If you wandered through the first floor of the Student Union from March 10 through 12, you might have noticed something unusual: students standing perfectly still in front of canvas paintings and statues, heads tilted, eyes squinting, confused and intrigued — before casting a quick vote and leaving. You might have seen a small group of people around a 3D sculpture of a woman kneeling on a stone pond. And if you stopped by the award ceremony on March 12, you would have seen a mountain of cookies.
This was Blank Space, Student Government’s annual art competition, and for three days, aspiring art pieces competed to be named the winner and given a place on one of the SU’s many blank white walls.
The competition, hosted by SG’s Student Affairs Committee, was first held in 2019 but, because of the pandemic, stopped existing until it was brought back by alumna Margaret Belford in spring 2022. Blank Space has been held annually since then. Although thousands of students walk by the winners each day on the eponymous wall — in the center of the Student Union just between Chick-fil-A and Halal Shack — the contest itself seems to exist just outside student awareness, which is a shame, because the work on display each year is always worth a look.
This year sported traditional art, digital art and three-dimensional art — which sounds pretty straightforward until you realize it includes everything from last year’s papier mache Temoc head to this year’s origami sphere and a sculpture made of hot glue and rocks.
Vixx Welborn, a business administration sophomore and president of the Small Business Owner club, won first place in the 3D category for that last piece, which they said took over 15 hours to complete.
The piece depicts one of the characters from a story they’re writing, a fantastical being who can inhabit statues. The silica figure emerges from a glittery hot glue pool surrounded by real rocks Welborn collected while in Oregon. The watery effect was not achieved with resin, which is the standard approach, but instead with hot glue, painstakingly melted with a heat gun until it rippled like water.
“The whole thing is that the whole pond is supposed to be living because it’s almost a part of her,” Welborn said. “The glitter is for fun.”
What’s striking about the piece is not just its craftsmanship, but how it takes up room in a space — although the handiwork and detail is still impressive, Welborn said with pride. It’s the kind of thing you walk past and then circle back to, because something about it feels unfinished in the way that living things feel unfinished. Welborn entered last year too, with a sculptural piece that held plants that grew as the competition went along. They said that life is something they try to represent in all their work.
“I’m really hopeful that people get to see something pretty and it brings a little bit of joy to their day,” Welborn said. “Some art is meant to be super meaningful, and a lot of these pieces are, and that is great. But at the end of the day, I really hope that people are just like, ‘That was pretty. I’m so happy I got to see it.'”
Hassan Alfarhan, a political science major and student affairs senator, said he didn’t actually know Blank Space existed until he was in SG. But the moment he heard about it, he was hooked.
“Students are very artistic on this campus,” Alfarhan said. “I see them drawing outside all the time. They might as well get some recognition and have some cookies for it.”
The cookies, it should be noted, were a significant draw for passersby and event organizers alike. But Alfarhan said what he enjoyed the most was seeing the reaction of the artists themselves when they got their awards.
“They truly had no clue they would win,” Alfarhan said. “That should really inspire people to submit because no matter what art you might have, hundreds of students might think it is gorgeous and worth a prize. Everyone’s art should be seen.”
Jasmine Kouhestani, a criminology junior and Student Affairs chair, said that she had been organizing Blank Space for long enough to know what to expect with the event — or so she thought. The voting period this year threw her for a loop.
“We had to have people in the SU taking votes for nearly every hour the campus was open for three days, and people actually kept coming,” Kouhestani said. “It was intense.”
But worth it, she later added. The first-place traditional piece stood out to her in particular.
“I was so shocked and honored to be able to present that work,” Kouhestani said. “It was beautiful.”
At the awards ceremony, the SU’s gallery space filled with about 30 students, artists, friends and the kind of people who show up to things for the promise of cookies. Kouhestani and Alfarhan took turns announcing the winners.
First place in traditional went to a piece that pulled over 230 votes — a number that, in a campus of 30,000, sounds small until you remember that most student events struggle to crack double digits. Second place in traditional, with 150 votes, went to a piece whose artist wasn’t present, though the work was.
First place in digital went to Esther Rio. Second place went to Muhammed Assad.
First place for 3D, with over 50 votes, went to Welborn. Second place went to Matthew Bidwell, a returner from previous years.
“All of the artwork was absolutely beautiful,” Kouhestani said at the end of the award ceremony. “We are so, so grateful that you took the time to take part. Now we can just party and enjoy your beautiful art together.”
There’s a temptation to write off events like Blank Space as the kind of thing universities do to fill up calendars or as resume padding for the organizers, a checkbox for student engagement. This, however, was a space full of students who spent hours, days and weeks on something that didn’t have to be graded or evaluated or justified. It was something they made because they wanted to see if they could. And then they brought it to a gallery where other people could stand in front of it and squint at it and decide, privately, whether they liked it.
“I feel like that should really inspire people to submit anyway,” Alfarhan said.
It’s not about winning. It’s about the fact that someone made something and showed it to people, and those people looked at it and felt something.
That’s the thing about art on a campus like this: it happens whether anyone’s paying attention or not. Students draw outside, use chalk, sculpt in their dorm rooms and fill sketchbooks between classes. Blank Space gives them a reason to let the rest of us see it.
“Some art is meant to be super meaningful,” Welborn said. “But at the end of the day, I really hope that people are just like, ‘That was pretty. I’m so happy I got to see it.'”
Consider that mission accomplished.