Students Create Murals For New Residence Halls

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 27, 2016) — Six University of Kentucky students were recently selected by a panel of judges from UK Housing partner Education Realty Trust (EdR) to have their artwork featured in two new campus residence halls. Students were given specific colors and themes and instructed to submit one of more designs to be judged.

The winning designs were created by six architecture and interiors students in the UK College of Design. Those winning designers are:

  • Lucas Brown, an interiors senior from Ashland, Kentucky, who created a design for Limestone Park II;
  • Lauren Delventhal, an architecture junior from Lexington, who created a design for Limestone Park I;
  • Cara Kruse, an interiors sophomore from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who created a design for Limestone Park I;
  • Felicia Perkins, an architecture junior from Owen County, Kentucky, who created a design for Limestone Park I;
  • Thomas Ramirez, an architecture junior from Moreno Valley, California, who created a design for Limestone Park II; and
  • Mallory Stein, an interiors junior from Edgewood, Kentucky, who created a design for Limestone Park I.

The student designers were excited to get a chance to leave their own creative mark on the university, and they welcomed the opportunity to compete. "I thought it would be a great way to add student artwork to the university. I also thought it would be a great opportunity because I have never submitted my artwork to a competition before," Cara Kruse said.

Lucas Brown is an old hat at the competition. This will be the third mural by the graphic designer selected to adorn a UK wall. His newest winning mural design has UK in the center of various colored shapes and is meant to reflect the campus life and student spirit found at UK.

"To me, those things involve excitement, diversity, fun and change, which are all elements I tried to evoke within my mural while keeping UK the main focus of the design," Brown said. "The shapes are meant to seem as if they are moving, and the colors and variation of shapes symbolize diversity and excitement."

Lauren Delventhal's mural concept is also centered around the sense of school spirit on campus. Delventhal uses cheerleaders in her image to display this spirit and to show support of the university, but she hopes viewers interpret the cheerleaders in her image in a broader sense that includes all members of the campus community and even Big Blue Nation.

"From growing up in Lexington, I was already familiar with the Big Blue Nation's spirit. It was like a buzz of excitement you could feel throughout the city. When I came to campus, that buzz was even more evident," Delventhal said. "I think many students would agree that this encouragement does not only occur on the sidelines of sporting events, but is also felt from professors, staff and students here at UK. I want people to look at this image and feel like they can get through their next tough exam or hard project because they have the Big Blue Nation behind them cheering them on."

To make Cara Kruse's mural something that people would remember, she decided to make a simple and bold image that had a clear message. Kruse wanted her work to represent Kentucky and the culture of the state and chose to create an abstract image of horse racing.

"I started by thinking about things that reminded me of Kentucky as a state and also things that I had experienced as a student at the University of Kentucky. The first thing that came to mind was horse racing and the culture that it brings to the state," Kruse said. "I found an iconic image of American Pharaoh racing and decided that is what I would use as inspiration for my mural. I decided to create an abstract image that made the image timeless because it could represent any era of horse racing."

Felicia Perkins chose to depict the university's beloved Wildcat in a new way in her mural as a nod to the evolution of the university and its iconic imagery.

"With UK's current rebranding I wanted to create something that combined aspects of UK's old identity with the CMYK theme that we were given. The Wildcat has always been UK's iconic mascot and its representation is ever changing so I chose this to be the focal point of my mural," Perkins said.

Thomas Ramirez selected a visual image related to campus that is also recognizable to all members of the UK community. His work depicts the university's two towering residence halls. He hopes his work will help viewers imagine things in a new and fun way.

"The mural is an homage to the Kirwan and Blanding Towers on campus. It takes the existing dorms and introduces a new arrangement of forms to change the scale and appearance of the buildings. To me, it makes me think of a big jungle gym," Ramirez said.

Like Perkins and Ramirez, Mallory Stein also picked an image specific to campus life at UK. Her mural depicts an early evening spent watching the Wildcats at Commonwealth Stadium with an image of the field, the stands and a Jumbotron from one of the endzones.

All the designers were thrilled to have the opportunity to have their work featured in a student residence hall, and to be part of this competition that provided $500 to each winner.

"It's an honor to have new incoming students to see my work and appreciate UK's efforts to create fun and creative spaces for them," Brown said. 

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how you can support continued investment in your university and the Commonwealth, go to: uky.edu/uk4ky. #uk4ky #seeblue

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu

Blair Hoover, 859-257-6398; blair.hoover@uky.edu