UWF Presents TAGGED 2011 Art Exhibit 12:23 PM

The University of West Florida is currently displaying student art in the annual TAGGED exhibition at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts.

“It usually happens in the spring,” Art Gallery director Amy Bowman says. “All students at UWF are eligible.”

The exhibit, sponsored by the Lewis Bear Company, allows students to submit works of art despite not being affiliated with the art department.  

“They submit their works either in physical form or digital submission,” Bowman says.

Bowman also says the UWF art department faculty judges the works to determine what will be displayed.   She also says this year’s exhibition has been very competitive.

According to a Feb. 16 “Voyager” article, more than 60 students submitted over 100 works.  34 of the submitted works were selected from 27 students.

An open reception was held on Feb. 17.  Bowman says there was a huge turnout that night, with approximately 184 people.

Jordan Gilliland, senior majoring in philosophy, has two works of art on display at the TAGGED exhibit.

His work, “Honest Hunger,” is a sculpture made out of wood and electrical wires. His second piece, “Imfamy,” is a large canvas piece.”

“It is a drawing that I did with just paper and ink,” he says. “This one I was just exploring the process of playing with the ink and water and how it works on the paper.”

Bowman says this exhibit is a way to bring the community together through art.

“It’s really about celebrating the work that the students are producing at UWF,” Bowman said. “It’s also an opportunity for the entire university as well as students that are working in the community to come together.”

Donna White, art enthusiast, says she thought the exhibit was excellent and the students really captured what the exhibit was about.

The exhibit will be on display until Mar. 4. For more information on the event, visit uwf.edu/art or tag82uwf.wordpress.com.

Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday. The gallery is also open on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Abortion and the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform 8:15 AM

Valentine’s Day: A day of love, affection and a lot of candy and Hallmark cards. When I woke up to go to class on the morning of Feb. 14, I thought it would be just another normal day on campus. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The first thing that seemed out of place was the giant abortion truck that passed me as I was walking up University Parkway. On the side of the truck was a graphic image of an aborted fetus. Under the image was the organization’s name, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.

I wondered why on earth this truck would be heading to campus but it wasn’t until I reached the Canon Greens that I found out what was going on. The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform was setting up camp here, and there campsite was a fortress of tall posters displaying aborted fetuses.

To be honest I was a bit shocked to see such a disturbing eyesore take over our campus. I thought it was some kind of cruel joke at first but I went home later that day and found out they were a legit organization. The abortion stand was part of CBR's "Genocide Awareness Project."

From their website:

“CBR operates on the principle that abortion represents an evil so inexpressible that words fail us when attempting to describe its horror. Until abortion is seen, it will never be understood.”

A picture may be worth 1,000 words, yes, but what gets me is some organization from out of town invades our space and starts preaching to students about what a woman MUST do with her body. It’s kind of like having religious doorknockers inviting themselves into your house and telling you what to do.

You can’t just force sensitive issues onto people like that. That and we never even got a warning about CBR’s arrival as far as I’m concerned…

So with that being said I had a few questions for the University. Why did the CBR get a reserved spot on the Canon Greens, whereas every other organization is bound to the secluded free speech zone? What makes these guys special? Did they pay us?

Whatever your stance on abortion, the CBR got what they wanted and got everyone on campus turning heads at their stand. If you’re still looking for more information, visit abortionno.org.  (Visit at your own risk, as there is an abortion video that starts up as soon as you visit the site.)

A Day With The Elderly 8:30 AM

Usually on the weekends I do absolutely nothing. I’ve been doing a lot this semester so I try to take advantage of any free time that I may have.

It seems I can never be satisfied though. I complain about being busy, yet when I’m free, I wish I was being productive.

A week ago I made good use of my weekend and went with a friend to help her out with her “job.” By the end of the day, I’m glad I went to help her out.

My friend takes care of an elderly couple. She shops for their groceries, feeds their birds in the backyard and does other mundane chores. I wasn’t too keen on helping out with this kind of stuff, especially since I can’t even complete my own household chores.

Before we left to go to Nina and Kearney’s house (the elderly couple), my friend told me to bring my laptop with me. Kearny had a CD with old pictures he wanted to show us so I brought it along. No biggie.

Their house is an average looking home with a garage and large windows. The roof is flat and the entire structure is made of white brick. My friend and I walked up the wheelchair ramp to the door and greeted the couple. I was a little nervous because I wasn’t sure what to say.

Nina is French and speaks in a really thick accent. I was pleased to find out that she spoke Spanish and lived in Spain for a while. She was familiar with some of the cities I’ve been to when I lived in Spain: Rota, Cadiz, Jerez, Sevilla…

Kearney is American and he walks around the house with a cane. He argues with Nina a lot and it’s hilarious to see them go at each other’s throats. Despite the arguing, you can clearly tell that they love each other, especially when Kearney hums in French to Nina.

We viewed pictures with Nina and Kearney and I was amazed at the quality of the photos. Some of them went back to the 1920s. There were men in suits looking like they were ready to go swing dancing, women in fancy hats at social gatherings and photos of vintage cars.

Nina and Kearney knew a woman named Mimi who used to be the oldest dependent of Pensacola. Nina said that Mimi always loved wearing large, fancy hats. We saw a few pictures of Mimi on the CD, she looked like a really classy lady.

After doing some chores for the two and feeding the birds in the backyard, Nina told me about how people used to adore America before Vietnam. She said it was a different time and a different place. She was obsessed with the American Dream and now it just kind of withered away.

“America isn’t what it used to be,” she said.

Before I knew it, the sun was going down and it was time to go. I gave Kearney a handshake and gave Nina a hug before leaving. I told myself I would be back. I would love to get to know these people and hear their story. 

SGA hosts Budget Presentations for Organizations 1:33 PM

The University of West Florida Student Government Association hosted a budget presentation for campus organizations on Feb. 5 at 10:15 a.m. in the Building 21 Conference Center.

Finance chair Keldrick Averhart said the SGA finance committee looks at electronic copies of each organization’s reports and then have a question and answer session with the organizations.

“There are seven minutes of them speaking about their organizations and seven minutes of us doing question and answers,” Averhart said.

Organizations present in front of the Finance Committee included the Marketing and Logistics Association, the Society of Women Engineers, the Association of Information Systems and Students for Health Education and Promotion.

According to the SGA event calendar, 18 organizations were signed up on Feb. 5 to deliver budget presentations.

SGA Senate President Dwayne Manuel said this process happens every year.

“The budget process is a yearly thing that usually happens during the spring semester,” Manuel said. “The fiscal year starts July 1.”

Finance committee member Matthew Ferrer said the money comes from the A&S student’s fee.

“We’ll get together in deliberations a couple weeks from now,” Ferrer said.  “We deliberate on how much they need to allocate and how much they deserve.”

Ferrer said they also look at the requests organizations have given as well as how much money they have put together as a club.

“We want to be fair and consistent with all the clubs,” he said.

Manuel said the committee receives recommendations as to how the money is distributed.

“It is mandated within our statutes that the finance committee gets a recommendation for the amount of money being allocated towards departments and student organizations,” he said.

Budget presentations will continue on Feb. 12 at 11 a.m. Seven student organizations are to present next Saturday.

For more information about budget presentations and the overall process, contact SGA at sga@uwf.edu.

SGA Budget Presentations

And the Oscar nominations are... 9:34 AM

Being a college student, I don’t go to the movies often.  If I do go, I want to be sure that I’m getting my money’s worth, so forgive me if I sound a little one-sided.

With less than four weeks until the Oscars, the nominations are out. I’m actually looking forward to this year’s choices because I feel more movie literate this time around. (That and the overhyped movie “Avatar” is not here to steal the scene. Thank goodness.)

Scrolling through the list of nominations for best picture, I’m relieved to say that I’ve seen three out of 10 of these movies. I watched “The Social Network” and “Inception” on my eight hour flight from London to Miami at the beginning of the year thanks to in-flight entertainment.

I watched Toy Story 3 twice.  The first time with friends, the second time with family. I almost shed a tear on both occasions—something that never happens when I watch movies.

For this category, I’m torn between “Inception” and “The Social Network.” Inception was a creative masterpiece while “The Social Network” was a great portrayal of our generation.

It’s a close tie, but I might have to go with “Inception.” I’m big with bizarre movies and this just worked for me. The epic music, the special effects, the plot, etc. It’s one of those movies that make you go “hmmm.”

I do believe that “The Social Network” will take the prize for the actor in a leading role category. Jesse Eisenberg does a phenomenal job at being a cocky asshole in this movie.

Facebook: Scandalous.

And as for “Toy Story 3,” I’m confident that this movie will dominate in the animated feature film category. I watched “How to Train your Dragon,” one of the other nominations for this category, but it didn't have the emotional appeal of “Toy Story 3.”

For kicks, I’m going to predict that “Alice in Wonderland” will win the costume design category. Wasn’t a big fan of the movie, but the creativity put forth in the costumes was astounding.

Teddy Newton’s “Day and Night” might stand a chance in the short film (animated) category. I watched this on the “Toy Story 3” DVD extra features and thought this was a great portrayal of human relationships.

In four weeks, I will have hopefully found a way to view all these movies without spending too much money.

See you all on Feb. 27 at the Kodak Theater.