Allison Bishop sits on a stool in a room full of easels and paintings. She is painting an image of her younger self, patiently mixing the colors while music plays in her ears. She is content and fully focused on the strokes of her paintbrush. 

Bishop is currently a second-year studio art, graphic design and art history student at the University of Maine. 

She has been an artist from an early age, mostly doing graphite drawings, but since coming to college has broadened her use of mediums. 

“I recently learned etching and printmaking. It’s a really tedious process, but it’s really interesting,” she stated. 

Bishop then further explained the process of etching. 

“So you start with a metal plate, and you roll on the ground, which is like a black acrylic medium, and it hardens and protects the copper from corrosive salt. And so, you transfer your image onto that plate with the ground on it. You scrape away lines that you want to be printed. And so, the lines that you scraped away reveal the copper when you put it in a corrosive salt bath.” Bishop explained. “Those are the only things that are kind of eaten away. And they’re you get these grooves in the copper, so when you wash off the ground, that’s all that there is on the plate. And then you work the ink into those grooves and send it through the press, and it’s really awesome.”

When asked what her favorite learning experience she has had at UMaine, she added that this process was her favorite, describing how “etching was really interesting. Completely new to [her],” and that “there’s a lot of learning that went on in [the] process.” 

Being a studio art major at UMaine has many perks as well. UMaine has many buildings dedicated to undergraduate and graduate art students. These include Lord Hall, the Wyeth Center, and the Goos Family Studio houses. 

A popular place to see students’ work is at Lord Hall. This building is on the university mall, next to Alumni Hall. They host a show every semester, run by the Gallery Director Diane Baumbach. This semester, they have a senior artwork show that is still available for the public to see the artwork fourth-year students have made. 

Along with this building is the Zilliman Art Gallery, located in downtown Bangor. George Kinghorn runs the gallery, and according to their website, the goal of their gallery is “ a cultural resource of the state and the University of Maine, promotes an understanding of, and engagement with, visual art through its diverse contemporary exhibitions, a permanent collection focusing on works of art since 1945, and educational programming.”

As a studio art student, Bishop is often asked what she plans on doing after graduation. 

“So, right now, a vague plan is to get a job, maybe in a gallery or a museum, as a curator curating exhibits, exhibitions, sounds neat. And then on the side, making art of my own, selling it, hopefully working up to a point where I can support myself financially just from making art I am passionate about,” Bishop stated.

Studio art students are often perceived as having an easier time than stem or engineering students. However, studio art offers a different struggle. 

“Creative ruts are very difficult, and the workload is sometimes overwhelming. You’re just constantly given new assignments and forced to really push your creativity and come up with something bigger and better every time. And it’s frustrating sometimes when it doesn’t go well. But that’s where most of the learning happens.” Bishop said. 

If you want to see some of Bishops’ art, visit her Instagram at allisonnbishopp. You can visit their website for more information about the Studio Art department here at UMaine.