Tyson Buggs, a 19 year old from Easton, Ma. sits down with me to discuss his future as a designer, rapping, and all things fashion.
By Abi Brown
Tyson was the first friend I made at Lasell University and the strides he has made as a person and artist has shocked myself and our community at Lasell. We got real about Hypebeast culture, other Lasell designers such as BUSHLAND, and who inspires him the most. Tyson Buggs is a name you are going to want to remember, so give our conversation a listen!
“Especially right now when times become tragic, fashion becomes drastic. In my mind with this whole pandemic were going to start seeing weirder pieces…”
As I sit here relaxing, looking at the beautiful landscape of the forest behind my house on this gorgeous sunny day, I wonder, “Why is everyone always trying to harsh my mellow?”
Sorry, let’s backtrack. As I sit here, smoking my bowl on the back deck, I wonder, “Is this why my next-door neighbors haven’t called me back to babysit?”
The answer is probably yes. I mean, they have a clear view of the most green and lush smoking spot the world has ever seen, so they have to know I do it. At first, I was upset by this thought, and a little embarrassed. As I continued thinking about it, I realized something and the sorrow built to anger and frustration.
They won’t call me back because I smoke weed. However, their three kids would love it when I came to babysit, and they said I was their favorite. I have worked at a daycare all through high school and just got another job at one on campus. I’m good at spending time with kids because they are fun and carefree,(like many stoners, may I add.) On top of this experience, I have a 3.5 GPA (it was at a 2.9 last year so I’m proud, okay), worked multiple jobs during the school year, wrote for three different publications, had no disciplinary record, and maintained healthy relationships with my friends and family. They can’t overlook that, though, so they don’t call me back.
This reminded me of the time I almost got in trouble for smoking weed in my dorm room. The administrative RA (not my floor’s RA, love you Colleen!) saw me from outside. When she came up I hid the paraphernalia but forgot about my incense and candle. She confiscated them and I obviously let her (because let’s be real, getting caught with a candle is way better than being found with drugs). While getting the classic lecture from the RA, she said something that got under my skin, “Do you know how this makes you look?”
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Excuse me?
To deal with anxiety and all the stress from the workload I take on, I like to share a joint or two with my friends and go for a walk. The pressure of being a student today is unreal; I don’t have to tell you guys. So I really don’t see anything wrong here. The mentality of this RA and the parents I babysat for are perpetuating the stigmatization that we stoners face out here all the time. It’s funny too because these people are self-proclaimed “libertarians” and act like they are better than everyone else because they are well educated and a part of this new way of thinking. But here they are, acting just like the Man. You can assume all these things about me, but in the end, I am the one being enlightened by how good this weed is and how making assumptions about people is for the ill-minded. All of them could have seen my grades or seen all the work I do, but that wouldn’t stop them from prejudging me as a person. They have limited my worth to a druggie.
What would they do? I wonder if they found out about Barack? How about Bill Gates? Herodotus? Shakespeare? Or how about good ole’ Abe Lincoln? All these men grew to be extremely influential and are positive role models. If they were forced to limit themselves because people found out they liked a doobie once in a while, where would we be?
My point is, we need to stop prejudging people. When we send hate into our system, the cycle is perpetuated and goes on and on and on. You give hate, you get hate, it is the way of the universe. This goes further than smoking weed too, we need to have open ears and hearts. We don’t all have to love each other or get along, but deeply-rooted hate has been in our system for too long. Being able to have a good opinionated and educated conversation about our disagreements is how we can get around this pettiness, whether it is smoking weed or any other issue. And when you do encounter that ignorant asshole that refuses to point out anything logical, just know they aren’t worth your time, you can’t fix stupid. So tell them, “Have a good rest of your day,” and move on.
Sam Bettencourt, a senior in fashion design at Lasell University takes creativity to the next level. After studying abroad in London at the London College of Fashion, they realized corsets were their calling. Banksy once construed that “art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.,” so one can only assume Bettencourt sees these pieces as a canvas. Their designs have elements of somber etched with beauty. They describe their style as,
“Deconstructed elegance. It’s appalling but I try my best to make it… alluring.” While close friend Jackson Powell describes it as “…high fashion meets grunge.”
Sam Bettencourt
One of their professors, Lynn Blake, said they remind her of “A young Alexander McQueen or John Galliano come to mind when I think of Sam… by way of being razor-focused and completely dedicated to messages they sought to express.”Bettencourt was taught by designer and fashion icon, Mr. Pearl, while studying in London. From this experience, they’re able to create pieces in such an artistic way that they should be labeled as art. The craftsmanship, time, and labor that goes into making their collections is what deems their work worthy of such status; and this is what makes Bettencourt stand out. How do you capture your own pain and relay it to something everyone can connect to, in an alluring light?
Bettencourt got their start in ‘corsetiering’ while studying abroad in London. It was in London where they met a couple of people who would later be labeled by Bettencourt as sources of inspiration and friendship. Under the wing of haute couture designer Mr Pearl, Bettencourt was exposed to the avant garde scene that is London. It gets its avant garde title because of its fashion scene that is inspired by the many designers that are from London, such as Alexander McQueen, another inspiration of Bettencourt’s.
*not an original photo
If you know about the works of Alexander McQueen, you may know of fashion icon Isabella Blow. She was known for bringing highly skilled and under acknowledged designers to the top, McQueen and Mr. Pearl being two. Mr. Pearl is known for his work collaborations. Often times couture designers call in specialists, like Mr. Pearl, to make specific pieces for their collections. He has worked with designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, John Galliano, Chloe, Alexander McQueen, Antonio Berardi and Christian Lacroix to name a few.
With the help of Mr. Pearl, Bettencourt near mastered their skill. A friend they met studying abroad, Brianna Serio said “Sam was always in the lab very late until the next morning, working very hard, on multiple pieces at once.”Bettencourt did not always want to do design, in fact when applying to schools they “applied to 26 schools for music theory, and one for fashion design which was Lasell. I got into Lasell but not my top music schools…” They love the small community at Lasell and find it a lot more fun than being at a bigger school in New York City.
For their final collection for the Senior Fashion Collection Show on May 2nd, Bettencourt is doing something personally healing for them. Recently in June of 2019, their grandmother, otherwise known as the “matriarch of the family” passed away. To pay tribute to their mother-figure, Bettencourt decided on their theme: Philosophy of the Threshold. They are focusing on two aspects of the threshold, “ the transformative threshold which is coming into contact with something that changes your perception of life so drastically that you become a different person afterward, it’s about what that journey is like.… And the second one, the pressure point threshold, which is basically the limit of ‘corsetry’ and what a body can take.” Bettencourt will present this with a garment that will test each model’s personal threshold by seeing how far they can cinch their bodies to “the height of their corset experience.”
After college, Bettencourt plans to either go back to London for graduate school, or take a teaching job at Lasell. The job was offered by professor and close friend, Lynn Blake. Bettencourt teaches a corset making workshop at Lasell, along with sewing construction courses, so they would continue teaching that curriculum.
No one ever talks about us. Us, meaning Bostonians, that is unless their great aunt could afford the care of our world-renowned medical facilities. Or perhaps you had a cousin who could afford one of Boston’s many university’s tuitions. You may also know of us as Titletown after winning multiple Super Bowls, World Series, Championships and Stanley Cups. My point is our universities and hospitals aren’t all there is to this metropolitan. We are a cultural accumulation of underground artists, musicians, and scholars. Students start their futures here with professors who are bearing real-world insight. The best doctors from around the world are at your disposal. Artists fabricate new, embryonic compositions, seemingly in secret and without rules. The people who live somewhere in between these titles are setting the stage for a change that the Hub has been waiting for since its constitutional beginnings.
Photo by: Ben Proctor
If you are young, intellectual, a go-getter, or an artist, what would being a Bostonian look like through your eyes? How does the gritty city inspire? I explored this through the lens of two young photographers Ben Proctor and Ethan McTeague.
Photo by: Ethan McTeague
For McTeague, “Being in Boston at least once a week with 700000+ people and endless street photography along with all the great and unique architecture has inspired me. Photography comes down to the one out of 1000 shots, you fail and improvement, practice makes perfect, always learning new techniques and tips to get that one perfect shot.” Ethan lives in the Greater Boston area and visits the city frequently. His use of light in darkness captures the energy of Boston. Between the loneliness one feels while walking the streets at night and the need to do something bigger than yourself, McTeague captures it. He presents a need to go somewhere. Boston has an abundance of hardworking and competitive people. That energy seems to spread to the spirit of its people. This pressure mixed with grit is obvious in McTeague’s work through his use of fluorescent light against blackness, representing hope and vibrancy; while the buses and cars carry you through the twists and confusion of getting to the top. Getting somewhere in Boston is more determined by one’s talent and work ethic rather than the stereotypical chance and luck you might find in N.Y.C. or the politics and/or family connections you have in L.A.
Ben’s experience of living in Boston is a little more poetic. He describes: “being in Boston has allowed me to explore the use of scale and material use much more in my photos. In particular, the perspective gained by viewing a skyscraper from below…
I want to create an atmosphere with my photos, almost like you’re lost in a dream.”
-Ben Proctor
And that he did. Ben is studying Architecture. His style is often experimental. The relationship between photography and architecture for him is hand in hand. Photography helps his visions become more evident. Boston is dreamlike. It does not get the hype of bigger cities like L.A or N.Y.C and because of this, residents remain humble and more true to themselves and their work. It is easy to get lost in the distortion of our winding streets, the planes coming in and out over the harbor, the Pru and fluorescent Citgo sign that greet you when you enter the city. Boston has a weird aura that entwines you and is nearly impossible to put into words. Through Proctor’s imagery, one gets the sense that nothing is real. Within layers of metaphorical consciousness, he strips away reality and captures a moment where things are not as they seem.
Whether this is a feeling or a dark moment in a beautiful place, Proctor’s dream-esque style portrays the chaotic nature of Boston, while simultaneously diving deeper into himself as an artist. At the same time, McTeague captures a similar essence of the comforting, electric nature of Boston’s people, colors, and buildings. Together, they bring us together with a similar theme- the theme of belonging
Professor and independent artist Catherine Graffam discuss teaching, being an artist, and life advice.
By Abi Brown
Catherine Graffam, a professor at Lasell University is very involved with the art community in and around Boston. She is also certified on Twitter as Girl Fieri. *Not an original photograph
So what kind of involvement do you take part in on campus?
I’d say my involvement is relatively minimal outside of like helping specific students who are in my classes. But, I am becoming a faculty advisor for a club that I think is starting this semester for embroidery, and that’s really exciting so I’m super stoked to be on board with that.
So is teaching your only job?
No, it is not.
What else do you?
So I wear many hats… I have my own painting art career, I teach, and then also I am an exhibitions manager at a gallery, I’m an expressions manager at Gallery263 which is an art gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
What do you like most about it, and what do you like most about being a professor here?
For me, having a professor or a teacher to really help me and inspire me and really take me under their wing during college was so instrumental and helpful for me to grow my own career and passion for art. I want to be that for the next generation because that is super important to me.
What is something you maybe wish your students would get more involved with?
Everything! Extracurriculars, really utilizing your time here, going to the library, go to a club. You don’t appreciate how much resources you have access to while you’re in college until you’re gone. I definitely did not utilize so many resources and I regret it, hardcore. I guilt myself because I’m like why am I not taking advantage of like free yoga and there’s like a free gym and I don’t take advantage of that. That would be the thing.
Do you have any advice on how a student could get more involved with the arts on and off-campus?
Yes, definitely. So there’s the gallery on campus that often has shows where they ask students to participate with their art and anybody can submit to those. So you can get into an exhibition and that’s a really great way to start. One of my former students is starting an embroidery club because she found passion in that and that was like a great way to continue on campus. Off-campus I would say Boston has so many great museums and art galleries. Just going to them is like super beneficial, even if you’re not going to be an artist, you won’t regret going to art museums. Also, you have free access to them, another great resource in college. Otherwise, I would say you can make art to heal yourself and nurture yourself. You should do the things that you’re passionate about and nurture you creatively and utilize social media, make a website, that’s where I got my start. Start branding yourself. That sounds terrible, so like getting your artwork out now before you’re out of college and you’re like shit, I could have been doing this for the past four years.
Do you have anything else you want to add or talk about an interesting tidbit?
Advice would be… utilize your class time and make an assignment something for your personal career growth, and put the assignment somewhere else. For instance, at my art gallery, we have an art journal where anyone can submit reviews of any writing topic about art in Boston that they want to write about. So if you ever want to write something for the website for the gallery, like interviewing an artist or something you can literally do that and I will help you with that… Professors are here to help you, that’s why we’re here. We want to see each student succeed to their full potential.
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