Despite the tight quarters of a college dorm room, the busyness of a college student schedule and the many other demands that come with being a full-time student, local campus artists continue to get creative about making art. For these three featured Eastern artists, art isn’t just a hobby – it’s a way of being that has followed them into their college years. Even in the midst of all the challenges, the setting of a college campus may provide some unique opportunities for growing and inspiring these artists to keep creating.
Junior Cassady Curtorillo creates visual art in her Sparrowk dorm room using watercolor and microns, which are similar to little pens. She has been creating art with these techniques since she was a teenager, and continues to practice her art even in the midst of being a college student.
Being a nursing major who is also in Templeton Honors College, it isn’t easy to find the time for creative expression. Beyond the extensive reading as well as off-campus clinicals, the process of setting up and tearing down studio space takes up hours that could be used creating. At home, Curtorillo can leave her studio space set up, but in the physical constraints of her dorm, each time she wants to paint involves a time-consuming process to get things ready for creating.
“It takes me a while to get the space that I want to get because whenever I do my watercolor, I like the lighting to be really good. I don’t like painting at night. I like there to be natural light; no shadows on the piece I’m doing. It’s really hard to have no shadows when in a dorm. It’s basically impossible. So, everything that I [create], I’m not satisfied with it when I do it here, because I don’t have the right space,” Curtorillo said.
Due to the lack of physical space, the lighting and the time challenges of being a full-time student, Curtorillo is unable to create art in the way she normally does. “I definitely do not make art as much as I used to in the summer. But whenever I have the time, it’s really fun. I just don’t have space and I don’t have as much creative flow as I would want here,” Curtorillo said.
Although there are many downsides, being on campus provides a unique inspiration that Curtorillo doesn’t get at home. “I’m from a rural area where there’s not a lot of people and a lot of people that live near me are older folks who don’t really see art as this cool thing. But on campus, a lot of people value art for something more than just leisure. It’s something that can be provocative, it’s something that can help other people out of a slump. It’s fun and interesting to fellow college students,” Curtorillo said.
Despite the fact that many students take an interest in art on campus, Curtorillo would like to see art taken more seriously on campus. “I would like to see something where people are more serious about art because it’s not just a little fun thing to everybody. To me, it’s huge. I would love to see people really passionate about it. Start making signs, start being commissioned by the university… rather than AI art on campus,” Curtorillo said.
Visual art isn’t the only form of art student’s produce on campus. Carlos Salem-Rosario is a singer, musician and songwriter who creates his own music on campus under the artist’s name Carlítos. He has been writing his own music since 8th grade, but got more serious about it in high school, where he also picked up drums and piano.
Creating music on campus comes with challenges. One of these limitations is quiet hours in dorms. Salem-Rosario tends to have his creative spurts late in the night, which can pose challenges. “For me, creativity almost always comes at night. That’s when I’m just to myself. And then that’s when the ideas start to flow or I usually think about my day and what has occurred and what’s going on in my life. So that’s when the words would just start flowing out better and then I’d pick up this guitar, my keyboard. But I try not to do too much music in my room,” Salem-Rosario said. He also says RAs have been a frequent visitor to his door this semester, knocking to tell him to keep the volume down late at night.
Instead of creating music in his dorm, Salem-Rosario tends to retreat to the studio space in Fowler Hall to experiment with the instruments and record music. “Fowler has kind of become my nest. It’s just like my little playground,” Salem-Rosario joked. However, he can take songwriting anywhere with him if he has a notebook. He likes to write on benches outside on campus, playing with words and imagining the melodies they could be set to.
Another challenge Salem-Rosario faces is the busyness of his schedule as a student. Last semester, he was playing gigs with his band as far as New Jersey and New York City on schoolnights. The frequency of gigs took a hit on his academics. “There was a time in the semester where I had to sit down with myself and talk to my parents because they were [saying] ‘slow down on the gigs. I know it’s helping you get outreach and good opportunities, but you’re in school and that’s your priority now.’ I kind of had to humble myself and I took a break from doing a lot more gigs just to have that focus,” Salem-Rosario said, noting it was necessary but painful to step back.
Despite all the drawbacks, being on a college campus introduces Salem-Rosario to unexpected artists who push him to create better music. “You get to meet all the insane behind the scenes artists that you don’t listen to on a daily basis. My friend, Kamyra, I met her last year, and she’s probably one of the most insane artists I’ve ever met…Something about her, she just wants me to do better. So meeting those types of people on campus that you’d never expect could have that crazy talent. That’s my favorite,” Salem-Rosario said.
Salem-Rosario would also like to see art taken more seriously on campus. “Eastern needs to do better with pushing the arts because we have so many talented people. Of course, they hype up the musicals and all the theater dramas and the dance shows and fall festivals, spring festivals that we have. That’s the only time that you ever see it being pushed out, but they need more opportunities,” Salem-Rosario said, pointing to the open mic night earlier this semester as an example of an opportunity and noting its ability to bring out many talented artists from different niches of the student body.
Makenna Kitchen is a sophomore nail tech who runs a nail art business out of her dorm room. She started experimenting with gel designs on herself throughout high school, and then her aversion to the price of salons led her to get more serious about her nail art, teaching herself many different forms. Kitchen began to do other’s nails for money the summer after her Senior year, but it wasn’t until she arrived on campus that her art really began to take off. Having a roommate, she got creative and took appointments in Kea Lobby late at night. This year Kitchen is an RA, meaning she has the space to do all her appointments in her dorm because she doesn’t have a roommate. The set up can stay up all the time, lessening the time it takes to set up and tear down in a building lobby.
Last year, word spread about Kitchen’s talent and before she knew it, she was overwhelmed with appointments. This year, she’s made some firmer work-academic boundaries. “That was a boundary that I realized I needed to set because I was just taking them any time someone offered – I’d take them till 2 a.m., I’d do it literally any time. So I realized I didn’t prioritize my school work, so now the latest I’ll go till is 12, but the latest you can book an appointment is 7-9, depending on how long the appointment’s going to be and what type. I don’t take them on Sundays anymore either, just to try to reserve the Sabbath and take my day of rest,” Kitchen said.
Despite the fact that Kitchen’s art is now a way to make money, it hasn’t lost its magic. “It feels very creative. I love it. It’s also just the social aspect of it is something I love, so I love meeting people and having to just sit and chat with girls for hours… I love being thrown a new design or sometimes people send me 10 different designs and ask if I can incorporate all of these so I get out my iPad and mix them all up. That’s my favorite thing to be pushed and stretched in that way,” Kitchen said.
Being on campus has definite advantages for Kitchen, for both clientele and for feeling connected to the Eastern community. “As an RA, as student body president, I love this way for me to connect with people. I feel like I hear so many incidents for RA and so many things people say they [don’t like about the school] for student government. I hear all that [because of] nails. It’s been such a versatile thing for me to enhance all of the things that I do on campus. It’s a way for me to connect on campus,” Kitchen said.
Kitchen said she has far more clients on campus than at home, and a more professional space to do it. “Business is really cool because it just spreads like wildfire on campus,” Kitchen said. On a weekly basis, she has anywhere between three to seven clients in her dorm room studio and tracks all her business info on a spreadsheet herself.
Creating art on campus presents a challenge of its own which student artists have to navigate each day, from busy schedules to tight spaces to quiet hours. However, it also provides unique opportunities like an expanded clientele, a community of artists and the exciting environment of a college campus. If you see any of our local Eastern artists around campus, make sure you support them through a follow, a commission or simply a high five.