Union Board unveils Canvas

With brightly colored student artwork and soulful student, faculty and staff writing, the spring semester issue of Canvas, Union Board's creative arts magazine, made its debut as an insert in Tuesday's edition of the Indiana Daily Student. \nEarlier this semester, Union Board's "Celebrate the Arts" Committee made a request for submission of student artwork, poetry, short stories and essays. Campus-wide, students sent their work in the hopes it would be selected for publication.\nPackets were distributed to all of the submissions and distributed to members of the committee who had to read the packets over the course of the next three days before meeting to discuss their choices for publication. "Celebrate the Arts" Director Eleni Peters said each committee member had different favorites among the works, so they had a difficult time choosing which works to accept.\n"We met and argued for hours about what to include," Peters said. "We had a pretty good number of submissions, and the committee was really split."\nMembers of the "Celebrate the Arts" Committee said they were excited about the quality of this semester's Canvas issue.\n"I think it rivals The New Yorker and Vogue and/or Teen Beat," junior Eric Lippincott, Canvas art and design director, said.\nThe Union Board hosted a release party for the published students Monday night in the Bryan Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. The artists discussed their works and got early access to the magazine. More than 1,000 of the 9,500 printed copies were reserved for the artists and committee members.\nPeters said a lot of the work in this semester's issue of Canvas was sadder than in past editions. Darkness wasn't a theme the committee was aiming for, but most of the better submissions this semester had an air of sadness to them.\n"It just ended up being that way," Peters said.\nA graphite drawing titled "Light in a Bottle" shows a tortured man crying in a bottle. The artist of this work, Jorge Rios, received his master's degree from the School of Music and works for the Kelley School of Business. He said his work was the image of catharsis caught in a bottle.\n"I've always been fascinated with the exact moment when suffering is transcended," Rios said.\nAshlie Keaton, who graduated in December, had two poems published in the magazine. She said "Untitled" is about feeling insignificant in a relationship and "3:00 AM Grandview Drive" is about seeing into somebody's soul for the first time. She said she has been writing poetry since she was 12 years old.\n"I start writing when someone makes me feel strongly -- if something affects or intrigues me," Keaton said. "It's a way to express things you might not be able to say aloud."\nKeaton learned Canvas was accepting submissions from a mass e-mail from the English department. She said she was very excited Canvas accepted her work because it is the first time she has ever been published.\n"I used to only write for myself, but lately I've gotten interested in sharing it with other people," Keaton said. "I don't mind sharing it with strangers, but with people I know, it's a little more difficult to let them read it because poetry is so intensely personal to me."\nSenior Matthew Schildkret said his painting of a horse entitled "Lauren's Gone" shows more than meets the eye. He said it tells the story of his failed relationship with a girl who was obsessed with horses.\n"It's all about interpretation," Schildbret said. "Everyone sees it differently. My way of saying goodbye was painting this."\nExtra copies of Canvas are available in stands in the IMU or in the Union Board office. Canvas will be accepting student submissions for its fall issue soon. For more information on getting work published or to volunteer as a designer or editor for the magazine, e-mail the Canvas staff at canvas@indiana.edu.\n-- Contact staff writer Jenica Schultz at jwschult@indiana.edu.