Alumni Exhibit Reveals Former Students' Artistic Acheivements
by ABIGAIL PERRIN

On Oct. 14 in the HUB, Moravian College was pleased to host alumni Katina Sossiadis Bozikis and Jason Travers in a reception for the exhibition of their abstract artwork.
Bozikis, a versatile artist who has successfully used both two-dimensional painting and film, graduated from Moravian in 1993 and attended the University of Pennsylvania where she earned her M.F.A.
She has worked at the Guggenheim Museum for director Tom Krens, and her strong talent for film led Bozikis to study it at New York University. There she pursued her interest in film with acting/directing coach Adrienne Weiss and co-wrote and co-directed a short film called “Lynn’s Wake” with her sister Koula Sossiadis, which was shown at the Austin Film Festival and the International Women’s Festival in France. She and her sister Koula also co-wrote a feature titled “Rites of Winter.”
Bozikis and her sister have teamed with director of photography Anastos Michos. Bozikis joined her sister in production and worked on “Far From Heaven” and “Analyze That.” Presently, she is working on a film program at the Baum School of Art in Allentown and is an adjunct professor of art at Lehigh University and Northampton Community College.
Bozikis’ gifts for two-dimensional painting and film make her a highly versatile artist.
“Painting is more solitary and subjective,” Bozikis explained. “Film takes more leadership. It’s about communication and talking to people. I chose film so that I could touch others more and reach out to a larger community.”
When asked about where she finds inspiration for her paintings, Bozikis emphasized the influences of family and her life experiences. Her current work deals with the Greek and Armenian genocide and also the fusion of two-dimensional painting and film. The work featured in the HUB deals with New York urban images, which are deeply personal to Bozikis.

Jason Travers graduated in 1994 and went on to receive his M.F.A. in painting from the University of Pennsylvania in 1998. He joined Lehigh University’s art and architecture department in 1999, teaching foundation and plein-air painting courses and started teaching digital design at Kutztown University as well in 2000.
Travers was awarded Best in Show at the 2002 Northeast Biennial for his painting “Sojourn.” His solo exhibitions include “Recent Works” at the David E. Rodale Gallery of the Baum School of Art in the summer 2004 and “The Spirit of Myth” at the University of Scranton’s Hope Horn Gallery in January of 2005.
He participated in the Bethlehem Steel Paint-Out in October of 2004 and the subsequent “Moment in Time” exhibition in Payne Gallery. His work has recently been a part of “Some Serious Business: Art of the Lehigh Valley” at NCC Fowler Family Center in August/September of 2005.
Travers works without premeditation and embraces “a working dialogue from mark to mark that builds into a more narrative, spatial environment. The imagery that surfaces is no doubt a collection of all my experiences and has strong ties to the observed landscape work that I still continue to produce.”
When beginning art school, Travers had a portfolio of meticulous pointillism drawings that “any parent would deem worthy to hang on the fridge.” He received instruction from Paul King, who pointed him to “the excitement, and more importantly, the validity of working in a more expressive style.”
Travers was moved by a series of reed drawings in India ink inspired by Van Gogh.
“With the ink, there was no erasure. If you screwed it up, there was no going back. I learned to attack the surface with confidence,” Travers said.
As a teacher of design foundations, Travers presents the elements of design like a foreign language, believing that once one understands how elements function in a composition, the space works logically.
“It’s not an easy road, but I feel that it is a noble plight,” he said. “It’s important to continue to grow as an artist, and never get too comfortable.”