Sophomore August Mexico worked on the final touches of her charcoal piece; a mirror of black and white, the larger than life smile, round wire-rimmed glasses, and nuanced contours of her face.

“What I’m making currently is a charcoal piece, a self-portrait,” Mexico said. “Graphite and charcoal is my strongest medium, which I’m not very nervous about.”

Mexico, sophomore Ashley Garcia and sophomore Caroline Loeffler entered the Emerging Texas Artists competition with artworks that range from drawings to a dress. The opening reception was on Saturday, January 25th, with the awards presentation at 6:00 PM.

Mexico said she is making a charcoal piece, a self-portrait and an oil painting to enter in the competition hoping to sell them. She also said it took a lot of time to get used to making the oil piece.

“With my oil painting, I used more of like messy and very chunky oil paint,” Mexico said. “It took either weeks or days, which doesn’t look like it, but it genuinely takes a long time. It took me a while to figure it out.”

Loeffler said she is working on a more physical medium that displays her hobby. The bodice (the upper part of the dress) displays floral imagery, and below the waist, paper frills from pages of a book that are placed in layers along the front of the train.

“I just want to try new mediums and spread my love for reading.” Loeffler said.

Garcia said she’s entering an acrylic painting with the inspiration behind it coming from the quote “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” The piece shows a caged sheep faced with a beast wearing the flesh of a sheep’s head as a mask.

“I was trying to express the feeling of deceit – the symbolism.” Garcia said.

Mexico said the symbolism behind her piece is the emotion of being weighed down by burdens when driving around the city. She describes it as an emotion when watching the city, seeing the lights and buildings, and how it gives a special feeling of being freed from burden for those who don’t live there.

“Do you ever overthink about things like your grades, everything, relationships, whether it be friends, or actual love relationships?” Mexico said. “You just cry in the backseat of the car, this encapsulates all of those emotions at once with the artworks.”

The art students said their incentives are based on interest in the competition or money, but their style or medium of art differ. Some are trying new ways to experience challenges, but what they have in common is to show off their art.

“I thought it would be a really good opportunity to get my art out there, and I thought it would be really fun to do,” Garcia said.