The first week of the 2026 spring semester is here! I anticipate this semester being a good change of pace for me. I’ll have 15 credits so I’m a lot more relaxed. Although, this does mean I’m not doing ceramics this semester, which is a real bummer 🙁 I’m hopeful that I can get back to it soon. On the bright side, this break from ceramics will give me time to brainstorm ideas. 

In the meantime, my current 3D class is Mixed Media. We’re making reliefs to start us off. We had to choose an artist from the 20th century to reference for our relief. True to form, I wanted to create another unicorn relief, similar to the one I made last semester. So, I searched for renowned fantasy artists from the 80s, as that’s usually where the biggest references for my fantasy style come from. I found this husband and wife art duo, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, that were well known for the time. I checked to see if they had any artworks of unicorns and stumbled across this one:

It was nice to see, as I found that it was an alternate art from a Magic: The Gathering card. My professor, Steve Colley, said to look up where she’s located, and I found out she has a studio in Allentown, PA. He also said I could get extra credit if I meet with her, so that could be an adventure for later 🙂 Anyway, I decided I’d make a relief based on this style of unicorn and artwork in general. Now, what I have isn’t close to done yet, but I want to have a unicorn inspecting a creature. I want the unicorn to be more candid, since a lot of the unicorns I’ve made before look almost as if they’re posing.

I want to get a good amount of detail in the piece, but, since we will be casting them in plaster, I’ll have to keep it decently basic. Hopefully it turns out though.

I hope everyone’s first week of spring 2026 classes has gone well. I’m really excited to see what the semester brings! 

More to come!

~Marissa