Nicole Krou has talked about being an artist since preschool.
"We had preschool graduation," Krou said. "We had this stupid ceremony and we walked across the stage and this lady — I don't know who she was — asked us what we wanted to be when we grow up. At the rehearsal I told her artist, then at the actual graduation I said I wanted to be a paleontologist."
Today, Krou has the opportunity to show off her work in the South Bend Museum of Art.
"I thought it was pretty cool, and it was actually rather terrifying," she said.
The junior art major had an internship during the summer of 2009. After sending in her portfolio, she was granted the internship, and was awarded the chance to have some studio space for her own art exhibit at the museum.
"I gravitated towards print making this year," Krou said. "I just took foundations courses my freshman year and then I was abroad all of my sophomore year so I didn't do any art. Then I took silkscreen last semester and really enjoyed it."
Though she enjoys creating silkscreens, Krou said she likes dabbling in other art forms as well.
Krou said her work is inspired by a variety of popular cultures from the 1980s including the band Poison, the popular television show "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and vinyl records and cassettes.
Krou said she's willing to work anywhere. She often works within the print studio at the College, on her kitchen floor or out on her deck at her off-campus housing.
"The kitchen floor is a nice place," Krou said. "Good light. Pretty much wherever it's suitable. I don't want to limit myself. When it happens, it happens."
Krou said she hopes those who look at her work will feel some sense of nostalgia.
"I just want you to kind of look at it and be like, ‘hey, I remember that, that was cool. That makes me feel happy inside,'" Krou said. "I just want you to feel an emotion."
After Saint Mary's, Krou said she plans to attend grad school, but hopes to go abroad.
