Back Page UNC, a creative writing club, and Carolina Artists' Coalition hosted an Art Swap on Thursday, igniting attendees' creativity and imagination.
At the event, students traded writings, poems, drawings and other creative works with each other. They then created new pieces based on the art of the person they swapped with. So, short stories became sketches, and origami art transformed into a tragic tale.
Catherine Pabalate, treasurer of Back Page, swapped one of her written works with another attendee, who then drew a picture inspired by it.
“It was really cool to see something I wrote be turned into a different art form,” Pabalate said. “I think that's always rewarding as a writer, to see someone make art of your writing, because it shows that it impacted them.”
Jianna Miller, a first-year who attended the event, brought origami fortune tellers, which inspired the person she swapped with to write a short, sad story based on fortune and fate.
Miller said that the atmosphere of the event was very welcoming, which is important to her because she views art as a chance for her to come out of her shell.
“I'm a Capricorn, so I'm very serious. I'm kind of cynical person,” Miller said. “So I like to do art because it makes me open up and makes me be vulnerable.”
Annabelle Oberst, president of Back Page, said the event's goal was to provide an opportunity for different types of artists to come together and spark each other's creativity.
“I think we're all so inspired by other things, other mediums of art,” Oberst said. “It was really cool to see people bring a piece in and then exchange it with someone and use their lyrics or the sound of the music or the way that the paint looks just to inspire something else.”
