Cecelia Moseley

MFA/Sculpture

For Cecelia Moseley, creating art, whether sculptures or paintings, has always played some part in her life. Diagnosed with dyslexia at an early age, she found it difficult to express herself through writing and turned to art.

“My work intends to bring awareness about not only my own trials with dyslexia, but also to others who deal with the affliction,” she said. “It intends to depict the intangible, mental struggles which are not visible to the everyday person. For those people that do not exactly know what dyslexia feels like, I hope to reflect those frustrations and help create a better understanding for the viewer. The importance of bringing more awareness to this issue is so that hopefully one day society can better assist a person who needs intervention and accommodation.”

Moseley is an artist from Meridian, Mississippi, who received her BFA in sculpture from The University of Mississippi Spring of 2020. As an MFA/sculpture candidate at LSU, her work explores how uniquely abled individuals experience the world, and communicate.

Dyslexia changes the way millions of people read and process information which then shapes self-image and confidence, Moseley said. “As a dyslexic, expressing myself through writing has always been a struggle. Starting at a young age, I knew I had to learn differently than others because my peers were reading, writing, and speaking effortlessly while I had an incredible time trying to do any one of them. I learned over time that, though I had to work harder with reading and writing, I excelled at other things. Throughout my different challenges interpreting writing, creating art has always been the vehicle that helped me work through the problems.”

“My own personal frustrations with language have driven my artistic ideas for a long time. The works in this exhibition are composed of materials such as sheet metal, various castings, copper wire, and wood. I am drawn to these materials because of the possible complexity and fluidity that each material is capable of achieving. By bringing all these materials together with my concepts, I have created various compositions that reflect some of the challenges associated with dyslexic learning.”

Describing her work, the resulting forms are intended to give the viewer the feeling of having dyslexia by creating a situation where they themselves struggle to read the writings presented. The painted and jumbled letters distract and confuse the viewer while the cut letters in the human forms express self-image and how complex, confusing, and difficult language can be for a dyslexic.

See her work at her personal website.

Cecelia is the curator of the exhibition “Why LSU: From an Artist’s Point” of view, which features LSU undergraduate and graduate student artwork exploring the reasons why they chose LSU to study art.

“As an artist it is important to build community,” she said. “Place is foundational to community and LSU is the place where many young artists begin building their artistic community. This exhibition features undergraduate work. Each artist was asked not only to share their work, but also why they chose LSU and how this place has impacted them.”

“I was initially inspired to curate this exhibition to give undergraduate art students opportunities to grow skills and confidence in exhibiting their work. But sharing work is also about building community. In the statements, students shared a sense of belonging, a sense of community, and a sense of purpose they have found through making art at LSU. These statements reminded me just how much my own journey was shaped by my LSU community. I hope this show inspires others and deepens connections for the artists in community here at LSU.”

This exhibition is part of a larger project that includes an exhibition of graduate student work on view in the Union Gallery from September 20 through October 11, 2022.

LSU Art Exhibitions Ask, “Why LSU?” | COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN