Name: Casey Altman Year: Senior Hometown: Aspen, Colorado Major: Art History Major, Fine Arts Minor Website: www.casey-altman.com, www.thehashtagproject.org

Street: When did you become interested in art and design?

CA: Since I was a little girl, I was always interested in color, photography and signage. I could always be found with markers or crayons on hand. Over the years I have continued to take an interest in how both images and typography work well within a composition. My friends will attest to my constant commentary on every wine label, poster, greeting card, etc. that I absolutely love.

Street: Which mediums do you mostly work with?

CA: I have experimented with numerous mediums and continue to teach myself new programs everyday. When I am drawing I love to use pencil and charcoal. I also have a huge passion for photography, especially black and white analog pictures. I find myself looking at the world through a camera lens. More regularly, I am a sucker anything that involves graphics. I try to add a layer to my graphic design work by drawing images or textures that I then transfer into my final products, however, Adobe seems to have mastered almost every medium and translated it for the computer.

Street: What artists do you consider influences? If you could have dinner with one artist who would it be?

CA: Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Rene Magritte, Irving Penn, Elliot Erwitt, Mel Bochner, Paul Rand—the list goes on and on. If I had to pick one artist to have dinner with, it would definitely be Andy Warhol. I recently read a book that he wrote where he mentioned how he enjoyed going for dinner and ordering everything on the menu that he didn't like. His constant need to be difficult and go against the grain would definitely make for entertaining conversations.

Street: What has been your favorite project to work on? Most challenging?

CA: I think my favorite project was my series of recreated vintage advertisements. All of my art history papers always gravitate towards the ideal woman, female stereotypes and the male gaze. When I finally translated my words into art it felt very satisfying. I even decided to create my own magazine, “Objects of Beauty” with all of my advertisements and essays as a final compilation.

Street: You created the Hashtag Project—tell us about it. Which is your favorite photograph? How do people become involved?

CA: The Hashtag Project turned out to be way more than I ever expected, but I am so excited about it! To explain it briefly, I created 25 wooden hashtags, all of which were marked by number. I then distributed them to friends, family and strangers with instructions to document their # via photograph, video or any other form of visual media that could be posted to a social media platform. The posts are geotagged as well as tagged with #thehashtagproj, @thehashtagproj, #01hashtagproj (or whichever number # you have). Next, I built thehashtagproject.org which streams all posts from various social media platforms. The goal of the hashtag project is to make a historic typographic mark tangible—one which has been redefined as a key symbol of contemporary language and cultures that signifies trending things. The Hashtag has traveled all around the world and is still active today! Ultimately, I could not be happier with its turnout and I am considering the opportunity to turn it into a business venture.

My favorite photograph of the hashtag is at Art Basel in Miami pictured with Darth Vader.

Street: Where do you see your art taking you in the future?

CA: I hope to continue creating artworks that are exciting and challenging. I plan to explore editorial graphics as well as my curiosities for interior design and experiential branding.