Picture Me Caricature

Courtney McEunn Student Life Editor

From 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., on Feb. 6, the Cameron Programming Activities Council (PAC) kicked off Cameron University’s 2023 Homecoming week with a “Picture Me Caricature” event.

A caricature is a picture or drawing that takes a person’s most striking characteristics and exaggerates them for a comic or grotesque effect. PAC invited local caricaturist artist Amy Chandler to set up in the lobby of the McMahon Centennial Complex (MCC) and encouraged students to stop by and get their portraits drawn.

Chandler made the photos by hand and in person in the MCC lobby. Students could get singles, doubles, or group drawings and take a physical copy home with them. Each art piece was free and took approximately 5-10 minutes so everyone would be able to get a photo in a timely manner either before, between, or after their classes.

CU junior Alec Santos was able to get his caricature done between his classes with a fellow student. While waiting in line, Santos was able to see other students being drawn and watch the artist at work live and in person.

“At first, the line was super long— like out the door—but they were actually pretty fast,” Santos said.

“It was super cool seeing other students perceived in a different way than in real life, more so like a comic book, and it was really cool seeing myself perceived in a different way as well.”

PAC freshman Caryn Stringham works with Campus Life to help organize and see all of the different events put on throughout the semester and during Homecoming week.

“Along with campus life, PAC plans a lot of different events for homecoming week,” Stringham said. “It creates a lot of opportunities for (students) to be involved on campus, to get excited about Homecoming and just be involved in that way.”

Stringham also got her own caricature made by Chandler. While most caricatures focus on noticeable features with the subjects, Stringham took note of the fact that the artist also included small details about people, even though she produced so many drawings so quickly.

“I’ve never had, personally, a caricature done before,” Stringham said, “so I think it was really fun and unique to have a caricature artist on campus. I really like how the artist focused so much on smaller details because the thing with caricatures, is that you kind of exaggerate noticeable features. The pair of earrings that I was wearing were drawn into there, so I thought it was fun to see the small details in my drawing as well as everybody else’s.”

CU Campus Life and PAC are constantly trying new and creative ways to engage students with events, giveaways and more. Homecoming is packed full with many fun activities and events to promot student involvemnt.

For more information about upcoming PAC events, contact the office of campus life: campuslife@cameron. edu. Students can also contact the artist, Amy Chandler, through her website www.ChandlerStudio.org.