Serenna Moening, a freshman graphic design major, recently won an AICUO Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts: Design Competition, where student artists from around Ohio enter a concept drawing for a sculpture that will be created by an artist. The winner of the contest then works with an artist to bring the student’s creation to life. This year, the artist is Dustin Wagner, a glassblower local to Ohio. The trophy will be presented to art students who are graduating with their bachelor or master of arts in art.
Moening entered in the contest alongside her classmates in Design 1 taught by Jim Fultz
“The last couple years I’ve been having my design students submit something for [the competition] just because it’s a good real-world opportunity,” said Fultz. “This is the third time that a Bluffton student has won, which is pretty good considering that a lot of other schools contribute.”
Fultz gave the students a lot of flexibility in the project so that they could be creative in their product and let their imaginations lead them to create something fun and interesting. Fultz gave his students some guidance by showing them the website of the artist who will be creating the small sculpture. He wanted to show the students what the artist was capable of and what his typical style is so that the students can keep that in mind. They also talked about transparency and that it will be a free-standing object, with a medium like glass blowing, there are aspects that can be highlighted in the glass but can not necessarily be seen in ceramic or wood pieces.
Serenna Moening, a freshman graphic design major. Photo credit Olivia Tennefoss
“What I tried to do was to try not to create a typical trophy,” said Moening. “I drew some lines and tried to go from there.”
When asked about Moening’s response to winning the award, Fultz explained that usually his email is provided for the association to contact him, but when they did not have his contact information, they contacted her directly through email. He described when she was telling him about the email that she was very ‘low-key’ about winning the award. Moening, however, described her initial reaction differently.
“I thought I was dreaming, to be honest, all until I got an email from the actual artist who is going to make the trophies,” said Moening. “I didn’t really think I… I thought like, is this a scam or something?”
Moening is looking forward to meeting with the artist to talk about her design, and she is excited to have this opportunity and experience. She gave some advice for other art students who are always creating.
“When it comes to creativity, don’t restrict yourself. Even when someone does give you restrictions—don’t,” said Moening.
