5 Art Pieces at UCO’s Queer Art Show

The National Organization for Women held a Queer Art Show on Wednesday in Thatcher Hall at the University of Central Oklahoma to bring students together to buy student-made art.

Here are some of the pieces that were at the show.

This painting was created by a student at the University of Central Oklahoma, Charlie Staudt, who was selling it for $50. The painting was inspired by a book called “Birds of America,” which was written in the 1800s, and is the artist’s favorite book.

Staudt said, “The book is about an American artist who came to the Americas, who wanted to create pictures of all American birds. I’m very inspired by birds in general.” The artist’s biggest challenge with this painting was creating the eyes and layering the wings.

This painting was created by another student at the University of Central Oklahoma, Khaos Vex, and was being sold for $30. The painting was originally a painting they had done with their partner from the past that they did for a date. Vex “did not like how the painting turned out, so they painted over it,” Vex said. 

Vex said, “It was basically a bad art date that turned out to be a good painting.” 

This painting was created by Vex as well and was being sold for $20. The painting was part of their astrology collection. This specific piece was inspired by the Pisces zodiac, the Loch Ness Monster, and seahorses. 

The clear pieces are from a broken plate, which was difficult for the artist to try to move around and see what they could make out of it. The painting took about three days to create. The gold outlines the Pisces constellation significantly.

This painting was also created by Staudt and was inspired by a National Geographic article. It took forty hours to complete, according to Staudt, and was being sold for $50.

Staudt comes up with their own ideas for their paintings, along with the inspiration from bird photographers. Staudt is also a photographer, which is why they find so much inspiration in their paintings from photography. They chose acrylic for these art pieces because they “fell in love with oil painting in high school and have continued to create oil paintings in college,” Staudt said.

Vex also created this painting while they were in middle school, and continued to work on it throughout their life until college. It was inspired by the course of time and the coming of age, and was being sold for $40.

They said it was “years of progress of wanting to finish the painting and then not wanting to finish the painting until finally creating something out of it.”

The painting brings out the artist’s aesthetic, which is a form of “emo aesthetic” and one of the artist’s favorite pieces.