As students and faculty steered towards the middle of the Visual Arts Courtyard, they compared each other’s costume–attempting to pin an artistically historical theme to each piece put together by each individual.
“The idea of the Halloween contest was to encourage thinking about art and art history in terms of the contest,” Art History professor Catie Besancon said.
Besancon and along with photography professor Amanda Konya and ceramics professor Mike Hillman were the organizers of the event.
Besancon said the costumes and pumpkins that followed the theme best were those who won the contest. The winners who one the contest received art supplies provided by the Owl Bookshop, said Besancon.
Before the judges were able to choose the winners of the costume contest, each contestant presented their costume in the center of the Visual Arts courtyard.
Each posing with a demeanor that went best with their costume.
The first place winner of the costume contest was Chris Padilla who dressed up as a plague doctor. Padilla describes his influences as a younger boy to dress as a plague doctor.
“So when I was a wee lad, I played Assassin’s Creed ll,” Padilla said. “In that game, how you’d get your health potions was through plague doctors!”
Padilla also said that the history behind the pointy black beak of a plague doctor was to protect itself from the plague by adding herbs inside the beak. The extensive covering of a dark robe was thought to have prevented themselves from dying, Padilla said.
“There were still plague doctors who died, but I thought it looked cool and I love the history behind it. So over the years since I was a kid I’ve been building up on the costume,” Padilla said.
“If you looked at the pumpkins there was ‘Starry Night’, Nefertiti’s bust and the top of Hammurabi’s stele,” said Besancon. “So there were different artworks that were being referenced in the pumpkins and that’s why those ones are winning.”
Communications major Lia Hartwell carved Vincent Van Goh’s “Starry Night” onto the front of her pumpkin which won her spot into first place winner of the pumpkin contest.
An unseemingly obvious rendition of Picasso’s “Blue Period” was portrayed through second place winner Marissa Saggio’s costume, wearing tinted-blue tampons as earrings, a blue shirt and blue sneakers.
Double major in visual arts and art history Amanda Ortiz made a clever pun reference to the author of horror short stories Edgar Allen Poe, creating the costume “Edgar Allen Crow”. Ortiz won her spot into third place for the costume contest.
Ortiz said that her inspiration came from attending a bird show in the Bahamas at the Renaissance Fair about 5 years ago. She saw a vulture that had a “funny little walk” to him and started to look for something close to it.
“And one day, I got really lucky,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz said that one of her favorite artists had auctioned off the of the headpiece that looked similarly to a raven’s skull. Ortiz said she then added feathers and other small details to add to the feather and intimidating head of the crow.
Artistic and historical creativity was also embodied by the pumpkins in the pumpkin contest with four winners in total.
Hartwell took first place with her Van Goh tribute pumpkin.
Visual arts major Julio Gonzalez painted the front of the pumpkin gray with a black-traced image of the top of Hammurabi Stele, winner of second place.
The third place winner of the pumpkin contest, who was also second place winner of the costume contest, is Saggio who painted a man’s face on a white pumpkin.
Saggio depicted the man’s face with red oval cheeks, purple under eye bags and blazing blue lasers shooting around the circumference of the pumpkin. A quote bubble is also coming out of the man’s mouth stating “I can see the back of my head.”
Fine arts major Mathew Gonzalez created a double face on the pumpkin, one half being a jack-o-lantern and the other being a skeleton, with his pumpkin standing in fourth place.
Some costume dressers didn’t adhere to the historical, but more to the artistic theme of the contest.
A rendition of Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” was worn by aspiring video editing major Cleryce Hernandez who said she created the costume purely from goodwill and amazon.
“As soon as I saw the movie, I knew I instantly fell in love,” Hernandez said. “He (Joker) so confident, I love that guy!”
“I wanted to make sure the suit was fitted and everything about the costume was close to him as possible, but yet still have my personality in it,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said to keep her personality within the costume, she kept her short hair and dye it green, different to the Joker’s shoulder-length green and wavy hair.
“I like how I have done it,” Hernandez said with a big and proud smile on her face.
Whether or not students won the costume or pumpkin contest, they made their efforts to get out of their comfort zone to be artistic and surprise each other with their creativity. Professors and students celebrated Halloween while also teaching a historically artistic lesson–a real trick and a treat.
