Cougs Love Art: WSU artists showcase paintings, graphics and more
The festival gave students, staff and faculty the opportunity to showcase their artistic talents
A display at the Cougs Love Art Festival, March 24.
April 4, 2023
Artist Aissa Avalos is rarely given the chance to showcase her work; the Cougs Love Art Festival gave her the chance to express her passion for it, she said.
The festival took place from 12–5 p.m. March 24 in room 150 of the Chinook and showcased artwork done by WSU students, staff and faculty.
“I think it’s a really good opportunity for students to show their work,” Avalos said.
The artists used various mediums like acrylic paint, acrylic ink, oil pastel, gouache, Adobe programs and more.
Aissa Avalos at the Cougs Love Art Festival, March 24.
Avalos said that she used Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign to create her graphic designs.
Avalos’ designs, which contained psychedelic patterns against black backgrounds, featured phrases like “Positive Energy,” “Breathe,” “Life Goes On” and more. Avalos named each design after its featured phrase.
Avalos said that the designs are inspired by phrases she tells herself during her college experience — statements she tries to remember when she feels stressed.
Artist Nahaila Serrano used acrylic paint, oil pastel, acrylic ink and gouache as mediums for her paintings.
Serrano said that her artwork was inspired by the different stages of her mental illness and naturalistic healing methods of advancing her overall well-being. One of Serrano’s artworks named “Woman of Growth,” done with acrylic ink, was a painting of a human-like tree on a hill surrounded by birds.
“‘Woman of Growth’ represents all my other pieces as a whole,” Serrano said.
Another one of Serrano’s artworks was a painting called “Dissociate” which showed a girl falling and reaching out her hands, trying to hold on to anything for support. The painting was done in acrylic paint. Serrano wrote in the piece’s description that it represented depression and how it can cause people to disassociate for hours, making navigating friendships hard.
Debashree Roy at the Cougs Love Art Festival, March 24.
Artist Debashree Roy did nine paintings on defunct CDs. The paintings were different views and colors of the fall season. Roy wrote in her bio that the paintings were a comparison of how fall looks in the US to how it looks in India, her home country.
Artist Daisy Martir did a painting of her childhood experience with teddy bears. Martir wrote in her bio that the painting was based on her love for stuffed animals as a child, and that her piece makes her think back to her childhood and see things that happened during it differently.
The event also featured a live performance from local band Half Step Ahead.
The Student Entertainment Board-hosted event, which was initially set to take place by Glenn Terrell Mall, moved to the Chinook because of gloomy weather, Gueneviere Sherlaw, organizer and SEB director of arts, said.
“I am super proud of all the artists, they put in so much hard work in writing their bios and making sure their pieces are how they want them to be displayed,” Sherlaw said.
