Aura publishes artist spotlights to provide readers with the opportunity to get to know the authors and artists published in Vol. 48 Issue No. 1 of Aura Literary Arts Review. In this artist spotlight article, we introduce Emily Magda and Sam Bearden…
Emily Magda is an undergraduate student from Montgomery, Alabama in her final semester at UAB. A member of the University Honors Program (UHP), she is pursuing a dual degree in political science and international studies with a minor in French. Emily fosters her creativity by figure skating on the Magic City Theatre On Ice competition team and teaching poetry to elementary school students through the Desert Island Supply Company (DISCO). She also identifies as a classically trained ballerina, budding blockprint-er, and tea addict.
Emily tries to diversify the art she makes to get familiar with 
as many mediums as possible. She wants to feel connected to more ancient and traditional forms— sewing and pottery are next— and she’s definitely found solace in blockprinting. Matisse’s prints have been inspiring her blockprints, and she is currently translating her blind contour drawings onto the block. Wish her luck! Less ancient, film photography has been another of her artistic pursuits; she loves the click of the camera and the grain of the film. It’s a more immediate yet still-intimate product.
As far as writing influences go, Emily’s been into Yrsa Daley-Ward and Camille T. Dungy, the latter of whom has influenced her nature writings. She enjoys playing around with poetry forms; the tanka being a new favorite and the diamante a delicious challenge.
“mother reckoning nature” began as a writing exercise for her Eco-Writing UHP seminar last fall. They were practicing the use of anaphora, and Emily chose a specific part of the Cahaba River she frequented as her subject. She wanted to express her frustrations for the environmental damage wreaked upon nature. The cycle sickens her. With an impending sense of nostalgia, she tried to envision a world in which the river is free of trash. She believes that manifesting this future in conjunction with relentless activism is the only way to reform the trajectory of the world around us.
From a young age, Samantha Bearden has made art that helps her process her emotions. By creating drawings, paintings, and digital illustrations, she continues to explore perception, emotion, identity, and relationships. Born and raised in Birmingham, Samantha graduated from Minor High School in 2015 and has been pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham off and on since.
Her artistic public pursuits began when Samantha was in middle school and had her art displayed for the first time at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens for a youth exhibit. In 2012, she had art displayed in the Birmingham Museum of Art for a youth art month. In 2013, she won her first competition at Bevil state in their Torch art competition and won another two years later. She was a finalist in the 7th Congressional District Competition as well. The next year, in 2014, she won 2nd place in the Birmingham Museum of Art’s Gandhi Jayanti Essay and Poster Contest. In 2015, she won 1st place in the 7th Congressional District’s Art Competition where it was displayed in the White House for one year after the initial showing. When Samantha graduated highschool, she had her first solo showing in Ensley, Alabama.
Everyone has an energy about them; an aura that they exude. Samantha has always been sensitive to the energies of others. The way people present themselves is often not who they are in their entirety, but only our perception of them. Below the surface there is more, such as who they think they are (persona), who they want to be (ego), and their unapologetic self. Her interests lie in the emotions we feel and the way we present them, both to others and ourselves, as well as exploring fantasy and reality. She often uses people with whom she has emotional connections to as her subjects, such as her friends and family. Using both the human figure and other elements, Samantha aims to capture her interpretation of the subject’s essence through exploring different mediums, compositions, environments, and colors. Ultimately, she wants to create art that people can connect to and empathize with.
