The Tyler Junior College Art Club gave its members a chance to show their creativity and skills by having a contest for best costume on Oct. 27.
Students who were members of the Art Club started this five-year-old event as a way of showing their Halloween spirit.
“The Art Club members, a few years ago, wanted to dress-up for Halloween to celebrate the festivities of the season. We decided to turn it into a contest and reward their creativity,” said Derrick White, head of the Art Club and professor in the Art department.
The winner of the contest didin’t go away empty-handed either. There is a prize for first place.
“Every year we award a $100 gift card to Hobby Lobby so that an artist can go out and buy art supplies,” White said.
Winners are chosen by a majority vote of Art Club members attending the Halloween party who are not in costume, along with the professors.
White had said that the students get excited about the event and the variation in costume styles ranges from the macabre and scary to the funny and comical.
Last year’s winner, Jennifer Motes, had an elaborate dragon tamer costume complete with a three-dimensional papier mache dragon draped across her back.
Students have different reasons for entering the contest and some don’t even know there is a contest.
Motes has been making her own costumes for five to six years, mainly dragon wings and tails. Last year she went with something a little different with the papier mache dragon and ended up winning the contest.
“I usually plan my costume four months before Halloween, and I had no clue that there was going to be a costume contest for the art club,” Motes said about last year’s contest.
The excitement of the contest is just part of the fun. Students love to see what creations other students come up with and reactions to their own costumes.
“It is a chance to show your creative side and actually dress up at school and freak some people out that aren’t used to that,” Motes said.
Motes will again be entering the contest this year, but with a twist. Rachel Motes, Jennifer’s younger sister, is in her first year at Tyler Junior College and will be entering the contest, also.
“We are always competing against each other in different skills,” Motes said about her and her younger sister.
Rachel has been making costumes and goes to the Renaissance fair and has been sewing since she was about seven years old.
When it comes to the sibling rivalry, both sisters seem to take it in fun.
“With my sister and I being only 13 months apart, we do have quite a bit of rivalry or competition against each other, but it’s fun,” Rachel said.
Rachel had said that the sisters have two different styles of making costumes but actually help each other with them.
Anyone interested in finding out the winner of this year’s contest and seeing a photo of the winning costume can stop by the Art Department lobby in Jenkins Hall and talk to Derrick White or Chris Stewart.
