Today: Mar 28, 2024

Student Artist inspiration stems from grandmother’s artistic history

Melissa Nunez – General Assignment Reporter

Lindsay Wargo Artist Profile April 12, 2016 (1)
Photo Credit, Melissa Nunez

Early on, Lindsay Wargo, senior studio art painting major, said she would watch in awe as her grandmother would draw roses. That admiration spurred her own journey into the arts, as well as her desire to emulate nature.

“The first time I remember ever seeing and realizing how amazing art was when I was really young, and I saw my grandma who used to [draw],” said Wargo. “Back then, girls did not go to school for art or anything, so she always wanted to. She had these amazing drawings of roses, that is why the flowers appeal to me, and I was like, ‘that is amazing, I want to draw now.’”

Wargo said when it came to school, she never had much of an interest, so it was difficult to decide on a major, but since art was something she had a great deal of passion for in the past, she eventually decided on art history. She said, soon after, she began taking studio classes and that is when she decided: “this is it.”

Wargo said each professor in the Art Department drew out different strengths, but Mia Brownell, painting professor, helped her cultivate her style.

“I took my first painting class with Wiley [Carr]. He was great for intro, to develop your own style, looser assignments,” said Wargo. “Then Mia, she really does the structure of a painting and refining your ideas into a more cohesive image. She really helped me develop the floral style. Then Professor Vu, I have him now. He is great for stepping back, more composition, thinking of how you structure things on the canvas.”

Wargo said her paintings are displayed in the Hilton C. Buley Library Gallery as of Monday, April 18 and her senior show, “In the Garden,” will be comprised of paintings inspired by various facets of nature, including flowers, cactuses, animals, clouds and is scheduled for Thursday, April 21 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

“The whole theme of my senior show is floral stuff, or that is how it started,” said Wargo. “With these projects, I intended on putting floral aspects on top of it, but then I started loving the backgrounds so much and detailing it. I just kind of went with that and diverged from the flower theme. I like to create a whole atmosphere of calmness and serenity. A little garden you are walking into.”

Wargo added she also generally mixes white into a lot of paint colors she uses in an effort to create a “light, airy” feeling that would reflect a “magical secret garden.”

Wargo is graduating on May 20, she said some of her goals following college include submitting her work into gallery shows, to keep painting, to expand her creative scope beyond nature, and to look into the art education program and to start considering the possibility of teaching in the future.

“I’m thinking about going back for education because that is what a lot of professors do, they teach to supplement and then they paint on the side and still sell their work,” said Wargo. “I think that would be a good match.”

Wargo said she would probably return to Southern, since there are not many art education programs in the state, and since she is familiar with all of the faculty.

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