Story by RORY MOORE Photos by RORY MOORE and REBEKAH REED
Tiger Media Network
An MFA Thesis Exhibition is on display inside the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art and the Patricia A. Schmidt Gallery Lobby. The display opened on December 2 and will close on Friday. The exhibition features the works of Maddy Otter, who based her show ‘Multitudes’ on her childhood experiences and perspective.
The Multitudes Exhibition features the works of Fort Hays Graphic Design student Maddy Otter. 
Otter’s work comprises of posters designed for fictional companies, books, and video footage. 
Otter incorporated her graphic design background into works like “Super Cut.” 
“Clover Flour and “Orange Cocoa Powder” hangs in the Moss-Thorns Gallery. 
The Pinninit Cafe sits in the corner with a menu created by Otter. 
Otter produced some of her works with books that she read during her childhood. 
Otter has studied Graphic Design at Fort Hays and is set to graduate in December.
The soon-to-be Fort Hays graduate incorporated the mediums of graphic design, photography, printmaking, and book design, and she created every piece in three years while attending graduate school.
“All my graphic design projects are entirely fictional,” Otter said. “That’s a big thing in our program. You make up your client, and then you make the work for that client. So, you can make the backstory as crazy and interesting as you want, or you can make it tame and make it work for you; that way, you go out later, and you’re prepared for what kind of clients come your way.”
Common themes in Otter’s gallery are family, togetherness, interconnectedness, and childhood innocence.
“My piece, ‘Parallel Tale,’ touches with my childhood,” she said. “That was something that spoke to me growing up. Like reading a book, you can put yourself in any environment. So, that piece was about childhood, reading, and imagining places you can go.”
Otter made her pieces with the intention of diversifying her themes and only basing them on her life.
“My printmaking and photography are more of my looking-inward type of works,” she said. “My graphic design is more bubbly, more outward-facing, and less introspective.”
Her video piece, ‘Rip the Script,’ features footage of Otter interacting with her family as a girl during birthday parties, play dates, and holiday get-togethers.
“Seeing where people come from and the environment they grew up in can tell you a lot about a person,” Otter said. “That’s a huge part of my show and in my statement on the wall, I talk about all these people that have affected my life, and events that can affect you, and lessons that you come across as you’re living your first life as a person. The more context you have to a person, the more you know them, and I showing those videos provides context for me.”
She included footage of her sisters in her video for her family theme.
“I have two older sisters who are significantly older,” Otter said. “They weren’t always there through my childhood, but the times that they were, those were bright and shining sports in my childhood because I look up to them.”
Otter created her art with no bounds to whom she was inspired, including friends and professors, and cited Tad Carpenter, Paula Scher, and April Greiman as influential to her work.
“You can see all these areas where some of my stuff is more clean,” she said. “Some of the poster designs get a little more in the weeds of collage, like with these posters, because I like to experiment and push the boundaries.”