Michaela Medina has always loved art.
However, it wasn’t until last year that she found her medium – ceramics. She was introduced to the “ancient simplicity” of the art form during a course with VIU Visual Art Professor Scott Leaf.
“Ceramics has, to a certain extent, allowed me to let go of my fear of failure and rigid perfectionism so I could truly explore and discover my artistic style,” she says.
For third-year Visual Art student Enigye Amarkah, expressing oneself isn’t about being limited to one particular medium.
“I don’t like to specify my style because sometimes when you want to express yourself, it’s going to work better as a sculpture, or it’s going to be a good photograph, or it will be a painting, so I don’t like to focus on just one aspect,” says Enigye, whose name translates to "Happy," a moniker he more commonly goes by.
Reprinted with permission from The Discourse
Vancouver Island University (VIU) attracts international students from around the world and from various different climates. For Lurana McClure Rodriguez, who grew up in Puerto Rico, Vancouver Island’s environment felt like the closest home away from home. Wanting to study something design and arts-related, interior design gave her a wide range of opportunities to learn and specialize in. Now, at the end of her degree, Rodriguez finds that her final grades aren’t the greatest achievement.
Most Islanders are familiar with artist Shawn O’Keefe’s work on the labels of the popular Phillips Brewery products. O’Keefe, who received his Visual Arts diploma from VIU (then Malaspina College) in 1993, has been working as a graphic artist ever since, building a career he’s passionate about with the right clients and the right friends, the latter of which he started a unique, collaborative art studio with, called Woodpile Collective.
For 30 years Portal, Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) nationally distributed literary magazine, has amplified the voices of emerging writers and showcased the works of up-and-coming illustrators, photographers and artists.
VIU Graphic Design alum Amy Pye is channelling her creativity into a new medium these days –children’s books. While she is still doing marketing design work during the day – both with her own company, Pye Design, and as Art Director with Real Estate Webmasters – earlier this year, she published two children’s books.
Is product packaging nothing but beautiful garbage?
It’s a question Nancy Pagé, a Vancouver Island University (VIU) Graphic Design Professor, posed to her third-year Package Studio students. Then she issued a challenge – redesign an existing product’s packaging so it is more ecologically responsible.
Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Visual Art program is the catalyst for a new, all-alumni, collaborative exhibit taking place at the University’s on-campus art gallery, The View Gallery. Denise Tierney (graduated in 2017), Gem Chang-Kue (graduated in 2013) and Nan Goodship (graduated in 2012), who are all now working full-time as artists, met through VIU – Gem befriending both Denise and Nan, and then getting the three of them together.