Students can represent themselves using many creative outlets. Whether it be music, performance or art, people have their choice of what craft best expresses who they are.
The “Colors of Identity” event, held on Nov. 15 at the Honors College, was created to support student artists and highlight the diversity at NAU through artistic expression. Students could submit their pieces regardless of skill level, style or whether they are an Honors College student. There were 10 pieces of artwork on display, varying in meaning, and each was created by a different artist.
The NAU Honors Advocacy Council (HAC) focuses on uplifting fellow Honors College students’ voices, identities and values in an inclusive environment, specifically focusing on marginalized groups on campus including students at a disadvantage due to their different ethnicities and backgrounds.
HAC was created by three students last fall with the goal of coming together to create a place where diversity, change and support of people’s identities could flourish. Whereas before, students may not have had the community to do so.
Taylor Woodard joined the HAC last year as an officer of the council. She said she is passionate about hosting more events that focus on creating community. Woodard has seen first-hand HAC’s goal in action with previous events they hosted, encouraging students to come together.
“Many members of these marginalized groups find it difficult to find a space where they feel acknowledged or supported,” Woodard said. “Our founders wanted to create a space like that for those who need it.”
HAC provides a space for students to freely be themselves, whether in an artistic capacity or a general social setting. Art, in particular, enables students on campus to see different depictions of ways they can express their identities, Woodard said.
Aloe Murtagh is a junior in biology who hopes to specialize in herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. Starting with drawing TV show characters in middle school, he gradually moved to creating characters and finally shifted to drawing animals on paper and digitally. This new interest in sketching animals influenced his drawing, “Midnight Zone,” a digital drawing of a woman in the deep ocean surrounding and swimming with jellyfish, which was on display at “Colors of Identity.”
Digital art created by Aloe Murtagh on display at the Colors of Identity event hosted by the Honors Advocacy Council, Nov. 15.
“If you can see someone’s art, you can see who they are as a person,” Murtagh said. “You can see it in their lines if they’re aggressive or delicate. Their art gives a lot of insight into who they are but also helps you see how much you can relate to that person simply from looking at something they made.”
One piece, “Split,” was the only painting presented at the event. Many of the event goers noticed the bright red and dark theme of the piece, depicting one girl being pulled apart, seemingly by an invisible force, into two. Each half of the painting represents the two sides of herself: the version that everyone sees and the version inside her that stays hidden from everyone.
Woodard received this painting from the artist as a last-minute submission on the day of the event. She said she was taken aback by it and how much she could understand the emotions in the painting.
“Just meeting the artist and seeing one side of what they were going through and then looking at them and holding this in my hands was such an experience because it is such a dark piece about who we are and what we are going through,” Woodard said.
Functions that showcase students’ artwork allow people to see each other’s struggles, which could otherwise go unnoticed. Art gives a peek into the artist’s identity past what is seen on the surface, enabling others to look at the artist in a deeper sense.
Another piece of art presented at the “Colors of Identity” night was titled “Zebra.” The artist created a close-up drawing of a zebra in black and white to relate it to their Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), which is a group of hereditary disorders that affect the connective tissue of the body. People with this condition are often thought of as zebras by medical professionals. Zebras are used as an analogy because they are unexpected. Students in the medical field are often taught, “When you hear hoofbeats behind you, you don’t expect to see a zebra,” teaching them to look for the common diagnoses, but sometimes the diagnosis is surprising.
Elise Baldemore is a fellow HAC member and the council’s secretary. She submitted her art to the event but also assisted in coordinating and collecting the pieces submitted. Baldemore said she took notice of “Zebra,” in particular.
“I just realized some of these are about people’s illnesses or things they can not control,” Baldemore said. “I think that’s why so many people like art because it’s something that you know you can control in your life.”
Digital art created by Jade Karolik on display at the Colors of Identity event hosted by the Honors Advocacy Council, Nov. 15.
“Colors of Identity” is one event of many HAC has hosted that focused on bringing diversity to the Honors College community.
The group has also had events like the Honors Writing Workshop, where students received assistance with academic or creative writing from tutors, and the Spooky Movie Night it held in October.
Although these events were not art-focused, HAC still hopes to create friendships between students, Woodard said. These functions can inspire artists by giving students perspectives on other cultures and diversities. Murtagh said he has recently taken up drawing people who do not look like him, inspired every day by people he sees.
“I really want to expand more into learning to draw other diversities and cultures because I realized I just always draw the same face, and there isn’t only one face in the world,” Murtagh said.
Regardless of the medium used for art, various representations can bring together people who normally may not interact with each other.
In a group discussion started by Woodard about the pieces of art on display, Baldemore said not everyone is artistically inclined or has the same artistic skill. There are many artistic outlets to be chosen from, but that does not mean art with a pencil and paper is any less important, Baldemore said.
She said she thought her own art, created with pencil and paper, was not as good compared to the other ones on display and was worried it would cause people to not relate to it emotionally. However, throughout the night, students found deeper meaning that Baldemore had not considered while creating the piece.
“We’re not all left-brain artistic thinkers; we’re all not right-brain logical thinkers,” Baldemore said. “There are people who have made this art that have made one specific art, like on a canvas, but some have their art through their music. That doesn’t mean it’s still not art.”
Events such as Colors of Identity are needed on campus, Woodard said. Art is a universal language that is open to every person’s interpretation and can bring people together who might have nothing in common. One piece of art strangers can both see themselves in can lead to a possible friendship.