It would be fair to guess that most University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire students have lived in one, two or maybe three towns throughout their childhood. Recent graduate Olivia Bishop, however, was raised in six different countries before they turned 18, living a childhood of travel, exploration and piecemeal memories.
The child of U.S. diplomats, she graduated from high school in Australia and returned to Wisconsin for the next chapter of her life. That transition, according to Bishop, was not an easy one.
“Out of all the countries that I’ve lived in, the place where I’ve experienced the most aggressive culture shock was coming into the U.S.,” they describe. “It’s just a different system to work under and everything in the U.S. was really unfamiliar.”
Bishop didn’t let that culture shock stop her from finding adventure at UW-Eau Claire.
“I just kept telling myself that all of the other incoming freshmen, they don’t have a clue either. So, I was like, ‘OK, we’re good.’”
Art of community
Bishop just graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in integrative visual arts, and though she has always had a passion for creating, she never would have envisioned pursuing it as a college degree.
“I never one day got up and thought, ‘I’m going to do art as a career.’ It was just something that I never stopped doing.”
Bishop just wrapped their first solo exhibition, “Textile Testimonials,” and over the course of their time at UW-Eau Claire, they participated in 10 exhibitions and four juried art shows. That consistent passion and love for art have been an integral part of Bishop’s undergraduate journey, opening doors for commissions, collaborations and varieties of creative expression.
Bishop’s extensive involvement on campus has aided her sense of discovery, especially as an active student in the Latin American and Latinx Studies program and Mark Stephen Cosby Honors College, where first connections quickly turned chains of influence. She still remembers joining honors at UW-Eau Claire.
“I applied to join through the holistic review, and I got in. Best thing. The best thing that could have happened.”
After enrolling in one of her many honors courses, Bishop was hired as a graphic designer by their class professor to create a book of all the work from that course. McIntyre librarians saw Bishop’s book and soon recommended them to faculty in the Latin American and Latinx Studies program, which led to Bishop being recommended for a private commission.
“It’s one of those domino effects,” she smiles. “It’s just community.”
That commission began a partnership among Bishop, McIntyre Library, Latinx studies and Puentes/Bridges Inc., a nonprofit organization that works to bridge the gaps between Mexican workers and Midwest farmers. In collaboration with Dr. Cheryl Jiménez-Frei, associate professor of history, and other UW-Eau Claire students, Bishop created the visuals for an educational exhibition telling the stories of six women whose families traveled to the U.S. for work. Bishop designed 10 double-sided, bilingual panels illustrating those stories.
That work, “Chicāhuac Exhibition: Women’s Stories of Strength and Sacrifice from Rural Mexico to the Midwest,” was displayed at McIntyre Library in October 2025 and has been traveling to different libraries and community centers since. It remains one of Bishop’s proudest accomplishments from her time at UW-Eau Claire.
“I love (it) so much because working with Puentes/Bridges and all of the people who are part of that, who are so dedicated to that type of work, it was rejuvenating.” Bishop says. “Really, it was exhilarating to be able to be a part of that.”
Artist turned advocate
Part of Bishop’s gratitude for the opportunity to illustrate stories of women’s sacrifice is because it’s personal: Bishop’s family, on their grandfather’s side, moved to Wisconsin as agricultural workers, a connection that deepened their belief in the project’s capacity to draw new eyes to unknown faces and histories. Bishop admits, though, that they could not even imagine that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers would stop by to see the installation.
“It’s difficult for me to describe because it’s one of those things where it aligned with my ethos so much,” they explain. “I was able to take my professional skills as an artist and apply it to social justice, which is one of the things that I not only want to do, but I need to do.”
With social justice her primary motivator, Bishop’s honors thesis delved into queer Mexican art history, with a focus on the history of transgender people’s lives in Mexico. Stemming from an internship as a studio assistant for traveling artist Sophia Moreno, Bishop began her work with an extensive literature review, a labor of love they already look back on fondly.
“I remember laying on the floor of my apartment with the sun coming in, and there’s papers and books and highlighters strewn about me, and I felt my brain grow. That’s how much I was learning.”
Many moments of discovery culminated into the body of artwork “Trans Futurity: A Queer Exploration of Mexican Art History.” That work, and its presentation in fall 2025, became the first honors thesis ever in art.
“It was one of those things where it was like epiphany after epiphany, and my paradigm kept shifting in my head.”
Bishop is no stranger to paradigm shifts. She experienced another on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage, first as a student and later as a coordinator. The journey, which travels through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, follows histories of oppression and resistance across the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. South.
“Going on the trip and then going on it as a coordinator were two very different things, but they were both so transformational. It’s an experiential learning where your emotions are as much a driving factor as your intellect.”
Adventures in world citizenship
A world explorer from childhood, it should come as no surprise that Bishop holds a special place in her heart for travel. She’s traveled across Europe, lived in Australia and served on a state department internship in Azerbaijan. Still, that kind of global history does not come without complications.
“There are identity issues of growing up in a bunch of places,” Bishop says. “Memory is super important because, I mean, what are we if not a combination of all the different things that we remember?”
This past January, Bishop returned to the country where their own childhood memories began: the Republic of Georgia. As part of an honors research project with three other students and Dr. Heather Fielding, Cosby Honors College director, Bishop experienced an incredible full-circle moment.
“I’ve never been able to go back and visit any of the countries I’ve lived in. For Georgia to be the first, and the place where my memory starts, that was really special.”
After graduation, Bishop plans to continue their work as a decolonial travel artist, seeking out new ways to depict the people, places and stories that have been silenced, lost or forgotten. Long term, she hopes to open a studio practice and public gallery with similar aims.
But, for now, Bishop heads to Argentina, where they will embark on a summer internship with the Municipal Museum of Modern Art of Mendoza — in search of new memories among the old.
