Semester 3

Arts TRYathlon #1: NextNOW

Event Logistics: 15 September 2025, Stamp Gallery, Lights Off at 8pm

#visualart #presentation

This was an art gallery all about the different ways memory presents itself, and, more importantly, how memories distort actual events with emotions. Just the premise of this event is deeply engrained within the soul of the Art Scholars because our capstones can be seen as us taking our memories, distorting them, and putting those distortions onto physical forms. But isn’t that just all art? Distortions of what the artist has experienced in their life? But enough on that, I want to talk about some of the pieces I witnessed. One piece, I unfortunately didn’t catch the name, showed a mother and child grieving their recently departed husband and father. What really caught my eye was how there was a portrait of him on the wall, yet his silhouette was greyed out and the frame was bleeding out. When I saw that, I was reminded of someone’s capstone from spring of 2025 where they made poetry out of experiences they had shared with other people. Both Art Scholars and this exhibition show how art forever captures the essence of people, holding them close to us even after they’ve left this earth. The artist is using their art to send the message of how memories affect us long after they’ve turned from live event to memory, and they’re communicating this by playing on the audience’s previous knowledge of grief. Communication by evoking previous emotions is the same process of evoking memories, which, in a very roundabout way, is the exact message the artist was trying to get across. It’s crazy how art works like that!

Arts TRYathlon #2: Maker Mixer

Event Logistics: 3 October 2025, Bel Air Hall, Prisms & Pals: DIY Suncatchers

#visualart

For this tryatholon, we were making suncatchers with premade materials like charms, chains, and jump rings to hang up in our windows! It was an incredibly accessible activity, as the only work that had to be put in was the cinching of the pliers to close the jump rings to connect each of the pieces. Obviously the ease of access reminds me of our discussions about accessibility in art, and how it’s important to allow everyone a chance to get their creative side out. I want to zero in on what I made in particular: I have a very large interest in astronomy and realized that most of the charms available for use were connected to the cosmos in some sort of way. I didn’t have a plan entirely formulated when going in, but when I finished crafting my chain, I realized that I put the sun, moon, and crystal in the perfect positions to recreate a solar eclipse! This shows how our art can be shaped by history: subjects and topics that we have a history of either studying or being included in shape how we think about everything, not just art, as it will always be in the background of our minds. The same can be said about consumption: we are more likely to consume what already speaks to us, and, if we go to more broad perspective, we consume what we believe to be good. This can be shaped by the government and the economy, as those directly tell us what is good or bad, or our history and our culture, as those indirectly tell us what is good and bad.

Arts TRYathlon #3: Maker Mixer

Event Logistics 6 October 2025, Bel Air Hall, Deckt' Out

#visualart

For this event, we were given a fresh deck of cards and access to every supply that the art scholars program had and told to go wild and create a custom deck of our own. I’m not usually a person who plays card games, but I know that they’re always something good to keep in your back pocket as they can work as a really nice conversation starter! I feel like that relates to what we’ve discussed in art scholars about how art connects people in ways that they haven’t been able to connect through before. Asking someone why they chose that specific design for their deck of cards can open up entire discussions about perspective, just as how asking an artist about their intentions can open up a whole world that you may previously have never thought about, which is how art can function as a mechanism to build community. One of the considerations that went into making the cards was that they had to look nice, yes, but they still had to be competitively viable if I were to still use them as cards. That meant I couldn’t put designs on the back, and I couldn’t change the designs of the suits, else I risk eliminating their validity as cards. Once again, art as a mechanism to build community because I had to consider how my decisions, what I did and didn’t include would affect the people who I would be participating in the games. Once again, intentional choices in my art determine how I would build my community around me.

Page updated

Report abuse