‘Gifts for Grandma’
by Devyn Lansden, Student Reporter
When is the best time to learn a new hobby? When there is absolutely nothing to do.
After Northwestern closed down because of the coronavirus pandemic, Juliet Chaloupek was stuck in the Panhandle.
After spending much time on her phone, she thought it was time to find something more productive to do. She decided to teach herself how to paint. At first, it was not something she was good at. But with practice, she got better, she said.
Chaloupek then started to paint abstract paintings with inspirational quotes. She is still trying to improve and has a lot more to learn, she said.
She ended her time in quarantine with about five paintings. She gave one to a friend and one to her grandma, she said.
‘Of Minotaurs and Men’
by Connor Gray, Student Reporter
While stuck in quarantine, many students have had to come up with ways to occupy themselves. Some have found new hobbies that would seem to come out of left field.
Dylan Caywood found himself studying something he never thought he would: mythology.
Mythology has been a fascination for many different people in many different cultures around the world, especially with Norse mythology gaining a huge resurgence due to the Marvel movies and the popularity of Thor, the god of thunder, Caywood said. The mythologies Greek/Roman, Norse, Shinto and Mesopotamian each have legends and epics centered around the heroes and gods of each respective mythology.
Caywood said he used to think mythology was very boring, and he had no desire to know much about it. He came around to enjoying it after reading one of the most well-known books in Greek culture, “The Odyssey” by Homer. After reading about the journey of Greek hero Odysseus trying to return home to his family after the Trojan War, Caywood went even deeper into Greek mythology. His inspiration for diving deeper was his love for adventure stories and stories about creatures that do not exist. He has read about Medusa, cyclops, minotaurs, and other strange creatures in Greek mythology.
Dylan’s favorite creatures are minotaurs. They are half-human and half-bull.
“They can be a quiet species and have an ability to communicate with humans and other creatures,” he said.
Besides creatures, Caywood has also studied many different gods: Zeus, the king of the gods; Aphrodite, the goddess of love; and Hephaestus, the god of fire.
Though he has mainly studied Greek mythology, he plans to do Norse mythology next. Odysseus is his favorite hero because of his will and drive to make it back home to his family. Caywood said he does plan to take a mythology class sometime in the future so he can learn more about other heroes and gods.
‘Clean Kicks’
by Jara Reeder, Photo Editor
Kaleb Bethel had time to kill and needed money to burn.
He devised a plan.
“I was not about to sit around and wait for school to start back up,” Bethel said. “I didn’t know how long COVID was going to last, so I started my shoe cleaning services in my own neighborhood.”
Bethel, a senior criminal justice major from Tulsa, started cleaning shoes last semester in March right before schools shut down because of the coronavirus. Once he returned home, Bethel started looking for customers just a few doors down.
He went from door to door, asking friends and family members if he could wash up their used sneakers. He eventually found customers and got to work.
For Bethel, cleaning shoes is more than just a way to make money. It is also a way to unwind emotionally.
“Not many people like to clean their own shoes,” he said. “I like cleaning and listening to music. It’s my time to think and let the stress out on the shoes.”
‘Painting with a Purpose’
by Laney Cook, Student Reporter
Maya Stewart, a junior special education major from NWOSU, took a creative route during her quarantine time in the spring by painting custom silhouette canvases.
She started out this process by seeing pictures of silhouette paintings on her Pinterest feed. She decided to try it out herself to take up some extra time.
“I started by making one of my family for Mother’s Day,” Stewart said. “We have six of us in our family, so it definitely took up some of the time.”
After she made her first canvas and posted it to Facebook for her friends to see, it became a hit.
“I went in to Hobby Lobby and bought as many canvases as I could to paint, and I sold all of them,” she said. “So, I think I had over 10 that I sold.”
She started doing this at the beginning of April, and her last project was in June for a family friend. Most of her customers were family friends from around town.
Her reasoning behind starting this craft was to see the reaction of the person on the receiving end. When people asked her to paint one, it was most often a gift, she said.
“I love seeing their faces when I first show it to them,” she said. “They just look so happy.”
“My favorite one that I made was for a family that was really close to us,” she said. “It was for a couple who had lost a baby a couple years ago and just recently had a newborn, so I painted a canvas with all four of their silhouettes. It was a very emotional time when they first saw it as a gift.”