December 16, 2021
alex neuhedel: finding your voice
STORY BY Kelly mehorter / EDITED BY olivia mckeon
From the moment Alex Neuhedel (‘25) could first hold a pen, he’s been committed to filling blank spaces with his artwork. Though he plans on pursuing a career in graphic design, Alex is a versatile artist whose talent is reflected in various styles of work. Beyond the canvas, Alex likes to express himself on the stage. He has recently appeared as Ryan in Ithaca College Theatre Lab’s production of High School Musical.
Alex sat down with Stillwater’s Kelly Mehorter to discuss his experience as a first-year art student and what it means to develop a personal style.
KM: Tell me about your work as a graphic designer. How did you develop this skill?
AN: The type of graphic design I like to do is similar to how TV shows or movies do their promotional key art, which are the ads that they display on social media (with pictures of the cast, title, and show details.) I like to play around with that kind of stuff on my phone or my iPad in my free time. I like to create my own ideas, like, "Oh, what if this was a movie poster? What if this was a TV show?" I slowly got better at design and eventually I helped out places with their logo designs or advertisements. My family and I did a production of Sweeney Todd, right before the pandemic. So, I had designed our logo for the program and for our T-shirts. I helped promote High School Musical for Theatre Lab on social media; That's one of my favorite places to do graphic design work. It's the type of graphic design I want to study for a career.
KM: Would you say that graphic design is your favorite way to express yourself?
AN: Definitely not. I don't think graphic design is a perfect example of who I am as a person and an artist. My talent and passion is found more in drawing, sketching, and painting. My parents noticed that at a really young age. I'm adopted, and I immediately showed a passion for art when I got to America. I would be drawing on the walls, on paper, on my notes for school, and just anywhere that had a blank space big enough for me to draw an image. And somehow my art has gotten better every year.
KM: You definitely have a lot of artistic interests!
AN: At one point in my life, I wanted to do costume designing. I did a show back in ninth grade, and I designed my own costume. I just sketched out an idea and then I was able to buy the pieces off of Amazon. And over the summer I worked on making a comic book series with some of my friends. I've been making a lot of character designs and background designs.
I do have a passion for theater as well. I like acting, I like to sing and dance, but my family and friends have told me that they think art is where I belong.
KM: How would you describe your style? Has it evolved since you’ve started studying art at college?
AN: That’s interesting because in high school they always talked about how [college] is when you should be starting to develop your own style, your own creativity. And what's interesting for me is that I don't think I have one specific style of art. I think that my inspiration comes from many different artists I see online or in person.
KM: What sort of art inspires your work?
AN: I pull some inspiration from dark, Gothic, sometimes creepy art, but [I also like] fantasy and whimsical art. I do like abstract art. It's definitely something that I find fun and interesting because of how flamboyant it is and how creative and imaginative my mind is, so I definitely find being abstract is something I can connect to.
KM: So would you say that developing a personal style is something that’s in the works?
AN: I definitely think it's in the works. I don't think I found it yet.
KM: Okay, so I did some poking around your Instagram.
AN: Stalker!
KM: Yeah, I did feel a little stalkerish! But I saw quite a few pieces of art that drew inspiration from memes. It seems like whimsy and humor are recurring themes in your work. How does the act of entertaining play a role in your art?
AN: If I'm hanging out with friends, and if I'm bored out of my mind, I’ll just start sketching in a book. And I’ll ask my friends to give me something, anything to draw, and then I’ll make it weirder. Once I asked my friend to name a fruit for me to draw. That sketch turned into a lemon with a top hat, lady legs and a hand with a cane, doing a little Chicago/razzle dazzle thing. I like to show people my absurd creativeness.
KM: So, on the flip side of that, do you ever use art to express more darker emotions?
AN: Yes, definitely. There's been times where I've used my art to reflect upon people who've hurt me in the past. I’ve been a victim of bullying in high school and middle school. During my senior year, I lost a lot of friends because of false rumors that were made about me. And so there was a time where I was just making art that reflected those feelings. At that time, I was making my AP artwork and the whole theme was just dark. Most of it was like black and white, gloomy, sad looking.
Earlier this year, I lost one of my closest friends, Molly Madigan. She and her parents lost their lives in a house fire. The day I found out about that, I wanted to pay tribute to her by drawing an image of her. I wanted that piece to be in memory of her and her beauty. It actually helped me cope with the grieving.
There have been times where my art has gotten darker because it's reflected my emotions and life events at the time. But then I also have art that's fun and happy. We don't want [the bad times] to control our emotions and ruin our confidence and self-esteem. We should want to be better people and have hope for the future.
