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Joy as Resistance
Artist: Vicki Meloney & Doris Palmeros (Huntingdon Valley)
NOT FOR SALE. This work is part of the exhibition and is not available for purchase.
Year: 2026 | Medium: ink, collage fodder and handmade paper | Dimensions: 30.5 x 20.5 inches | Display: Wall-hung (2D)
Artist Statement
What if making art could become its own form of protest?
This collage began as an attempt to transform the weight of political unrest into creative action. After absorbing the relentless cycle of news, outrage, and digital noise, I decided to sit one protest out and make a paper one instead.
Like collage itself, my creative process is one of gathering, questioning, experimenting, and discovering meaning through connection. The familiar joy I find in making shifted my attention away from the noise and toward possibility, revealing something unexpected: the process of making leads us to joy, and joy gives us the capacity to continue resisting. Inspired by Black feminist thinkers who describe joy as a form of resistance, I came to see creativity not only as a way to process the world, but as a way to preserve our humanity within it.
Collage refuses to accept fragments as endings. It gathers what has been discarded, separates and recombines it, creating new meaning through connection. In much the same way, communities are built through countless small acts of creativity, care, and participation. The dancing figures, handmade signs, and playful visual language celebrate music, humor, and communal making as forms of civic engagement. They suggest that resistance is sustained not only by outrage, but also by creativity, delight, and our willingness to imagine better futures together.
This piece belongs in the room because resistance deserves to be seen not only through anger, but also through laughter, joy, hope, and the communities we build together.
About the Artist
Vicki Meloney is a visual communicator, image maker, designer, and educator whose work explores the intersection of print culture, experimentation, history, and human connection. A self-described lover of ink and paper, her creative practice spans silkscreen printing, cyanotypes, collage, typography, digital printmaking, and mixed media. Drawing inspiration from graphic design history, protest graphics, African American printed ephemera, vernacular print culture, and typographic forms, she creates work that bridges past and present through layers of image, text, and material.
Recurring themes throughout her work include joy, resilience, belonging, social justice, and cultural memory. Guided by the belief that visual communication carries both responsibility and possibility, Meloney explores how images can foster dialogue, inspire hope, and contribute to the greater good. She is a Professor of Communication Design at Kutztown University and co-founder of Replace-the-Hate (replacethehate.com), a grassroots initiative that uses community artmaking to strengthen connections across differences.
https://www.latricegd.com/@profmeloney
Pulp Stiction: Collage as an Act of Resistance. Hopkins Hall Gallery, OSU, Oct 26 to Dec 11, 2026.
Artist: Vicki Meloney & Doris Palmeros (Huntingdon Valley)
NOT FOR SALE. This work is part of the exhibition and is not available for purchase.
Year: 2026 | Medium: ink, collage fodder and handmade paper | Dimensions: 30.5 x 20.5 inches | Display: Wall-hung (2D)
Artist Statement
What if making art could become its own form of protest?
This collage began as an attempt to transform the weight of political unrest into creative action. After absorbing the relentless cycle of news, outrage, and digital noise, I decided to sit one protest out and make a paper one instead.
Like collage itself, my creative process is one of gathering, questioning, experimenting, and discovering meaning through connection. The familiar joy I find in making shifted my attention away from the noise and toward possibility, revealing something unexpected: the process of making leads us to joy, and joy gives us the capacity to continue resisting. Inspired by Black feminist thinkers who describe joy as a form of resistance, I came to see creativity not only as a way to process the world, but as a way to preserve our humanity within it.
Collage refuses to accept fragments as endings. It gathers what has been discarded, separates and recombines it, creating new meaning through connection. In much the same way, communities are built through countless small acts of creativity, care, and participation. The dancing figures, handmade signs, and playful visual language celebrate music, humor, and communal making as forms of civic engagement. They suggest that resistance is sustained not only by outrage, but also by creativity, delight, and our willingness to imagine better futures together.
This piece belongs in the room because resistance deserves to be seen not only through anger, but also through laughter, joy, hope, and the communities we build together.
About the Artist
Vicki Meloney is a visual communicator, image maker, designer, and educator whose work explores the intersection of print culture, experimentation, history, and human connection. A self-described lover of ink and paper, her creative practice spans silkscreen printing, cyanotypes, collage, typography, digital printmaking, and mixed media. Drawing inspiration from graphic design history, protest graphics, African American printed ephemera, vernacular print culture, and typographic forms, she creates work that bridges past and present through layers of image, text, and material.
Recurring themes throughout her work include joy, resilience, belonging, social justice, and cultural memory. Guided by the belief that visual communication carries both responsibility and possibility, Meloney explores how images can foster dialogue, inspire hope, and contribute to the greater good. She is a Professor of Communication Design at Kutztown University and co-founder of Replace-the-Hate (replacethehate.com), a grassroots initiative that uses community artmaking to strengthen connections across differences.
https://www.latricegd.com/@profmeloney
Pulp Stiction: Collage as an Act of Resistance. Hopkins Hall Gallery, OSU, Oct 26 to Dec 11, 2026.