By: Alyssa Martinez
Within the halls of the Cameron University art department, senior student Dayton Horn lives to create. A passionate student pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in graphic design, Horn’s hard work and dedication are shown daily in her work which can be seen in several places around campus. What can also be seen is her commitment to the Cameron University Community as well.
Horn always had a love for the arts and that was shown throughout her high school career.
“ I was known as the artsy one, within my family and friends,” Horn said.
In her hometown of Carnegie, she took art all four years of high school. She was also on her school’s yearbook committee, which piqued her interest in layout, leading her to what she does now in graphic design. She had the support of her teachers and advisors to keep doing it. By her senior year, she had ranked at the top of her graduating class and had also received several awards and scholarships for the work she had done. This led to an art scholarship presented by a now former professor from Cameron, Austin Patterson.
Patterson encouraged Dayton to study art and pursue it professionally. He also encouraged her to look into Cameron and learn the tools and skills to do so.
Horn had known Cameron would be a home to her after a tour during her senior year. coming from a small town where everyone knows everyone. She saw herself belonging to Cameron.
“Every time we walked into a building, my tour guide knew everybody.” Horn said. She saw Cameron as a place for her to belong.
As an art student, Horn spends much of her time learning about the forms of art, techniques, and the history of art. As a senior, she also spends time applying that to her work.
Horn currently has an internship with the Office of Events and Activities on campus. She spends much of her time creating digital media for events around campus hosted either by the office itself or the student-led organization, the Programming Activities Council. She uses her style to create the product and when the work is finalized by the director of events and activities and then it is sent around campus and social media. All of this helps her build her professional portfolio.
Her work for CU does not stop inside the classroom or just her internship. Dayton has been done with the cover art of both The Cameron Goldmine, a student literary journal and the electronic literary magazine The Oklahoma Review. Both publications are with the Writers Studio, a club for students to workshop creative writing and present it to faculty and peers.
Art professor Jack Crouch spoke highly of Dayton and the work she does both for class and CU as an institution and for him as well.
“ Dayton is hardworking, creative thinking and very friendly and personable.” said Crouch.
In addition to all she does, Horn also works for Crouch under a research grant for a textbook he is creating. While Crouch is writing the book, Dayton will be doing the layout production of the book itself. She was selected to do the project after she created a magazine layout for a class project.
Much of Horn’s art so far this year reflects the ideas of rebirth, blossoming, and blooming. These ideas also relate to how she thinks of the future.
Horn, like many artists, wonders what will happen when she will have to stop doing what she loves. Dayton has a disease that affects her hands. That disease makes it harder to do what she loves and will make it much harder as she grows older. She does not let that stop her, while she still has the ability to create. She mentioned that her time creating as many pieces as she can. She holds a lot of pride in the work that she does and chooses to live in the present.
Horn explains that she wont stop creating until that time it becomes an impossibility to do it full time.
“Now it’s make all the artwork I can until I won’t be able to do it anymore,” Horn said. “That is what inspires me to fill my schedule, my work and have all these pieces.”
Even after that point. She knows that art will always have a presence in her life and she will take pride in what she manages to create now and in the future.
Horn is grateful for the experiences that Cameron has given her. She knows that when she goes to whatever is next, be it graduate school or the professional world, she will have the skills and knowledge to find happiness in what she does next.