Acrylic painting has been on the rise lately. Largely due to quarantine, people have been forced to turn to arts and crafts and new ways of having fun as a way to keep busy. In doing so, people have been able to truly show their artistic talents in the form of acrylic paintings. The trendy ones that I’m talking about are the canvases with tie-dye swirls that you’ve seen popping up everywhere, these are called acrylic pours. They come in all sizes and colors and they always look magical.
I didn’t know much about this painting craze other than the constant videos that I have seen about it on Tik Tok, until I got back to Tallahassee. The first week that I moved into my apartment there was a big issue between my roommate and the building and one of the driving factors behind this issue was acrylic paintings. Building didn’t go as planned in our apartment, and, as a result, we ended up not having a balcony. This lack of a balcony was a big deal for a few reasons, one being that my roommate no longer had a place to let her paintings cure. I learned from her that curing is a one-three day process that needs to be done in an open place because the fumes can be toxic. She wasn’t just painting because it was a Tik Tok trend or to go viral, this was a part of her routine.
I further encountered acrylic paintings through my good friend Vanessa Ramos. Vanessa Ramos is a political science major on a pre-law track and an active member of March For Our Lives. She is a ray of sunshine and the kind of person you hope to meet when you come to college. Over the summer she had taken up acrylic painting. She would send messages in our group chat of some of her paintings here and there as if it were nothing, even though I would look at them amazed. Vanessa recently decided to make a business out of these paintings and has made an Instagram for them called @vangoghacrylicpours. I conducted a short interview with Vanessa to get to know more about her new hobby.
Her Campus (HC): What made you want to start painting?
Vanessa Ramos (VR): Honestly, I was just bored in quarantine and I saw everyone doing their hobby and said I’m going to find something to do. I originally saw the idea on Tik Tok and decided to try it and ended up really liking it.
HC: How long does it take you to make these paintings?
VR: The smaller ones take two-three days to make but the big ones take four days.
HC: How many paintings have you done?
VR: Over 35.
HC: How many of those have you sold?
VR: Maybe 15, I gave a lot of them away to family.
HC: What have people’s reactions been to your paintings?
VR: They have been surprised. They say things like “You literally captured what I wanted you to capture” other people claim to see things like pictures in the paintings.
HC: What are your future plans?
VR: I’m hoping for it to be a side project that I can do as a relaxation exercise and commissioned business.
Vanessa is planning a giveaway when she gets to 200 followers, so go ahead and follow @vangoghacrylicpours for a chance to win some of her incredible artwork!
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