Discovering hidden talent among the sinking shelves
Anyone that goes to Winthrop and has been in the library knows how draining those long and stressful nights in Dacus can be. About this time of year, students will be spending multiple all nighters in the library bent over notes or writing those double-digit research papers, stress beginning to take over students’ lives.
But one student is making it her mission to stop and help out in any way that she can.
Freshman modern languages major, Alicia Pascale Bouchard uses her talents to help alleviate the stress levels in the library during her night shifts. Being one of those students roaming the sinking shelves looking for the English book I needed for my research paper, finding one of her sketches stuck between books on F. Scott Fitzgerald momentarily made me forget the stress.
Though a modern language major, Bouchard is has an art minor.
“It’s always been a passion for me,” Bouchard said. “I find it to be a good way to relieve stress and express myself.”
When I mentioned that her sketch was a bright spot in the glum basement of the library she mentioned that that was an aspect of her art that she wishes others see too.
“I do wish for my art to have an effect of people,” she stated with a smile. “Whether it is a negative or positive feeling, it’s important for my art to evoke emotions in viewers.”
Her sketch discovered in the library was merely a human from the shoulders up, but the craft that she used, the structure and shading causes the piece itself to convey emotions. Some of these faces that she sketches are people she knows, models that she uses to create in her own art. But she doesn’t always use others to draw people. 
“Recently I have found the human form more interesting. I like to ‘make up’ faces and give those people a story.”
Bouchard uses her talents for her own liking, her own creation, but also for others enjoyment and liking. Her pieces tell a story, they tell the entire lives of one person in a frozen second.
So whether you as a student are stuck in the library studying for an exam, writing a paper or lost among the sinking shelves, see if Alicia is working. If she is, check out her art. Forget the stress even if it’s for a second because her art will help you with that.
