradford, she learned that setbacks are an essential part of the creative process.
“This process taught me that challenges are inevitable, but with persistence, experimentation and sometimes the support of others, it will work itself out,” Callison said.
Her message deepened as she opened up about personal hardships, including her children’s medical diagnoses, her husband’s neck injury and the loss of her father. During these moments, art became a way to process grief and find meaning.
“I do not think I am a very strong person and I do not even know how I get through the challenges that life has given me,” Callison said. “But eventually I find myself on the other side of the challenge, and I just think of that as a gift from God.”
She emphasized that hope is not certainty about outcomes, but a belief that experiences hold meaning, even in difficulty. She encouraged graduates to trust that, despite uncertainty, they will have what they need to move forward.
“In both art and life, we face problems we do not yet know how to solve. We do not know exactly what the future holds,” Callison said. “We can be confident that, whatever hardship we encounter, we will be given what we need to move forward. And one day we will look back, amazed at the path we have traveled.”
Liz Bodell
Bodell, a graphic design graduate, focused her remarks on curiosity and lifelong learning. She began by recalling her early fascination with fonts, which eventually led her to discover a passion for design after initially pursuing computer science.
“I was not curious about computers and coding. What I was curious about were those Microsoft Word fonts, and so I found myself pursuing graphic design,” Bodell said. “If I was going to live a life of lifelong learning, I realized I wanted it to be rooted in something that made me curious.”
Through her studies, she said, she learned that design is not purely about aesthetics. Rather, it taught her about thinking deeply, asking questions and approaching problems with intention.
She described a pivotal experience working on a shared exhibition titled “Down Wind Peace,” which explored the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after World War II. The project challenged her to sit with uncertainty and grapple with complex themes like memory, time and consequence.
“There wasn't one right solution. There wasn't a clear endpoint,” Bodell said. “There was just a process of noticing, responding and refining.”
Bodell explained that the experience reshaped how she views both design and learning. Rather than seeking immediate answers, she learned to embrace curiosity as an ongoing process.
As graduates move into an unpredictable future, she encouraged them to remain adaptable and open-minded.
“The most valuable thing we are leaving with isn’t what we know,” Bodell said, “it is our willingness to keep learning.”
Jerah Chino
Jerah Chino graduated from BYU’s illustration program. She spoke about bringing creativity to every facet of life and designing to serve others.
“Even when we seek a break from ‘being creative,’ we can’t escape it. It is an intrinsic
part of who we are,” Chino said.
She refers to gaining energy from creative pursuits as the need to “fill your creative bucket.”
“Filling our bucket comes in many other forms too, such as visiting museums, taking time in nature, going on trips and hanging out with friends,” Chino said.
According to Chino, BYU offered several bucket-filling experiences from taking “plein air” painting classes outside in nature to visiting museums in New York City and Japan.
Chino quotes Elder Gerrit W. Gong of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who said: “There is joy in imagining, learning, and doing worthwhile new things.”
Chino suggests creativity is a divine part of an artist's identity and a gift that can be used to serve others.
“Creativity is one of the many talents God gave humanity to nurture so we could use it to bless the lives of those around us,” Chino said.
While working at the Bean Museum at BYU Chino learned about the curb cut effect.
“When we design for ‘the least of these,’ we design for everyone. As we continue to grow our talents and fill our creative buckets, the Lord is pleased with what we are able to accomplish,” Chino said.
Chino leaves her fellow graduates with this final advice: “Keep your art community close. Keep going on trips, keep going to museums, keep going into nature. Find friends who can critique your work and you can critique theirs. Keep your curiosity, keep learning new skills and crafts and fill your creative bucket.”
Congratulations to all the newly graduated and upcoming artists and designers!
