When Cliff Hare purchased Auburn Art in 2011, he married two of his passions: art and Auburn football. "I grew up as just a huge Auburn fan and part of the community. After that, I spent eight years hanging out with every type of artist you can imagine," said Hare.
After graduating from Auburn with his degree in industrial design, Hare received a degree in photography from The Art Institute of Colorado.
Hare, whose great-grandfather's name is on the University's stadium, started his own tradition at Auburn Art in 2012 by holding a yearly competition to discover new artistic talent in Auburn.
"It was just a way for us to get that information out there and find new people who wanted to show off their ability and their Auburn spirit in a way that they previously hadn't had the chance to do so--kind of give all the artists around Auburn a bit more of a voice and a little bit more of a showing that they couldn't get," Hare said.
Most of the entrants are Auburn football fans.
"Some of our best artists like Scott Brannan, for example, are huge football fans. They go to every game--they're crazy. They're your nacho-eating, beer-drinking guys that love it, but they're also artists," he said.
For Brannan, the winner of Auburn Art's first contest, art has always been a way to express himself, but he had never considered a career in it.
The 2000 Auburn graduate was the first of his family to attend college and received a degree in health promotion with a minor in business.
"Back in 1996, when I graduated high school, Auburn was the only place I applied to go to school. There was pretty much no other option. It's always been Auburn," Brannan said.
Brannan's winning painting, "Tradition Lives Here," commemorates Auburn's 2010 season and features Cam Newton celebrating under the Toomer's oaks.
The win has allowed Brannan to showcase his abilities and sell new works at Auburn Art. His latest project, "Midnight on Toomer's," was a response to the Toomer's Oaks' poisoning in 2011. The depiction of Aubie under the trees has exploded in popularity.
"Midnight on Toomer's" t-shirts can be purchased at Tiger Rags and Auburn Art. A percentage of proceeds go back to the University to fund scholarships.
Lisa Mosow, 2013's Auburn Art competition winner, said that winning helped bring awareness to her art.
"Winning the contest, you become their featured artist for the year, so they're going to carry your art and promote you to people that you could never be able to get in touch with," she said.
The Auburn graphic design alumna was working on an independent project in Charleston, S.C., when her sister pointed out that the contest would give her a personal deadline. Her winning map of Auburn University was the first in a series of SEC campus maps.
"I know Auburn's constantly changing, and obviously I guess this is kind of my version of Auburn," Mosow said. She explained that as a graphic designer, she feels separation anxiety after completing a project for a client.
"I was thinking, 'Who would be the best client in the world?--and it would be me. I'm going to be my own client and make something that I love and hopefully other people will love it too, and I'm going to promote it and it will be part of my life forever,'" Mosow said.
For Mosow, combining her love for Auburn and her talents is a way to keep ties to the University even after moving to Charleston. She hopes that her prints can help other Auburn students cure post-graduation homesickness.
"It's so nice to be able to look on the wall and reminisce about college and Auburn, or be able to bring it up to friends or acquaintances and say 'This is where I went to school, I'm proud of it, it's on my wall, let me tell you about it,'" she said.
The next Auburn Art competition is set for the fall. According to Hare, the contest is open to anyone who wants to enter.
"We've had 5-year olds submit colorings of Aubie and we've had 90-year olds submit crochet or needle-point that says War Eagle," he said, "Anybody that wants to be an artist or show their work or anything like that can get their work out there."
And because Auburn Art is always looking for new talent, any medium is acceptable.
"There's no boundaries, anything you want to do, anything you want to show, we're open to checking it out," Hare said.
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