From October 23, 2023 to November 3, 2023, senior Painting and Environmental Studies double major Sofia Angelini had the opportunity to share the product of the Creative Arts, Research, and Scholarship (CARAS) grant she received in Spring 2023.  

CARAS grants are awarded by the Office of the Provost and the deans of Temple University to support students pursuing creative research or hoping to travel for research.  

In a way, Angelini’s research for her exhibit Wrong Place, Wrong Time began in Spring 2022 when she took a painting class with Associate Professor and Program Head of Painting Gerard Brown. After reinterpreting Death of a Stag by Benjamin West, Angelini felt that she could continue her work with deer as a subject in her paintings.  

“Sofia was unique in that she had already figured out that she was really interested in these mythological images involving animals and wildlife,” Brown said.  

Knowing that grants can be a valuable asset to artists as they pursue new projects, Adjunct Professor Lauren Whearty, TYL ’07,  and other professors in Tyler School of Art and Architecture often have students go through the grant writing process during their coursework. Though it is up to them to actually submit it, it is great practice, especially as students approach graduation.  

In Spring 2023, Whearty used the CARAS grant application to structure the assignment for her students. Passionate about her proposal, Angelini worked with Brown as her advisor to turn her class assignment into an actual submission for the grant. 

“My project was visually exploring the metaphor of a deer as a representation of human vulnerability,” Angelini said of Wrong Place, Wrong Time.  

Angelini was thrilled to find out that she had been awarded a CARAS grant and got to work as the Spring 2023 semester concluded.  

To research the nature of deer and their environment, Angelini visited museums to do life drawings of taxidermized deer and study paintings with hunting imagery. Then, she spent a month putting together the six large canvas oil paintings that became Wrong Place, Wrong Time.  

“She has figured out a way of using the imagery of the deer as a stand-in for anxiety about the experience of being in an urban setting,” Brown said. Each canvas depicts a different disturbing situation that the fauna may end up in.  

Though the display period of Wrong Place, Wrong Time has ended, the experience the CARAS grant allowed Angelini to have will certainly guide her as she further develops her artistic niche.