Photo courtesy of Bailey BarrowBaili Bigham - Head Entertainment Columnistbbigham@uab.edu
Bailey Barrow, senior art major, recently became the only Alabama student to win the 2016 Student of the Year award through the American Advertising Federation Birmingham TEN awards. The award is presented to a student who is studying marketing, advertising, journalism or design communications. Here’s what Barrow has to say about her experience:
What brought you this award?
In March of 2017, graphic design professor Doug Barrett and DAAH (UAB Department of Art and Art History) Chair, Lauren Lake, approached me and another graphic design student, Cima Khademi, and proposed that we attend the a2ru (Alliance for Arts in Research Universities) Emerging Creatives Summit event, which was held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. We had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with other students from around the United States and formed teams with the goal of innovating creative projects to make a difference in society. Cima and I teamed up with four other students from different colleges, and brainstormed the idea of an interdisciplinary salon – a gathering place for students of varying disciplines to have the freedom to be messy, to toss around raw ideas and shape them into a concrete plan of action in order to creatively solve local issues. These salons would be arts-focused, but would encourage the sciences and other disciplines to collaborate, because truly, a great solution is birthed not just from one perspective, but from many different ones. Since that life-changing trip to the a2ru Summit, I have been determined to put these arts-centered, collaboration-focused ideas into action on the UAB campus. The arts have so much to offer and deserve a stronger presence on campus. We just recently found out that our team has been awarded $1500 in grant money in order to put our ideas into action on each of our campuses. In order to get an interdisciplinary salon running, I have met with Doug Barrett and Lauren Lake several times, discussing what steps to take, I’ve researched existing arts-centered interdisciplinary collaborative efforts and written a proposal for the project. What I had the opportunity to do in Michigan was awesome, but I honestly think that what really brought me this award is my passion for not only making a change in the local community, but also getting people to realize how important the arts really are.
What does this award mean for you?
It’s truly a blessing to have received this award. I feel like it is going to open up so many other doors for me - I mean, it’s an awesome thing to put on a resume. But really, the great thing about receiving this award is knowing that the passion I have for making a difference isn’t going unnoticed.
Can you tell us about your art?
I feel so eclectic when it comes to what I like to do artistically. I’m a graphic design major, and I definitely enjoy that, but I honestly enjoy doing just about anything when it comes to making art. What drives me is the idea I have to make a piece – when I have an idea that I can’t get out of my head, I’ll take any artistic route to create it. Specifically, I love the idea of the combination of art and technology – so anything like graphic design, animation, glitch art, video, or even creating a sculpture reminiscent of something into technology is of interest to me. I’m super interested in the idea of using soft circuitry and coding to create art, but I’ve yet to do that. Also, I love incorporating texture and handdrawn elements into many of my pieces -– it feels richer and personal.
Where does your inspiration come from?
It’s really difficult for me to name a single source. I really love Camille Utterback’s works (especially one called Flourish); she creates a lot of captivating interactive art. I also love the emotionally-rich watercolor portraits created by a young Italian artist, Agnes-Cecile. Essentially, anything I see or hear that makes a real emotional or psychological connection with me inspires me to create – I want to give viewers that same experience with my art, even if it might take a while to become that skilled.
What has been your most challenging art project? Why?
I don’t think that there has been one specific project that has been the most challenging; each one has its own challenges. Sometimes, it can be a physical challenge, such as when I created a plexiglass sculpture of a recording of my voice saying three words – “vision,” “vitality” and “virtue” (these three words are the title of this sculpture). When making that project, I realized just how difficult it can be to work with plexiglass if you don’t have access to the right tools, which I didn’t. But then, other projects are more easily executable physically, but require a stretch of the brain to figure out, such as timing in animations or trying to come up with a unique idea when you are having “creator’s-block.”
What has been some of your favorite projects? Why?
My favorite projects tend to be the ones that I can look at the finished piece and see/know that it is a great representation of who I am or the emotion I aimed to convey. One project I worked on this past spring was a hand drawn animated self-portrait. It was so fun to create and the end result really felt like it represented me stylistically. I also created a brief claymation around that time that was so fun to make – I love working with clay. While the mechanics of the animation itself worked well, it didn’t give the exact representation that I had planned in the end, but I’d make an exception and say though this project wasn’t presented as well as I’d hoped, it’s probably one of my favorites on which to have worked.
Do you have any plans for the near future? New projects?
I have plenty of plans! Probably too many, in fact! I’m also hoping to learn more about how I can incorporate circuitry into art. Of course, I’d also like to continue to perfect my skills in graphic design and animation. My ultimate goal is to be able to create art that’s personal and interactive – art that involves the viewer so that they walk away contemplative, having had a tangible art experience. This Fall, Cima and I will lead UAB’s first ever interdisciplinary salon, a place for students of differing disciplines to creatively collaborate for the good of the community – a plan our team named the “Arts&” Initiative (the name is representative of the arts and another discipline, such as “Arts & Science”).
