NC State visual artists use university community and resources as inspiration

State University has gained a reputation as a primarily STEM school, with little focus on the arts. However, this does not mean that there is not a thriving culture of artists hidden around the campus, and it would be false to say that NC State does nothing to encourage the arts on campus. The university provides resources like the readily available Craft Center, which gives students access to pottery wheels, a dark room and more, as well as arts minors and art-focused majors like fashion and textile design and architecture. Photographer Malcolm Sales, a second-year in art studies, said the Craft Center has been a resource he has used to work on and hone his artistic skills and to receive tips from instructors at the center. “The Craft Center is a huge resource that I use,” Sales said. “Pretty much everything that I do is in [the dark room] — everything except for the actual shooting. I make all of my prints in here. I process everything. One of the teachers here has been really helpful in giving me tips and working with me to help create some of my work.” Sales said the resources provided by the Craft Center actually encouraged him to continue pursuing photography. “I was shooting just for fun, and I discovered [the Craft Center’s] dark room, and I took a class and learned how to do printing,” Sales said. “I learned how to process my own film and do the whole analog process, and that’s what really got me into photography.” Sales’ story shows that the university provides a unique situation in which student artists can pursue their crafts with the help of mentors and teachers while also pursuing an education. However, this does create an issue for artists when it comes to time management or money. The “starving artist” is a cliche that does not work well when combined with the cliche of the “starving college student.” Mitchell Burleson, a fourth-year studying textile design and a fiber artist who focuses on hand weaving, said this creates a dichotomy between creating crafts for oneself and producing craft for a consumer. “A lot of NC State is focused on industry, so now I find NC State visual artists use university community and resources as inspiration Austin Dunlow NC Photographs by Cliff Maske A selection of fabrics from Mitchell Burleson’s work.

myself at this intersection of craft and production: work for myself versus work for the masses, or work for a small group versus work for a very large group,” Burleson said. Sales said this financial struggle sometimes leads to artists feeling like they have to choose between art and school. “It can be hard, because obviously you want to continue in school, which has its own financial burden, but you also want to continue your art, which also takes a lot of financial investment,” Sales said. “It’s good to find paying gigs to help offset that so you can do both. It’s definitely tough as a student artist to do both.” Nevertheless, Burleson believes NC State has prepared him to handle these different pathways. “NC State has taught me a lot about how to market myself and how to really pick a consumer and design for this consumer,” Burleson said. “But because of this, I’ve had to take my own initiative and learn how to make work for myself.” Maggie Baker, a fourth-year in graphic design and comedy video creator, discussed this self-promotion and how it is not just generally difficult, but also different for musicians and visual artists. “The machine of music; you have to promote, and you have to be a beast on social Film development is a multi step process that includes mixing chemicals with water at specific temperatures.

media, but … it’s hard for other artists in other mediums to promote themselves,” Baker said. “I’ve talked to so many painters and writers, and we’re not really good at talking about ourselves. We’re just not good at self-promotion, and I think any artist will tell you that.” Baker discussed the community of artists at NC State and how these artists get inspired by their surroundings and experiences, but also each other. Baker is inspired by other artists and experiences in her life. Burleson is inspired by his family’s history of crafting and North Carolina’s history of weaving and textiles. Sales is inspired by other artists’ paintings, sculptures and photography. The uniting factor is that all of these artists see their art as a release. They see it as a way to express the thoughts, feelings and emotions they gather through their experiences on and off of this campus. “I think it’s good for people to pursue their artistic side, because it’s good for your life,” Sales said. “It’s a really good outlet. It gives you a positive outlet and a chance to make something. I’ve found that with a lot of other artists I’ve talked to, it’s kind of therapeutic in a way. You kind of get stuck into the work, and it becomes this positive influence in your life.” Despite the struggles these student artists face, it is safe to say they would not sacrifice their arts for anything. The university tries to provide resources to these artists in order to encourage not only their intellectual growth, but also their artistic growth. “Most people think of NC State, and they immediately think of tech or engineering,” Baker said. “But what’s also so cool about State is that we also have this amazing design program, this incredible textile program and incredible artists. People have come out of NC State, and I love that.”