UI student waves her artistic wand in all the art-world corners

UI senior Elaine Irvine dabbles in a variety of art mediums, from writing to drawing to DJ-ing.

Contributed

Contributed

Madison Lotenschtein, Arts Reporter

When Elaine Irvine goes on air for her radio show, “Stella,” she doesn’t think about what her guests may be about to say or how she’ll get them to blurt those unanswered secrets. Irving flips the “on air” switch for one thing: music. Her choices linked by artists rather than genre, the KRUI editor-in-chief plays music that has been conjured by the marginalized and the oppressed.

“I just play music made by women, nonbinary, and gender-queer artists,” Irvine said. “I try to keep a variety of music, because there are so many different kinds of people out there.”

Related: Using film as form of protest

The DJ’s show plays from noon to 1 p.m. on Sundays.

The University of Iowa senior also finds that playing music and keeping up with her physical art helps keep her mind focused on her goals, even if it’s not every day. Irving also enjoys working on her personal artwork of drawing with lots of bright colors in her illustrations. For a decade, the well-rounded artist played the cello. Irvine says that much of her physical art is for herself.

She also enjoys working on her artwork of drawing with lots of bright colors in her illustrations.

Irvine is able to create yet another steady flow of art through language as the creative-writing editor at Fools Magazine.

She expresses some of her deepest thoughts through personal essays and creative nonfiction writing at Fools. Her most recent essay is titled “Women in Heaven.”

“I was thinking about where women go when they die,” Irvine said. “My mind sticks on some of these themes and thoughts. Women weren’t given anything for a long time; they weren’t given what they deserved.”

While writing at Fools, Irvine has grown a love for mentoring other young writers and giving them the confidence they need to succeed in their writing.

“I just want people to know that there is someone thinking the same way that they do,” she said. “I help give them the push to know that what they’re thinking is valid and that someone else thinks that, too.”

The young writer, with her confidence and writing ability, hopes to work at a magazine after graduating from the UI.