SEE

ADVERTISING

Commercial success

Jason LaFlore ’07

As a creative director for the advertising agency Leo Burnett Chicago, LaFlore has worked on a number of memorable commercials. “Edgar ScissorhandsFree,” an ad showcasing Cadillac’s new hands-free driving feature starring Timothée Chalamet and Winona Ryder, was one of the most talked-about Super Bowl commercials in 2021. His Michelob Ultra ad with Jimmy Fallon and John Cena aired during the Super Bowl in 2020. “Making a Super Bowl ad had been my main objective since I decided I wanted to get into advertising eight years ago,” he said. LaFlore and his team have also worked with the likes of Glad and Coca-Cola and created the #BlackAtWork experience. —Z . H.

DANCE

“Remember Me”

Linxin “Kisa” Li ’19

Li studied dance at UD, but her fine arts education is far from over. “Dance has this power to allow me to feel present,” said Li, who is pursuing an MFA in dance at Florida State University. She uses live performance, choreography and dance film to explore social issues through body movement. Last year, her focus was strongly personal and brought light to xenophobia and the toll of the pandemic. “Putting all my fears, trauma, imaginations, feelings and the pain into arts actually helps me feel better,” she said. “I am able to turn all those negativities inside me into a meaningful, creative art experience.” Li plans to use art to help those who need love and care, adding a deeper sense of purpose to her future career as a college dance professor. —M . T .

ILLUSTRATION

How to Hide a Ghost

MacKenzie Haley ’02

As a self-described illustrator, runner and cat-lover, Haley brings stories to life with her detailed and colorful drawings. “I’ve loved art and creating my entire life; some of my earliest childhood memories are of drawing and making things,” Haley said. “In some ways I think of art as my first love, a love that will never leave me and will endure my whole life.” Most of her work is pictured in children’s books, including The Ninja Sleepover Club and Patrick’s Polka Dot Tights. Haley also creates gifs, or moving illustrations, that are equally as playful as her book illustrations, including a series on her website showing happy ghosts hiding among cauliflower and ballroom beauties. Her first book as an author and illustrator, *How to Hide a Ghost,* comes out July 20 from Simon & Schuster. — L . D .

PHOTOGRAPHY

Terra Familiar

Zachary Collopy ’20

For a year, Collopy visited the same patch of semi-developed land, a vernal pool and its surrounding ecosystem. He watched and photographed its dynamic changes throughout the season: when full, it could be a mirror for the moon; when empty, a scar on the land where a bulldozer had once been. From this inspiration, he created a one-to-one scale model of the pool, photographs and sculptures for his first solo exhibit, which premiered in May. “My hope is to create art that grows our collective ability to observe and cherish non-human life in our immediate surroundings,” he said. Collopy received a Culture Works grant to support the immersive art installation at the EDU Gallery at Front Street Studios in Dayton. “The planet’s divine continuity through time, space and season structures my sense of self and belonging,” he said. —M . T .

SOCIAL MEDIA

“Big Ideas in Gaming”

Jesse Cox ’09

As a YouTube gaming personality, Cox reaches 970,000 subscribers with his videos of game reviews, live online play, interviews and specials. While he is a game producer, Cox is also a game educator, a possible harkening back to his graduate degree program at UD in adolescence to young adult education. The highly produced and animated series “Big Ideas in Gaming” pairs a redbearded cartoon Cox alongside Pat Holleman, game developer and historian. One episode explores the central theme of video game design (spoiler: technical constraints create artistic styles, which is why games developed in the early ’80s had to leave out things like plot to conform to the computing power available). To all his projects, Cox brings the enthusiasm of a kid playing his first game. —M . T .

Dayton Minecraft

Matthew Cusumano ’15 and Jared Schroeder ’15

The Flyer friends were finishing their studies in computer engineering and mechanical engineering, respectively, when they began building a model of Kettering Labs in the popular block-based video game Minecraft. It was so much fun, they kept going. Today, the working engineers fill their Dayton Minecraft Twitter channel with images of a growing campus. They have completed Stuart Hall, Kennedy Union, the chapel and so much more, with a mission to build out all 380 acres. In May, they finished the 300 block of Kiefaber Street. They say getting the scale and elevation right are the hardest parts. “We love UD, and it’s fun reminiscing about our time there while working on building the campus,” Schroeder told Dayton.com. —M . T .