Aidan Swank is a senior art major at Shippensburg University with a certification in graphic design.

Swank’s preferred artistic medium is watercolor and acrylic paintings. He enjoys doing graphic design, but does that more professionally. He does a lot of abstract art, but he goes off of what he is feeling as a form of self-expression, rather than inspirations.

Swank had his watercolor paintings on display in the Brindle Gallery in early September, along with artwork by students Sharon Coons, Jessica Silverman and Addison Zimmerman. 

For his watercolor work, Swank wanted to try new techniques, which included using gesso as a base layer, flinging paint for organic texture and incorporating other types of media like oil pastels. 

He spent last semester experimenting with watercolors in an independent study. After spending several months on a seven-foot long painting, he decided he needed to work smaller. That led him to create the paintings that are now in the Brindle Gallery.

As for the meaning behind his paintings, “It’s really about letting myself be free from any meaning,” Swank said. “It’s about having some fun between paintings that might actually have objective content or a meaning that I’m thinking of.”

“I like to switch a lot between the world of complete abstraction, and the world of identifiable subjects,” Swank said. “It’s most fun when they meet in the middle and you get a little bit of both.”

Swank got his start in art due to his grandmother who is also an artist. She doesn’t paint professionally, but she paints murals for her local pizzeria and mailboxes for friends. Swank recalls going to her house with his cousins when he was younger and painting SpongeBob characters, which are still on display today. 

Along with art, Swank also likes to produce music. He likes to connect his paintings to his music and create album covers.

In the future, Swank hopes to put his graphic design skills to use. He has worked in graphic design before at a sign shop and at Cumberland County Historical Society where he worked on social media and posters. He hopes to continue similar work after graduation. 

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