Several University art students will soon be part of a project designed to provide relief for fishermen affected by the oil spill.The Great Oil Leak Poster Project invited artists, graphic designers and illustrators to submit posters that artistically illustrate messages related to the environmental disaster. The project — which stopped accepting entries June 19 — received more than 140 submissions from around the world, including entries from Canada, South America and Iran, according to Jeff Lush, co-curator of the project and University of Louisiana at Lafayette art professor. The submissions were judged, and about 50 entries will be displayed at the various exhibits, according to Lush.”We as the people of Louisiana need to stop and consider how oil really affects the lives of people who live here,” Lush said. “A lot of artists are very upset at what is going on, and now is the time to try to be able to do something about this.”Bricks & Bombs on Hearthstone Drive in Baton Rouge will see the exhibit’s first public opening Aug. 6 at 7 p.m.The exhibit will move to Lafayette on Aug. 14, where it will be on display for two weeks at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Attendants will be able to purchase prints of the posters for a “nominal fee,” according to Lush. Sixty percent of the proceeds will go to Gulf Aid Acadiana, a fund established to provide relief to those affected by the catastrophe in the Gulf. The remaining 40 percent will be given to the artists and will help cover the technical costs of the project.Lush said he hopes to see the exhibit travel throughout other areas of Louisiana and that a gallery in Pennsylvania has already contacted him hoping to display the works.Rod Parker, director of the LSU School of Art, said the project offers a good opportunity for students to express their reactions to the disaster.”[Artists] often feel a lot of things and want to express a lot of things based on what’s happening in the world,” Parker said. “This was an opportunity for people to do something and take an action rather than just sit there and stress about it.”Anna Boyer, graphic design senior, was one of seven University students and alumni whose work was selected for the exhibit, according to a University press release. Boyer said she became involved with the project through a digital art class she is taking this summer.”Because the project is benefitting local fishermen, I wanted my poster to show the effect of oil on wildlife,” Boyer said in an email to The Daily Reveille. “I created an image that shows the deadly impact of the oil spill on fish. The poster is gruesome. I wanted it to be as real as possible.”Courtney Barr, an assistant professor of graphic design, said she encouraged her students to participate in the project, and two of her students’ entries were accepted.”This competition gives  students an opportunity to use their talents to voice their concerns about the oil leak and to offer support to Gulf Coast fishermen,” Barr said. “It is important for LSU art students to understand that art doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Art is often inspired by world events, but it can also have an influence and create change.”
 
 
 
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