“The whole purpose of the whiteboards originally was to see if I could make one of my friends smile. As much as I love engineering, I’ve always wanted to make comics and that is something that I am definitely confident about; that is always something I’ve done since middle school. I just want to help people smile or laugh using what I love, art, to just spread a little happiness if that’s possible. We’re not putting down anyone here, it’s just good fun. It’s a spur of the moment sort of deal, I really don’t have a process for it, it just comes and goes.
It’s not for attention, it’s not to show off my skills, it’s mostly because I know that there are days where I could not find something to smile about. People don’t realize how important that actually is. I know that a lot of my friends have looked out for me so in turn, I picture all the students here, whether or not they look at these boards. If I could cheer you up a little bit, then I will do the best that I can do and that’s all.”
People are going through things outside of school and that is the main reason why I like doing the whiteboards. Because, through the ups and the downs since freshman year, I have friends who would somehow make me laugh or smile.
It’s all very entertaining. People have commented that they look forward to checking out the latest one.
“I am glad; that means I have done my job. I also think it’s funny because sometimes my friends and I will pass by and I’ll point out, ‘That’s you,’ or, ‘That’s you.’ When you personalize it to all the majors, you can really point at your friend and be like, ‘That’s definitely you.’”
What do you think of the engineering inspired works of art in ZACH?
“It makes me so happy. I genuinely love all the pieces in the building, especially the fireworks one (Smoke Painting #44). That has a very special place in my heart. I got to see a piece, the light one (A-GADDA-DA-VIDA), being installed, and I spoke with the artist and [asked] how did you make this, what was your idea? I love asking him questions because I wanted to pick his brain. I enjoy the moving art (What it takes to make) near Starbucks. That one is so much fun. Before the official opening of ZACH, I would just go walk around and admire the art because I thought it was so cool.. I wish I could do that, I really do.”
What would you tell others, if you had a megaphone in ZACH?
“People are going through things outside of school and that is the main reason why I like doing the whiteboards. Because, through the ups and the downs since freshman year, I have friends who would somehow make me laugh or smile.
That’s the whole premise of art; you make a lot of mistakes. I view engineering as art because with every mistake that I make, whether or not I learn from it, it’s incorporated somehow.
Engineering is just a different way of doing art. Some people say no, it’s completely different than art, there is nothing similar about the two. They are very similar; you have a mindset of, ‘Oh I’m imagining something, how do I make it, how do I take this idea and I make it?’ With engineers, it’s with physics, math and all sorts of things. Artists, it’s the same thing, they also use physics and math, it’s just maybe not in the way engineers think. And I’ve been asking one of my friends in entrepreneurship if we can have an engineering art festival because I think it would be an interesting way to combine the two. I believe there are a lot of engineers that are artistic but may not realize it or [are] afraid to get out of their comfort zones. At the same time, I believe there are a lot of artists that don’t realize and recognize that they are also very intelligent and hard-working, and they also share the same skills as engineers.”