Southeastern students paint legacy

Students of SIC's Advanced Art Class pose around their newest project. From left: Tasha Wallace, Ashlyn Owen, Kirsten Heil, Autumn Pritchett and Chris Walle. ANDREW TURNER/DAILY REGISTER

HARRISBURG - Art students at Southeastern Illinois College create a project to inspire and encourage those who make community college their first step toward the rest of their life.

The students involved are members of the Advanced Design Class and this is a project they have collectively spent half of their semester working on. They used nearly 15 gallons of paint which took about two hours to apply.

"They have really had a lot of fun, working on this project," Sara DeNeal, SIC Art Director said.

The art project was inspired by the work of artist Holton Rower. Rower is best known for his "pour paintings" created by pouring up to 50 gallons of rainbow-colored paints over variously configured blocks and panels of plywood, and allowing it to spread and pool into textured, psychedelic compositions.

The art piece is a plywood structure, that the students cut and built. The smaller column represents Southeastern Illinois College, as the first step into a person's future. Utilizing school colors the art students poured gallons of paint, donated by Southeastern Illinois College's Theater Department, from atop a ladder allowing the paint to run down the sides.

The second, taller column represents the world or a person's future. This taller more colorful column has a rainbow of colors representing the diversities of life and the world.

The art piece will be allowed to dry, sealed, then placed outside on the grounds of the community college.