Cyndi Flint is a storyteller, but not with words.
Using ink, colors and textures, the senior in fine art shapes alien landscapes and ancient castles, scenes from a science-fiction movie not yet made.
"I feel that going into fine art, you're able to express yourself more," Flint said. "There's more of you in your pieces. You actually feel, not necessarily the artist, but you feel the atmosphere a lot more and you can sense if it was painted in a certain attitude."
Flint's final senior project, "Parallel Parallel," is a distillation of her inspiration and evolution as an artist.
Combining a love of comic books, video game art and epic fantasy adventure, Flint's gallery evokes the pre-production imagery of films like "The Lord Of The Rings" without ever straying from her own personal vision. Between large paintings and smaller, more detailed watercolors, Flint succeeds in bringing abstract landscapes to life, according to Jessye McDowell, assistant art professor.
"Some of those water colors are just absolutely amazing," McDowell said. "They really toe the line between abstraction and figuration, which is something that I think Cyndi is doing in her work. She's trying to capture a narrative without actually handing a narrative over to the viewer."
Working with Flint first as teacher in Digital Art and later as co-worker in the Biggin offce, McDowell said Flint's diverse interests in subject matter and stories give her a distinctive, rounded approach to her subject matter.
In addition to her artwork, Flint's storytelling skills manifested themselves through a comic book she made for art professor Andrew Kozlowski's Book Arts class.
"I thought her comic book was really successful because it was the first time that she started to tell a story that was really her own," Kozlowski said. "I thought between the story she was telling and the style of art that she was doing, it felt really natural to work that way, especially how she thought she could tell a story. That really opened things up for her in a really significant way."
Though she interned at Marvel Comics in the fall of 2013 and says she understands the inner workings of publishing companies, Flint is returning to her home in Huntsville to amplify her portfolio and focus on breaking into creative development projects.
"I want to go into the game industry or the film industry and work as a visual development artist," Flint said. "I want to basically be a character designer and/or help bring the worlds that they try to portray to life."
Weeks away from graduation, Flint says she's ready to move on but will always owe a debt of gratitude to the art department and classmates that helped shape her into the artist she is today.
"Auburn's professors help you be versatile in the kind of art you wish to practice," Flint said. "They didn't judge me. They helped me build my skill set to where I could go in any direction I want to."
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