While the I-Create lab is full of neat gadgets and gizmos, it is nothing without our student workers. This month we are spotlighting one of our student workers, Skally Benitez.
Skally has worked in the I-Create Lab for nearly a year and is a Senior here at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She is working on her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA). Skally received her Associates in Arts from South Texas College in 2018. Her focus in art is traditional art; she has painted numerous items around the I-Create Lab, including the big shark.
Her favorite mediums of art are creating with charcoal or simply painting. Skally describes her work as colorful, and her eye for detail in her work leaves people breathless.
Skally has three fur-babies and her love shows through the pictures she draws of them. She can often be seen with earbuds in listening to punk rock, Low-Fi Hip-Hop, or her favorite band, Queen.
Skally says she enjoys Low Fi Hip-Hop because, “It’s just music you don’t have to focus on the lyrics; you just focus on homework.” She does say that Queen is her primary listen when she is in the grove for painting, “Its Queen all the way.”
She enjoys listening to music as much as she enjoys making it. Skally is skilled in musical instruments such as the cello and kalimba, but she does admit it has been a while since she has practiced her musical skills.
When it comes to work, Skally is dedicated to the I-Create Lab. Her favorite thing about the lab is “being able to teach patrons how to use the equipment.” Skally can often be found assisting patrons with the laser cutter or giving a brief tour and letting people know about all the cool equipment students, staff, faculty, and the community gets to enjoy.
The two pieces of equipment that Skally enjoys teaching are the Laser Cutter and the Large Format Printer. Both machines require some basic knowledge of the Adobe Suite Illustrator and Photoshop, in which she feels competent.
Skally choose to become an islander saying, she was drawn to the campus because of the well-known art professors and how the department is so involved in the local art community.
One of her biggest inspirations in the art field is one of our professors, Mr. Joe Pena.
Skally says that during her associates, she wrote a paper about Mr. Pena’s work and grew to love art more because of him.
While Skally hasn’t made any of her artistic creations using the equipment in the lab, she plans to do that soon to show off her art in a different medium.
Skally is here to help with a big smile and friendly attitude, just like all of our friendly student workers.
