ICYMI: Melat Hagos’ drawing one of the best in Clough Art Crawl

Friday, 20 March 2015
22 civil and environmental engineering students show their artistic side with paintings, photos, poems, songs
 
ele as in elephant by Melat Hagos won top prize in the Drawing and Painting category at the 2015 Clough Art Crawl. Hagos, an environmental engineering undergraduate, says she has been drawing as long as she can remember. (Image Courtesy of Clough Art Crawl.)

A stroll through Clough Commons this time of year is an awful lot like a stroll through an art gallery.

The walls on every floor are lined with photos and drawings and paintings. There are sculptures. And that doesn’t even account for the spoken word, poetry, music and other live performances that are part of the exhibition.

Georgia Tech students created all of the art, including nearly two dozen School of Civil and Environmental Engineering students. And one of those students’ drawings won a top prize.

“I was really surprised and excited,” said Melat Hagos, an environmental engineering student who won in the Drawing and Painting category. “Even before I got the notice, my friends kept sending me Snapchats telling me I'd won.”

Juror Ron Hughes, who owned a fine-art photography gallery in Atlanta and now runs an editing and rewrite service for artists, praised Hagos’ work for its range of emotion.

“In the Drawing and Painting category, I chose ele as in elephant by Melat Hagos as my favorite,” he wrote. “Though there were many compelling entries, this piece was the best combination of originality and surety of intention. Its exuberance is what first draws you in, and then you notice a darkness as well. It is emotionally evocative with nice elements of abstraction hidden within what is essentially portraiture. Great work.”

Hagos said she has been drawing and doodling as long as she can remember.

“It's a great form of self-expression and also really therapeutic at times.”

Check out the other submissions from CEE students (apologies to the poets, songwriters and performers, whose work we couldn’t include in the album):