Armed with acrylic paint, brushes and a blank canvas, students in New Hall were tasked with creating the worst art possible at the Honors College’s “Bad Art Night” on Feb. 27
“We put on one educational and one social event every month,” Resident Housing Association Vice President Ella Garner said. “The social event is to have an opportunity for residents to bond.”
“I found this idea on Pinterest and I thought it was funny,” Garner said. “The residents are just trying to create the worst art possible and judge to see which art is the worst.”
In the cramped New Hall kitchen, 15 students, including residents and staff, sat at high tables and bars working diligently on their disasterpieces.
Students with a wide variety of colors and the vast fields of their imaginations, created a diverse range of art pieces.
Pieces included portraits of other attendees, cartoon characters, landscapes and cuddly animals.
“I just try to go with the flow,” New Hall resident Adria O’Shea said while painting a blue, pink and yellow beachscape.
Biochemistry major Hailey Zornez worked hard in the kitchen’s corner on a portrait of her best friend.
“My best friend just got a job with housing and I live in this dorm,” Zornez said. “I want to get more involved and attending [this event] would be better than spending the night in my dorm room.”
New Hall RA Pedro Gomez decided to attend the event to “support the program.”
Gomez painted the navy logo of his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees, over a gray background.
Gomez said, “I didn’t realize it was supposed to be a bad art at first, so I decided to do something that I’m interested in.”
Contestants had one hour to complete their artwork, finding plenty of laughs while observing each others’ pieces.
Housing staff member Brianne Hansen would get the most laughs with her poorly made portrait of fellow staff member Raylee Speers.
While Housing staff’s artwork was excluded from winning the award for worst piece, Hansen’s portrait would prove to be a highlight for many attendees during the event.
Housing staff member Jadah Toney worked on an original cartoon-like piece. Despite not being able to win, Toney was satisfied with her piece as something she could hold on to.
At the end of the hour, attendees used Google forms to judge each others’ work.
In a contest filled with star-filled skies, black cats, indecent portraits and pink rabbits, it would be a simple, black-and-white cartoon depiction of a confused man that took home the trophy.
“I kind of knew I was going to win,” sophomore New Hall resident and contest winner Martha Gruray said.
“Everyone was putting so much effort into theirs and I did mine in like two minutes,” Gruray said, keeping in the low-effort, intentionally poor spirit of the competition.
New Hall residents, along with resident housing staff, found plenty of laughs within the event’s hour, with some even finding pieces to keep hanging on a wall and propped up on a desk for years to come.
