By Rebecca Munday, Editor
The University Programming Board (UPB) partnered with the Office of Student Activities (OSA) to host “Art After Dark” on Thursday night in the Student Union Ballroom as part of homecoming week.
About eighteen students attended the event. When students arrived, they were asked to check-in before they entered the ballroom. Then, they were given their choice of a Chick-fil-A sandwich or salad to eat. They could also have a water bottle, a can of soda, or a chocolate chip cookie from Chick-fil-A if they wanted.
Additionally, students were given a plate to mix paint colors on and six cups of paint: red, yellow, green, blue, black and white.
When students sat down at the table they were going to paint at, they found a canvas, still in its plastic, a cup of water, two brushes, a paper towel and a sheet with six pictures they could paint.
The pictures were of a man or a woman, both dressed for the ‘20s, an eagle sitting on a tree branch, a sun rising over the ocean, a turtle swimming in the sea or a picture that was half night sky and half sunny sky.
Kaley Neal coordinated and led the event, painting so that others could follow along. While livestreaming on UPB’s Instagram, Neal let the attendees choose whether they wanted to paint the man or the woman. The woman won but not everyone voted.
Many participants decided to paint neither the man or the woman. Only three people painted the woman and only one painted the man.
“We were gonna follow her but then, we couldn’t see,” Kadaja Williams, a senior in the nursing program, said.
Eventually, Neal ended the live stream because of connectivity issues. “It seems like the live keeps ending so we’re gonna do it verbally. Right now, I’m painting the background black,” Neal said.
Instead, participants chose to paint the turtle or one of the two pictures of the sun.
“I haven’t painted in forever and the turtle looked easy,” Alaina Knapp, a sophomore in the computer science program, said.
Three of the participants even painted something other than one of the pictures. Paige Lau, a junior in the nursing program, painted her friend, Knapp’s, rottweiler mix, Ernie. The dog is lying on his belly with a blue background around him.
Knapp, who painted a picture of a turtle, continued to point out “She thinks she’s not good that this,” referring to Lau, who she came to the event with.
“I’m painting a stack of books and then, I’m going to put a camera on top of it,” Adia Greer, a sophomore, majoring in exercise science, said.
As the evening progressed, members of UPB and OSA went around the room and took pictures of participants’ paintings to put on their Instagram page.
Additionally, they offered attendees more food, drink and canvases. However, most people were still working on their first canvas or had left at that point in the evening.
For more information on future UPB or OSA events, contact kaley-neal@georgiasouthern.edu.
