Four students take first place at Creative 360 Battle of the Arts with unique take on ‘conservation’

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Four Central Michigan University art students combined their unique creative talents into an award-winning piece, even though they had never worked together before.

The Jan. 28 Battle of the Arts at Creative 360 in Midland, 1517 Bayliss St., featured students from CMU, Delta College and Northwood and Saginaw Valley State universities. Students were charged with the task of creating an original piece based on a broad theme in only three hours.

Liz Ruediger, Creative 360 executive director and contest judge, said the theme “conservation” was chosen because of how topical it was.

Haslett senior James Carr works on a project during his Art 430: Painting IV class Monday afternoon in Wightman Hall. (Photo by Paige Calamari/Staff Photographer)

“We wanted to incorporate a lot of the things and wanted to show the state of affairs,” Ruediger said, “but kept the theme very broad … there were very broad interpretations, a huge variety of ideas.”

Haslett senior Jim Carr, West Bloomfield junior Lisa D’Angelo, Mount Pleasant senior Paz Hakoyama and Marine City senior Allen Yokom were selected to participate for CMU by art instructor Shelley Stevens.

Ruediger said there were three criteria for the entries: How the teams interpreted the theme, whether or not the team achieved what they wanted and if they completed the piece in the allotted amount of time.

She said one of the main reasons CMU’s team won was because of the direction the team took the project in. The team focused on preserving humanity from technology.

Yokom said he wanted his group’s paintings to illustrate the battle many people have with technology.

“People are always so plugged into their iPods, computers, laptops and other things,” Yokom said. “We’ve gotten to the point where we’re texting people in the same room.”

Yokom said the piece was a challenge to create, but was pleased with the final result.

Hakoyama agreed.

“I really think the pieces went well together,” he said. “Despite the fact that all four of us have completely different, distinct styles.”

Yokom said they decided the “go green” idea would be over-done, and Hakoyama said the typical green idea would have been too cliché, so they instead put their efforts toward conserving from technology, and conserving humanity.

“The piece was beautifully painted and portrayed,” Stevens said.

Hakoyama said the team agreed to do a series of four paintings all featuring a human hand as it conserved itself from technology.

Stevens said the painting conveyed the group’s concern over potential loss of humanity through ever-encroaching modernization.

“I was really happy how our collaborative piece turned out, especially since the four of us have never worked together on a project,” Hakoyama said, “even though we were in the same painting class.”

Stevens said each student painted a panel and then at the end of the three hours, they combined their work.

Ruediger said she was impressed with how well the team worked together.

“The pieces flowed flawlessly, especially with it being their first time ever collaborating together,” she said.

The winning piece is on display at Creative 360.

-Student Life Editor Michael L. Hoffman contributed to this report