By VALERIE METREJEAN

vmm008@latech.edu

 

While many Tech students spent last Saturday sleeping in or attending the football game, Artists’ Guild members found themselves painting, not a canvas, but walls.

The Artists’ Guild was recently formed for artists to expand their exposure to other works and have their own works exposed to others, Jacob Cotton, president of the Artists’ Guild, said.

As a group they decided to “clean house” before getting to the actual art.

“[Richardson Residence Hall] was in pretty bad condition and the art department was getting heat for it,” Cotton, also a senior graphic design and studio art major, said.

“We decided to do what we could to help as a group.”

Since Richardson Hall rooms were turned into art studios in the ’90s, the already deplorable conditions continued to worsen.

With graffitied walls and tables in the stalls, the Artists’ Guild knew they had to do something if they wanted to keep their studios.

“This is our attempt to show we appreciated having the studios,” Nick Bustamante, Artists’ Guild faculty adviser and a professor of art, said.

The members patched up holes, painted walls and cleaned the bathrooms inside the building.

“There is so much graffiti, it’s embarrassing,” Kate Febuary, a member of the Artists’ Guild and a junior studio art major, said. “We want to start taking care of it.”

She said the group has high hopes of making the studios available for people to tour, enjoy and possibly purchase some of the artists’ work.

“You don’t want people coming here when it looks like this though,” Febuary said.

“We are improving the quality of life for our studio.”

Bustamante said just having the studios is a privilege that most public university students do not have.

”It is a huge deal for undergraduates to have their own art studio,” Bustamante said.

“They are really lucky to have this.”

The Artists’ Guild members hope the hard work and dedication to the day-long painting fest shows a token of their appreciation for the studios the university has provided for them.

He said there are other projects the group hopes to participate in.

The Artists’ Guild already has plans to put together a coffee table book of the guild members’ works.