‘Living Your Story’

Art Tank Collaborates with TWLOHA on Art Exhibition

Art Tank, a creatively-geared student organization, has paired up with To Write Love On Her Arms to put on an exhibition in conjunction with national mental health awareness week.

The creative power of Art Tank combined with the overall thematic idea of “Living Your Story” will boast artwork that tells the stories of many different students’ struggles.

gcsunade | gcsunade.com

TWLOHA will specifically be participating in a fears versus dreams installation where students, faculty and community can write down their biggest fears and dreams. As part of the “Living Your Story” theme TWLOHA is exploring the idea of how a person’s biggest fears can limit or hold her back from living out her dreams.

“Art is one way to speak volumes without having to use any words at all,” said Abby Gibson, Master of Arts in teaching graduate and TWLOHA president. “Art has such a powerful way of moving people and making it easier to relate their own story to the emotions that are displayed in these pieces.

The goal of the exhibition is primarily to get art out to the community.

Art Tank is an organization of students from very diverse backgrounds and often non-art majors, according to Megan Sullivan, former Art Tank president and senior studio art major. The group prides itself not only in art-making but also in creating a friendly, open community that encourages expression and the sharing of artistic ideas.

“Art Tank has great access to talented artists capable of engaging people with personal, visual stories,” Sullivan said. “Art Tank is collaborating in this event because it can become really dangerous if we don’t bring these personal struggles to light. I know that self-mutilation happens, but you never hear anyone talking about it. It becomes almost taboo if we don’t talk about it.”

Being able to tap into these very creative resources through members and word-of-mouth on Art Tank’s behalf has allowed for a really strong networking collaboration with TWLOHA. With the installation revolving around “Living Your Story”, the artists and participants from Art Tank have created art for the installation based on their own personal stories. The visual representation of a story becomes the artist’s story while also relating to the audience’s story. The fact that all types of art are welcome also builds on this idea of story-telling.

“Each painting is unique in the way that each person has a unique story,” said Ashleigh Greba, TWLOHA treasurer and junior general business major. “This installation will explore the concept of someone’s biggest fear versus their biggest dreams, and hopefully see that the two are closely connected. The only thing getting in the way of a dream is fear.”

From the standpoint of To Write Love On Her Arms, the exhibition revolves entirely around bringing attention to each person’s struggles and triumphs to emphasize the importance of each individual’s story.

Both Art Tank students and TWLOHA students will be submitting work for the event in all different mediums. Because many of the pieces will be highly representational, the chance to connect with one of the pieces increases on a personal level.

“TWLOHA strives to be a voice of hope on campus and to let students know they are not alone and their struggles are important,” Gibson said. “Through sharing these stories with others, it creates an awareness to others who may be struggling and unable to tell their stories.”

“The visual arts are really powerful in their ability to engage the students and community,” said Chad Lawrence, Art Tank president and senior studio art major. “Seeing other people live out their stories could help someone to live out their own.”

The exhibition will take place Oct. 3-7 in the Art Fix Gallery located in Wooten Garner. Students will be able to view the art during normal operation hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

There will be a grand opening taking place on Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 6 p.m. in the same location where all students are encouraged to come out and participate.

For more information on TWLOHA visit their website at www.TWLOHA.com.

Posted by Chelsea Hinkel on Oct 6 2011. Filed under Features, Lead stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.