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(04/26/19 3:54pm)
Elaina Nichols is an exceptionally talented and creative artist here at IUPUI. This semester will mark the completion of her second year of classes working towards a degree in drawing and illustration at the Herron School of Art and Design. She defines being an illustrator as somebody having an idea and she is the person who can put that idea onto paper for them in a way that looks good.
Nichols’ biggest inspiration, and deepest love as an artist is Vincent Van Gogh, noted by her “Vincent” tattoo on her right hand. Nichols experienced much of Van Gogh’s art first hand on an art trip to Europe when she was sixteen where she really found so much of her inspiration that she uses today. Her inspirational experiences there included seeing the Sistine Chapel, original Van Gogh pieces and pieces by Claude Monet.
When it comes to more recent artists, making pieces for other people and discovering conceptually better ideas, her inspirations come from artists who share their work on social media, and the contemporary artist Damien Hirst. Nichols explained some of Hirst’s work that conceptually inspired her the most, with preserved animals being cut in half and displayed, as well as his famous “diamond encrusted human skull made out of platinum” which is the world's most expensive piece of artwork.
Nichols’ creative talents became apparent in elementary school when her teachers quickly noticed her surpassing other students when it came to visual learning and art classes. Her mother decided to sign her up for art classes at their local arts center.
“I actually hated it because I was like they tell us what to draw, how to draw and my mom was like that’s the point of taking an art class.” She shared with a laugh.
She eventually got out of art classes and her time was spent playing sports for her
middle school. When Nichols reached high school she could no longer play sports due to missing a conditioning practice, she decided to fill her time by taking part in her school’s live theater program. In the theater program, she created all of the prop work, painted backgrounds for the plays and started getting back into the world of art.
She has always enjoyed creating and having access to her more artistic side but what influenced her decision to pursue a degree in the arts was her theater work and art classes in high school. Nichols created some of her favorite pieces to date in high school. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about her favorite piece she has made is a project from her senior year of high school that took her months to create.
Nichols won $500 off of this piece in an art contest in her hometown, she described the piece as “this giant abstract piece that was an abstracted version of two people looking at each other so it was like two versions of me that had this disconnect,” she said. “They were connected but the connections were broken and there was line work that was identical of typography and fingerprints so it kind of tied in identity in that sense. I just really liked how personal I got with it.”
Nichols has received compliments from her professors for being such a well-rounded artist whose talents range through a number of different mediums. She uses acrylic paint, collage, Copic markers, watercolors, pigma micron pens, digital artwork and embroidery, and is quick to pick up new mediums. Her favorite of all the mediums she has used so far would be pigma micron pens because they give her work clean lines that stay in place without smearing.
Digital artwork is a fairly new concept to Nichols, her first experience with it was for an assignment in her illustration class this semester. She uses a Wacom tablet, Wacom tablets do not have a screen that you can view the art on as it is made, it is plugged into her computer and then viewed on her computer screen. Nichols said that it was very hard to get used to it at first because she is used to seeing the lines and details being made directly on the medium, rather than drawing on the tablet and seeing the product on a separate screen.
Nichols’ friend who gifted her this tablet helped her practice her digital skills and showed her how to successfully use the different aspects in photoshop like layering to give better detail in her digital artwork. The first finished digital piece she made was a character design for her illustration class that took her a couple of weeks to fully complete, trying to find the right brushes, colors and tools on Photoshop. Since then she has created intricate portraits of celebrities like Post Malone and multiple portraits of her friends. Digital art is now one of her favorite mediums to create on because of the versatility of functions.
Nichols has seen an exponential amount of growth in her artistic skill during her time in college between now and last year, or even last semester. The biggest growth that she has seen is going from high school into her first year of college and taking in the fact that art is not a finished process, it can always be changed and added onto.
Along with that something that has helped Nichols develop the most as an artist is the critique she receives from all of her different professors and classes. She said that the critiques have helped her have “thicker skin” not only as an artist but with life in general. Nichols views the criticism not as what is wrong with her art, but as things that can be changed in that piece and uses it to help give herself lead way on her future projects.
The professors in the Herron School of Art have made a very positive impact on Nichols and her experience here at IUPUI. She admires that the Herron professors frequently email students about internship opportunities and how they truly care about their students.
Nichols specifically noted Professor Reagan Furqueron, she was a student of his building and making course as well as his 3D art class, she really admires his open mind when it came to his student's creations, lives and how much he truly cares for his students. She said that she still sees him around Herron and makes it a point to converse with him when she sees him because of the impact he has left on her as a professor and a person.
Bringing up the point that many people see art as people who just come to school to have fun and do not take art students very seriously, she made it clear that art school is much different than the stereotypes. She is passionate about the fact that art is not just fun and games, but a lifestyle that artists must dedicate a large amount of time to their pieces and creation processes.
Every one of her classes are a minimum of three hours long purely dedicated to making art. On days that Nichols has multiple classes, it is not uncommon for her to be working on different pieces of art for 6-9 hours on campus. This time does not include the 3-6 hours a day she is expected to work on her art outside of her classes and time put in on the weekends. She was open to the fact that dedicating this amount of time is a challenge but her deep love for art and developing her artistic knowledge helps to keep her going. Nichols said that if she was not going to art school she would not feel the need to be in school.
Being a freelance illustrator, coming up with her own ideas and creating original pieces that people buy, is Nichols’ dream job. She shares that the reality of being an illustrator is people coming to her with their own ideas and she works off of commission to make the pieces, a reality that she is not opposed to. Nichols also sees herself designing characters, backgrounds, and details of video games and cartoons as a career in the future.
Nichols currently sells her art and is willing to work off of commission, you can find her work on her art Instagram account @that_pickle_art as well as her Twitter account @elainapickles.
(04/12/19 3:47pm)
The SpeakOUT group of IUPUI’s Mission of Social Justice Education (SJEd) is hosting its second Poetry Slam Thursday, April 18. The social justice-inspired spoken word will be read by IUPUI students in the Herron auditorium at 5 P.M. The call out for poets was April 11, for late entries contact Yolanda Gregory at yogregor@iu.edu or Ahmed Abbas at ahabbas@iu.edu.
The Mission of Social Justice Education at IUPUI is a diverse group of students that bring their thoughts and interests together to develop educational programs for the entire campus. Through creating, developing and organizing peer-to-peer programs on IUPUI’s campus, they hope to empower students to create inclusive solutions to address social inequities.
They have six different programming events and areas on campus: Democracy Plaza, Pass the Mic, SpeakOUT, Shop Talk, Indy Immersion and Freedom Rides and Hash It Out. Each one of the six programming areas are lead by two or three Social Justice Scholars who develop and organize the events each month. The SJEd use these programs to apply key social justice concepts to engage different perspectives and identities on topics that arise from issues of injustice on a personal and global scale to foster advocacy and positive social change.
Yolanda Gregory and Ahmed Abbas, the Social Justice scholars who lead the SpeakOUT programming team and poets themselves, shared some information about their upcoming social justice Poetry Slam, not to be confused with IUPUI’s Open Mic Night, and what kind of programs the SpeakOUT section of the SJEd organize.
The students sharing their poems in the slam are chosen from those who came to the callout meeting, on a basis of if their piece fits the theme of social justice and the time limit of three minutes or less. The top two poets will receive cash prizes for their poetry pieces, pizza will be provided for those who come out to enjoy the event and they are encouraging everyone to come out to hear the work of fellow IUPUI students speaking on social justice.
This is their second time hosting the social justice-inspired poetry slam, the first was last semester with a turn out of about 40 people according to Gregory. They cannot predict exactly how many people will come out for their second slam this Thursday, however they are hoping for an audience of around the same amount, if not more.
Abbas was happy to share that the idea for the slam was a collaborative effort of the SpeakOUT group like many of the programs that they organize. Due to such a positive turn out from the first event they decided to have a second, depending on future turnouts of this event they hope to continue this program for semesters to come.
The SpeakOUT section of Social Justice Education focuses on bringing together a diverse group of socially conscious artists, members of IUPUI and the Indianapolis community to explore issues of power, privilege and oppression. Through spoken word, storytelling, poetry and performing arts, the SpeakOUT members create spaces to facilitate the understand of differing identities and ideologies. With their efforts their goal is to “create a more equitable campus, city, and world.”
No matter what race, gender or ethnicity, all forms of social justice artists are welcome to attend the events and to take part in the Social Justice Education’s mission to help provide the individuals on IUPUI’s campus with the awareness, knowledge and skills to develop their leadership identity through a social justice framework. The Social Justice Scholars application, review, and interviewing process takes place annually January through March.
The SpeakOUT members are excited to provide IUPUI with a creative space to focus on student-lead social justice and hope to see as many people as possible at the Poetry Slam April 18.
Follow their social media accounts to stay updated on the latest events and news of The Social Justice Educators: twitter @SJEd_IUPUI, Facebook @SoJoEdu, or email sojoedu@iupui.edu
(04/05/19 4:49pm)
“That’s What She Said” is a new monthly event, as well as summer music festival, being hosted at Square Cat Vinyl in Fountain Square. These events focus on showcasing the talented women in the community, educating women of all demographics and empowering the women of Indianapolis to have a voice that demands equality. The organizers of these events hope to bring women from the community together to educate them on the resources available to them in a fun and exciting way!
Jen Roberts, a barista and bartender at Square Cat, member of the band Veseria and newly titled event planner came up with the idea of “That’s What She Said” (TWSS) this past January. Roberts also originated the ideas for other relatively new events at Square Cat like the monthly band jam, the fourth Tuesday songwriter showcase, and Catnip (Square Cat’s new “vintage” drag night).
Roberts’ idea started with the TWSS festival, modeling it after festivals Square Cat has thrown in the past, this idea was followed by having monthly events to make their efforts of women equality a continual voice in the community. Roberts said that the idea of the ever so fitting name “Thats What She Said” came from “The combination of trying to title the event based on there being speakers involved and having recently bought an awesome print from Bonnie Fillenwarth’s series titled ’That's What She Said’ kind of produced a mini mind-splosion all at once one evening,” Roberts explained via email.
With their efforts of Roberts, her “right-hand lady” Jackie Martinez and board members Miranda Thomas and Carrie Ortwein, they hope to see these the series and festival bring together not only the women, but “our whole community (men, kids, LGBTQIA+ beauties, etc.) to embrace that women's rights affect everyone and that together, we can make change happen so much faster and more efficiently than if women are trying to fight on their own.”
Being in the band Veseria, and performing solo, has provided Roberts with years of experience, networking, and resources allowing finding the talent for the series and festival to come fairly easy. She has been “the final say girl as well as the bookie for the talent,” and with a combination of her own contacts and individuals reaching out in interest she has been able to almost completely book the monthly series musical talent through September.
Roberts’ resources has also allowed her to successfully book a majority of the musical talent for the TWSS festival. Spread out between two stages, indoor and outdoor, as of now there is expected to be 22+ solo artist and bands performing at the festival, all women or individuals of the LGBTQIA+ communities. The festival will also feature displays of 6+ local visual artist and their pieces and booths showcasing the organizations that focus their efforts on helping women and individuals in need of our community. Roberts said that the organizations at the festival will include “Planned Parenthood, Prevail, Girls Rock Indy, Community Food Project and hopefully many more!” Ticket prices for the festival will be a donation of your choosing and a portion of the ticket price will be donated to the organizations present.
Hoping to open the doors of the series and festival even more, Roberts has recently filed for non-profit status. Not only will this help make the events bigger and better, but will hopefully allow the organizers to put together job fairs and ladies nights out events in the future. Being such a crucial part of the organization and planning of this event has already made a positive and moving impact on Roberts who stated “just the planning of this fest and the monthly series has boosted my love and pride for my own femininity and has sparked this fire for wanting to help other women feel the same.”
(03/29/19 5:44pm)
The Communication Network is revamping its student ran broadcasting organization here at IUPUI. The newly elected officers, all IUPUI students, have high hopes and many goals for the network for 2019 and beyond. Izzy Cretcher, vice president of the organization, shared some of the goals the network has, upcoming events and explained in better detail what the organization is here to do.
Currently the organization operates through their YouTube channel, and in the near future will have a podcast to bring relative news to IUPUI students in a fun and enjoyable way. Cretcher explained that the network’s YouTube channel “is a talk show about recent news going on, members will sit around a table with topics of things happening on campus, locally and globally and discuss how they feel about whatever the topic may be.”
The organization's YouTube content is not specifically limited to a talk show, as their vice president shared, they also want to “broadcast events around campus and record what people of the public have to say on certain topics we ask them.” At the moment the organization has an abundance of great ideas on ways in which they can bring involvement of students into the communication network.
In efforts to do exactly that, the communication network is hosting an event on April 4 in room 101 of Taylor Hall called “The Muted Media.” Cretcher explained that they chose the name of this event based off of the communication theory “Muted group theory” which at a glance is the shared idea that people viewed in a lower power often have to change how they communicate when speaking publicly and essentially having their ideas overlooked.
This event will shine a light on a rather quieted voice of women in media, politics and the workforce in general. There will be multiple guests to speak at the event including but not limited to women in public relations, the newspaper industry, freelance writing, large charities and a woman working within the Indiana government whom Cretcher was obligated to not share the name of with me. The only way to know the identity of this mystery guest is to attend on April 4.
The board of women to speak will also be an open discussion with the audience with hopes that everyone shares their thoughts on all topics discussed. The discussion panel will be followed by live music provided by Girls Rock, a non-for-profit organization teaching young girls positive self-esteem and self-expression through music and creation. All proceeds and donations will go toward Girls Rock in their mission to providing a positive and creative safe space for the young women in our community. The Muted Media event will also have snacks and refreshments and a raffle of Girls Rock swag to take home with you.
This Muted Media event will also be the first broadcasted event for The Communication Network, for more information on the event check out their website https://themutedmedia.wixsite.com/womeninmedia.
They’re encouraging everyone to come out next Thursday for the event, and if you have any interest in broadcasting to join the network, as Cretcher said “the more people we have the better the program will be!”
(03/29/19 4:33pm)
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(02/22/19 5:32pm)
It is hard for many to imagine the true struggles of life below the poverty line because we are so conditioned to our ways of life and having the basic needs of living at our fingertips. Poverty is a harsh reality for millions of people throughout the U.S. as well as people that we see and interact with in our everyday lives. Not only is it a struggle at the time but can leave lasting impacts on people well after they have risen above the poverty line.
The Center for Public Health Practice at IUPUI feels that it is important to host an event in hopes of opening the public’s eye to the harsh realities, fears, and frustrations that people living below the poverty line feel every day. In an effort to shine a light on these struggles, they decided to host their second poverty simulation here on the IUPUI campus this past Monday, Feb. 18 from 1-4 p.m. in the campus center.
Andrea Janota, a program coordinator for the Center for Public Health Practice,helped organize this simulation with hopes to make it as realistic as possible for the participants.
While poverty simulations like this take place in numerous places throughout the U.S. every year, Janota said that the idea of bringing it to our campus was proposed by Dr. Joan Duwve, the associate Dean of Public Health Practice here at IUPUI. With the help of IUPUI Professor Ross Silverman, who has participated in the organization of poverty simulations elsewhere in the past, the Center for Public Health Practice was able to host their first event in November of 2018.
One of the many goals that the Center had for this simulation was to make the experience as real as possible for the participants. To do so, Andrea, as well as other organizers, recruited real sociologists from our campus to volunteer to help bring a deeper understanding of the realities of poverty and used real organizations like the Indiana Members Credit Union to be the bankers of the community.
“We not only want this event to affect the students and members of the university, but we hope that members of the general public and surrounding community to have the opportunity to come in and experience it as well.”
The event brought in 90 people in all, with about 30 volunteers, 5 staff members of the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and around 60 participants of the simulation. The turnout was about the same for both events with a mix of university members and members of the community.
The Center for Public Health Practice hopes that by having a better understanding of poverty and its everyday challenges, it will change the mindset of many and provide a better chance at finding effective solutions in reducing poverty. The next poverty simulation will be taking place again April 9th, the organizers are still looking for volunteers for the event this time around.
If you have an interest in volunteering, you are welcome to contact Andrea Janota at ajanota@iu.edu or, another organizer of the event, Marcie Memmer at mlmemmer@iu.edu. For more information or questions about this event visit their website at: https://fsph.iupui.edu/research-centers/centers/public-health-practice/poverty-simulations.html
(01/25/19 5:58pm)
In the name of equal rights and treatment of women in our nation and around the world, the Women’s March on Washington was held in our nation’s capital on Jan. 19. The Women’s March on Washington D.C. was the march that headed hundreds of other Women’s Marches across the country, including our very own Indianapolis.
I, along with the over 60,000 others, have been fortunate enough to be able to travel Washington D.C. and experience first-hand some of the beauty that occurs when such a large crowd of women, men and children come together to all share a passion and voice for equality for all, starting with women.
The march itself was a short span starting and meeting back up at Freedom Plaza in downtown D.C ., this is also where the Women’s Wave Rally was officially held. The rally featured numerous empowering speakers from all around the country, including trans women Abby Stein, Ruby Sales and Ana Maria Archila.
The love, energy and power in the air was unlike anything I have ever experienced, every individual I talked to was genuinely excited to be there for such a beautiful piece of history and to support the “Women’s Agenda.” The Women’s Agenda, as defined by the individuals of the Women’s wave, is “a tangible declaration of how we will protect and defend our rights, safety, health and communities.”
Not only was the march and rally to have our voices heard by some of the most powerful political faces in our country, but to push our Agenda for real change in the way women are treated first in our home country, and eventually globally.
I had a chance to interview a few individuals who were also marching in the name of women and what they had to say about what this march meant to them was very touching. The first interviewee, an interesting young lady originally born in Kenya, moved to china and now lives in Washington D.C. with her family, had very simplistic view of equality.
Her name is Sasha, she is 10-years-old and her reason for attending the march and having her voice heard was simply “ I think everyone should be treated the same.” This was a very beautiful response because in all reality equal rights for all should be that simple, but sadly is not. Seeing that such a young soul hopes for equality for all, and truly believes that it can be this simple, provides hope for our future generations to come.
Along with this powerful young lady I spoke to a Muslim migrant woman, whom asked to remain anonymous for personal reasons, about why she felt it was important to be marching in the name of women and what the march and rally meant to her. Her answers carried a strong voice for her country and culture, as she was one of the few Muslim women I saw in attendance at the march.
This anonymous woman marched in the name of “equality for Muslims, Muslim women, and the comfortability for women to wear hijabs in this (the United States) country,” this woman spoke with diction and a voice that was meant to be heard.
For my final interview I chose to ask one of the strong women who attended the march with me, a fellow student here at IUPUI Emilia Barger, 22. She gladly shared some heartfelt words about not only the impact this event had on her, but also the impact that our current president has taken on her and the actions she feels is necessary, as a woman, to gain the rights of equality that we deserve.
Here is what Emilia had to say, "There are too many reasons I felt the need to march this weekend. When the 45th President was elected, my heart broke. A white nationalist agenda had been legitimized by the most respected office in the world. I had taken for granted the trust I had in my country and my government. I had never voted before Trump was elected. But when that reality came to be, I couldn’t shake the feeling I had to do something. I changed my major from theater arts to political science.
For the last few years, I’ve woken up every day and studied politics with the intent of changing the rigged system we currently live under. I have never felt so empowered in my life as I did standing with the thousands of women at the Women’s March. Even though all of us were there for our hundreds of individual reasons, we exuded one message: we reject the state of inequality in the United States and refuse to lower our standards. I am proud to be able to one day teach my children the lesson of peaceful protest and civic duty. We have protested, now it’s time to elect progress into office.”
Each and every individual at the march had their own story, beliefs, and reason for attending, seeing all of these reasons and stories come together gives hope for a time in the future with equality for all.