MICHAEL WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
While some students spent summer break relaxing in the sun, others decided to channel their inner creativity before the semester even began.
In the Emmitt Christian Gallery, from Sept. 11–27, animation and illustration majors from the department of visual arts and new media showed off some “Summer Flicks and Pics.” This event showcased pieces that the students worked on this summer. Many guests enjoyed the artists’ work.
One of the artists, Julian Santos, worked on a piece titled “Little Knight Guys.”
The piece resembles a sketch of two characters wearing knight gear.
Santos said they wanted to push themselves on their color use with this piece, trying to show luminous colors in the illustrations.
“Two Old People” was another illustration Santos made.
“I had a fun time making some characters that felt the most irregular and unique in my opinion,” Santos said. “I wanted them to capture a whimsical nature and take myself out of my own universe. My hope is to use these characters further in my animation journey, and to watch them come alive.”
Another one of the featured artists, Nicole Thorson, made a short film for the display titled “The Boot.”
She used Adobe Animate, Photoshop and Premiere Pro. Her friend, Geoff Hall, voiced one of the characters.
Her work was inspired by creators like Jack Stauber and Worthikids. Thorson usually likes to draw comics and more traditional art, but she saw this opportunity to do an animation to beef up her portfolio and ran with it.
A variety of other animations were also on display. Among these were Luke Johnson’s “Conspiracy Vision,” as well as Cameron Kerr Smith and Emily Neiswonger’s “I See the Waves,” a film about two friends past, present and future. Also featured were Calvin Howard’s two animations titled “Larry” and “Deployed,” about a robot officer being deployed on the streets.
Guinevere Devlin, artist of “The Unicorn and the Knight,” said she was inspired by classic fairy tales and fantasy settings.
Stylistically, Delvin says she took some inspiration from old, medieval stained-glass windows and illuminated manuscripts, and blended some elements of those into her own style. Devlin’s favorite form of art to create is comics and sequential illustration because she likes working with narratives and larger-scale projects that involve creating a world and communicating it to an audience. She made this comic while working as an artist-in-residence in Rochester at the Flower City Arts Center.
“I took inspiration from classical fairy tales, and some medieval artwork conventions, and chose a limited color palette keeping in mind the capabilities of the risograph machine it was originally printed on,” Devlin said.
Lastly, Omalubia Umeasor illustrated a piece called “Admire.” It’s about the growing expectations in art and life to be perfect or without flaw, which may lead us to get caught up in the wrong things in life. “Admire” captures the slowness of our day-to-day lives and the beauty we often miss.
Nicole Thorson, who was interviewed for this piece, is the Art Director of The Leader.
