As she walks through the Broad Art Center dressed in a menacing black vest studded with plastic spikes, Kristyn Solie looks like she has always felt.
Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder at a very young age, Solie designed the spiked vest with the aim of externalizing the alienation ADHD has caused her.
“I wanted to have something you can put on and see people respond (to),” Solie said. “People tell me I’m different, so I thought, ‘what if my clothes could respond to my internal feelings in a real way?’”
Solie, a fourth-year Design | Media Arts student who works in varied media, from photography to clothing, has been selected by Adobe to be a student representative for its various computer programs.
Chosen from an international pool of applicants, she applied after finding out about the program through a Design | Media Arts-wide email and was video-interviewed by Adobe not long after. The video was placed on its website to showcase her achievements using its programs.
Solie said that as she described her artistic style during her interview, Adobe was attracted to the provocative nature of her spiked vest and how easily it elicited responses.
The sponsorship featured Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which includes products such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop, which Solie has used since middle school.
Solie, however, said Adobe was seen almost as contraband in her household.
Solie said her ADHD made focusing on conventional school subjects difficult, admitting that she could barely do basic algebra. As a result, she said, her parents had to delete Photoshop off her computer so she could concentrate on school.
Her first experience with computer design was informal. Solie taught herself HTML and JavaScript in order to create her own creative MySpace layouts.
Like the MySpace project, art has always been something she has done on the side, so it was on a whim that she chose to apply to the UCLA Design | Media Arts program.
Even during school, Solie said she faced prejudice due to her ADHD. Her high school counselor strongly discouraged her from applying to UCLA and even tried dissuading her from going when she was admitted.
“It feels good to prove people wrong and surprise them with what I can do,” Solie said. “Being different, you always want to prove to yourself that you can do it.”
It was in the “new-world” design media, like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, (as opposed to “old-world” media like painting) that Solie said she could work with comfortably with her disorder.
“Having ADHD, there are a lot of ideas going on in my head,” Solie said. “With Photoshop, you can switch between many programs very quickly, matching the way I think.”
Adobe programs became very personal for her because she said instead of her ADHD holding her back, it gave her strength.
Dealing with people’s prejudice and preconceptions of her inspired Solie’s interest in the topic of alienation from society and the “us versus them” mentality that people instinctively revert to.
This can be seen in almost all of her works, including the spiked vest and The Soap Project, a video based on a character so agoraphobic that he must constantly wear a space suit Solie designed.
Even though her works often reiterate the same themes, Solie keeps an open mind on all her projects.
“When she goes into a project, she does not have finite ideas,” Lauren Mahon, a third-year Design | Media Arts student who helped work on the spiked vest, said, “She allows the project to unfold itself without being too in control of the unfolding.”
Solie said these works commonly elicit responses from other students who admit to sharing the same feelings of disconnect.
“It’s easy to get stuck in your head and feel alone and different, which I think is what resonates with people,” Solie said.
Jason Seventy-One (who adopted this last name at a young age), Solie’s past manager at the media management service called Gobbler, said when Solie encounters universal ideas like this she explores them thoroughly.
“She has the nature of an inherently curious person and its important to her to finish whatever is on her mind,” he said.
Despite her work often being displayed on her person, Solie said being filmed by Adobe feels backward, as she is more used to being behind a camera than in front of it.
She has received attention from unlikely places, like Facebook messages about her video from people in Africa.
Solie said that even though it feels awkward being in the spotlight, getting sponsored by Adobe has reaffirmed her purpose in life.
Her goal is to have a job that allows her to design according to her creative whims and not be restricted by any sort of medium.
“To have something, like my art, that seemed like a distraction become a full-time thing makes me finally feel like I fit in,” Solie said. “If there is a problem, I just want to be trusted to use my own creativity to solve it.”
