Universities typically plant the seeds of thousands of lifelong pursuits. All across campus, there are hideaways where students pour their lives into perfecting their craft. These spaces house the struggles, breakthroughs and ideas that come with the art of learning. They range from isolated cubicles in Troy H. Middleton Library, to science labs, to an empty theater. LEGACY Magazine took a peek into some of these spaces of creativity and learning on our own campus.
The Paper-Making Studio
In the basement of Hatcher Hall, students of various disciplines gather in a tiny room filled with vats and bins of various liquids to create materials for their art.
Photography senior James Letten says the ability to make his own paper allows his work to take on more significance. He was able to craft his materials for his most recent project, a sculpture of himself.
“The caste that I made of my body is made of clothes that no longer fit me—that no longer work with my body, and then they’re sort of defining it,” Letten says.
Paper can be made of anything from cotton to blue jeans to certain kinds of plant mixtures. Printmaking students are the primary users of this space, but people in other disciplines such photography, painting, and sculpture spend hours here to create their art from its most basic structure.
The Photography Studio
Letten also uses the photography lab on the second floor of the Studio Arts Building, where students can chemically develop photographic prints. After turning on the lights to the darkroom, he demonstrates the process of projections and chemical baths.
“It’s really nice to be in here, especially when there’s not a whole lot of other people in here,” Letten says. “You just get really into the zone, and you can make some really nice prints. It’s great.”
In the world of snapchat and smartphones, where photographs have lost much of their value, this space presents the rare opportunity to escape convenience for artisanship, quality and beauty.
The Piano Practice Room
Music majors spend almost as much time in class as they do in the practice rooms found in both the Music and Dramatic Arts Building and the School of Music. Starkly simple, the rooms are nothing more than four plain white walls and a piano.
As Bach fugues, Chopin Mazurkas and a Mozart opera spill out into the hallway. One walking past might imagine something far more spectacular behind the doors. Piano performance junior Tony Daigle says he spends about an hour each day in the rooms in addition to two hours of practice at home.
“Right now my main concern is just becoming a better pianist and seeing where that can take me,” Daigle says.
Though the rooms are almost all identical, they each have a kind of personality. Some of the pianos are grossly out of tune, some have keys that stick. They’ve felt the fingers of hundreds of aspiring pianists and communicated their players’ joys, sorrows, and passions.
Art Studio
Studio art senior Jessica Chappuis’ painting studio is a little different from the average — it’s housed in the Dairy Science Building. The University has moved the art students around several times within the past few years, and many of them have ended up here — just a few floors above where the Dairy Store ice cream is made.
“We groveled about it at first, but you kinda just have to make it home,” Chappuis says. “You’ve got to just have a sense of humor about it. Like stuff is still labeled, ‘Tissue homogenizer’ and it’s a drawer of my paintbrushes.”
Her studio consists of two angled walls of plywood set up to display her many depictions of sleeping figures.
“I really love bedroom spaces and all of the weird little intimate items that you find in there,” Chappuis says of her work. “And I love the figure. Painting bodies is just endlessly fascinating and challenging.”
Chappuis’ space, like the plywood corners all around her, is completely and totally hers. A random space in the Dairy Science building communicates her work, her dreams, and the swirling colors she sees inside her head, poured out all around her.
Architecture Studio
In a large, sunlit room on the third floor of Atkinson Hall, an arraignment of tables and makeshift walls are set up. Full of sketches and models, architecture sophomore Allie White shows her sketches of her most recent assignment: designing a greenhouse for an area in downtown Baton Rouge, inspired by buildings seen on a recent trip to Dallas.
White first realized her interest in architecture during a high school yearbook class.
“They asked us what we liked taking pictures of,” she says. “I put buildings because I’ve always been attracted to structures I guess, so it clicked then, and I just went for it.”
White spends entire days here during the week, building structures that emerge from ideas onto paper and turn into miniature models. One day, the pen scratches and the dust of her worktable will emerge as buildings and spaces of their own.
