A Storybook, a Novel, and Three Corsets  - UNC Greensboro (2024)

Three student Pubantz Artists in Residence create storytelling works.

Once upon a time, Annabelle Kizer wanted to draw, but she didn’t know what. Her mom’s advice: “Draw something creepy.”

Kizer, now a senior studying studio art at UNC Greensboro, sketched a girl holding a stuffed animal under an exposed light bulb. Darkness surrounds the girl.

“I named her Insomnia,” Kizer recalls.

When Kizer saw an announcement for UNCG’s Pubantz Artist in Residence (AIR) Program, she knew Insomnia could become more than the subject of a single sketch.

Kizer is one of five students in the Lloyd International Honors College to receive funding from the program designed to bring projects in visual, written, and performing arts to life.

Through the yearlong program, selected participants receive encouragement from mentors, meet with each other regularly and share their work in an annual showcase. This year, the showcase takes place at 5 p.m. April 11 in the Alumni House.

‘A Deep Allegorical Dive into the World of Sleep’

Thanks to the program, Kizer’s Insomnia now plays a key role in “Children of Nightmare.” The illustrated children’s storybook takes what she calls “a deep allegorical dive into the world of sleep” as it follows the story of a protagonist who, with the help of embodied sleep disorders, overcomes their fears and finds their way home.

The book draws on earlier research that Kizer had done into human sleep cycles and sleep disorders.

“I’ve had a very deep fascination with the neurological systems of our brains and imagination in general,” she says. “When we sleep, we are actively storytelling to ourselves, and that is something I value deeply.”

Kizer’s focus on visual storytelling and movement grew out of an early interest she had in choreography and dance. She entered UNCG as a dance major, but shifted to studio art with a concentration in new media and design as she realized she could take what she’d learned from dance and apply it to visual storytelling.

“To be able to convey movement through static image is my greatest inspiration and goal in all my work,” she says.

In the future, Kizer hopes to become the artistic director of an animation company, bringing together technicians with artists and animators to help tell stories. In the meantime, she hopes that those who read “Children of Nightmare” will come to appreciate a good night’s sleep.

“Sleep is incredibly important for our body systems,” she says. “It’s something that we spend a big part of our life doing, and I’m hoping that the storybook can demystify sleep disorders and have people create a greater understanding and value for sleep themselves.”

Sci Fi, with a Twist of Darwin

Another AIR writer, Sofie Muska, hopes to get people thinking with her draft novel “Scions of the Solar Sea.”

When she graduates from UNCG in Spring 2025, she’ll have completed three majors. When she’s not studying, Muska writes, rewrites, and writes even more.

In December 2023, her draft had reached some 45,000 words. She started over, reaching around 15,000 words in January, and now she’s continuing to work back up with interwoven plot lines that take readers to an alien planet in the distant future.

The novel revolves around two strangers, Aymond Estragon and Nereus Anastos, who navigate a world where a virus engineered to tackle an invasive species mutates and slowly begins to infect humans.

“The planet is called Darwin, in keeping with the theme the novel explores, which is evolution,” Muska explains. “It’s an exploration of the idea of change and adapting to that change. I explore that both in a more natural setting when it comes to the organisms that inhabit the planet, as well as in a more social context with the characters that I have populated this planet with.”

At UNCG, Muska is bringing interests in writing and science together, majoring in computer science, English, and languages, literatures, and cultures, with a concentration in French and francophone studies.

She decided to apply for the AIR program when she was taking her last fiction writing class.

“It was an opportunity to keep pursuing fiction writing and to keep working with Holly Goddard Jones, a professor I have come to respect a great deal,” Muska says.

Right now, Muska plans to pursue a doctorate in computer science after she graduates in Spring 2025, and she wants to continue writing science fiction on the side.

Binding Costumes to a Character’s Story and an Actor’s Needs

For another Artist in Residence, Sophie Shahan, the value of costumes in theatrical productions can’t be overestimated. Every detail, she says, plays a part in helping tell a character’s story.

In her project, Shanan tackles the defining details of corsets from different eras, from their outer embellishments to the fabric they’re made from to the design of the inner boning that gives them their shape.

Although Shahan grew up with a strong interest in the arts, coming to UNCG School of Theatre’s design and technical production program “was like stepping into the unknown,” she says.

“I had very little experience in theater before I came here,” she says, “but I found that sewing was my thing.”

Shahan’s AIR project has given her plenty of opportunities to spend time in what she’s come to call her “second home” – the costume shop – and to interact with her project mentor, costume director Amy Holroyd.

Shahan has fashioned three rehearsal corsets, demonstrating how they can be altered to fit different body types and different theatrical scenarios.

“One of the best things about this project is I get to create multiple corsets and get to play around with what’s used in making each one, depending on what the performance needs are,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot about collaborating with performers and getting their take on things. It’s important to make sure they feel comfortable in things like breathing and moving. And it’s been great having acting-focused people be excited about this project, because it makes the late hours worth it.”

Once the AIR showcase is over, Shahan plans to give the custom-made corsets to the three actors she’s worked with. But she intends to take the skills she learned in creating them with her into her career, wherever she may land.

Story by Dee Shore
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications