The Honors College will be hosting “Art Speaks,” a student-run art exhibit featuring not only art, but the artists, for the third time Tuesday night.
“Five artists will be featured and will talk about their process and their inspirations for their work,” Olivia West, a senior majoring in digital media, said.
West is the vice president of the Honors College Assembly and is in charge of special projects like Art Speaks. There will be five featured artists this time, though they weren’t chosen for their similarities.
“We’re trying to get different kinds of art to spark conversations,” West said. “This gives both the artists and students new exposure.”
While West enlisted the art department to help seek artists to feature in the show, having an art-related major wasn’t a requirement to participate. Daniel Connors, one of the featured artists, is a senior majoring in marketing and management with a specialization in global business.
“Seeing the world is my life story. I have lived, I have traveled, and I have seen the world and have taken thousands and thousands of pictures,” Connors said.
Connors, who has participated in Art Speaks before, said he wanted to come back to the event to express the different perspectives he encountered abroad.
“The different cultures and beautiful scenery have inspired me to capture them,” Connors said of his semester he spent in China last spring. “I wanted to participate in Art Speaks because I wanted to have an opportunity to show a different side of China,” he said. “The ‘Daniel’ version of China, if you [want to] put it that way.”
His submission, a collection of five photographs, was carefully planned.
“I felt like [five pictures] gave the whole picture of my experience,” he said. “Not all of them are exactly artistic as one would think, but they invoke thought from something that seems [to be] only a simple picture.”
Connors said capturing the scene made it easier for him to bring China to Alabama.
“That’s why I love some pictures that don’t have people in them, because all you have to do copy and paste yourself into that picture and allow your mind come alive,” he said.
Along with Connors’ photographs, attendees will have the chance to see other student artwork come to life.
“The best benefit of Art Speaks is that it gives the artist an opportunity to tell the story to the audience behind the paintings and photographs,” Connors said. “After all, if you go to a silent art show, then when you look at a picture, you are left with some sort of a cliffhanger.”
“Here at Arts Speaks, you get to hear the real story, the real passion, the real experiences that connected between the artist and his or her pieces,” he said. “It’s like being inside the artist’s mind.”
Even for those not usually attracted to art, Connors said there is an important message to be heard.
“In today’s American society of standardization that has been killing creativity from the time we were born, it’s very important for events like Art Speaks to constantly remind students that we all still have that ‘creative mind’ hidden inside of us,” he said.
Held once a semester, Art Speaks will take place Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. in Nott Hall. The event is free and will have refreshments and live music. For students interested in being part of next fall’s show, contact HCA at [email protected].
