The Southern Utah Museum of Art hosted their monthly SUMA Sidekicks event on Tuesday, March 15. The event was a paint-along of Bob Ross’ “Mighty Mountain Lake” and was hosted by SUMA’s Campus Engagement and Outreach Associate Maren Holmes.
At the event, Sidekicks were given all of the necessary supplies to paint along with the video from “The Joy of Painting” series.
“I love the events at SUMA,” said event attendee Eliza Reeve. “I love coming and doing these free events that I probably wouldn’t do in my spare time otherwise.”
Holmes got the inspiration to do the paint-along after her younger sister did one for her birthday.
“Bob Ross is so soothing,” said Holmes. “[The event] was part art therapy, part art discovery.”
Holmes thought that the event would give Sidekicks a chance to see that they were capable of creating good art even if it was not in their specific skill set. Each piece of art looked different from the next despite following the same instructions and every piece had artistic merits of its own.
“It was really relaxing but a little bit stressful because I don’t trust myself with paint,” said another event attendee, Lemmi King. “It turned out to be really fun and I actually don’t hate what I made.”
Sidekicks was developed as a way to thank Southern Utah University students for contributing to the museum’s success.
“A portion of all of the students’ fees comes to SUMA to help us keep the lights on,” said Holmes. “We consider all of the students at SUU to be donors and members.”
The Sidekicks program hosts monthly “Sidekicks Assemble” art events as well as one large event per semester. Their next event will be a poetry night in honor of National Poetry Month on Tuesday, April 19.
For more information about becoming one of the SUMA Sidekicks, visit the SUMA Sidekicks page on SUU’s website.
Article & Photos by: Tessa Cheshire
accent@suunews.net
