Monmouth College's Pio turns his collection of alien characters into Best of Show artwork

Junior is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by way of Galesburg, Illinois

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (11/14/2024) — What started out as a doodle in the margins of a page has become an award-winning artwork for Monmouth College's Eric Pio.

The junior from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the Best of Show honor Friday at the college's Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition.

Fortunately for Pio, it wasn't a case of "must be present to win," as he was attending a mandatory theatre meeting at the time of the announcement by the exhibit's juror, local artist Mary Schuytema.

A double major in art and theatre, Pio is one of the student directors for the college's Nov. 22-24 production of the John Cariani play Love/Sick.

"I was in the meeting, and I was just sitting like this," said Pio, bouncing his knee rapidly as he recreated the anxiousness he was feeling, unable to be in two places at once.

Like a sports fan who tries to remain oblivious to the score of an already completed game, Pio had hoped to finish the meeting, then make the trek to the college's Everett Gallery to learn the juror's verdicts at the tail end of the reception. However, a student who'd just come from the gallery congratulated him on his award.

"So my initial reaction was 'Spoilers!'" he said. "It's bittersweet that I wasn't there. I feel bad that I wasn't, but it was out of my control."

Art meets engineering

What was in his control was his concept and execution of the piece. The former came easier than the latter.

"The project was to make a totem pole, using at least five different pieces connected on a rebar pole," said Pio. "It was supposed to be something that was personal to you. I came up with the brilliant idea to use characters that I've drawn since I was a kid. They're little alien figures that I call 'Morphs.' They'd pop up in margins, that kind of thing. I thought, 'What if I make a totem out of those?'"

An easier part of the process was figuring out how to add an extra dimension to his two-dimension doodles. Stacking his 3-D characters was much more difficult.

"I started realizing the engineering that would be involved," said Pio, the son of Monmouth alumni Chris '84 and Bobbi Swarts Pio '92. "It was tedious, and it took a lot of time. I'm more of a pencil and pen kind of guy, a pretty basic kind of guy. My first try blew up."

Pio's work includes five of his family of Morphs - purple Timmy, blue Bruce, yellow Fungus, red Blitz and the heart-shaped red Aphrodite, which sits atop the work.

"I didn't intentionally pick out a color scheme, but once I was working on it, I thought, 'That balances out pretty well,'" he said.

Earlier this fall, Pio played the leading male role in Pride and Prejudice, and he recently changed his theatre minor to a full-fledged major.

"I appreciate the variety that is asked and encouraged of me as an art major while taking part in a multitude of classes here," said Pio. "Otherwise, I believe I'd only stick to what I was already comfortable with and never really evolve, you know? I think I can say the same things about also being a theatre major. I've been working outside of just acting, as I'm currently pursuing a tech concentration for the major. I love being at Monmouth, as all of the arts really feel intertwined."

Pio was asked what's in store for him beyond Monmouth.

"That's a good question," he replied. "It's two different paths. Animation or character design would be one. Acting would be another, or pretty much anything I can get my hands on in theatre. By learning more tech stuff, I'm just trying to cover my bases. The goal is to be well-rounded, just in case acting itself doesn't work out for me."

The exhibit's other awards were:

Ceramics: Erin Wheat '25 of Athens, Illinois;
Design: Tatum Points '28 of East Peoria, Illinois;
Drawing: Avery Vaughn '28 of Glasford, Illinois;
Mixed Media: Brooklyn Sellers '26 of Freeport, Illinois;
Painting: Jimmy Woeltje '25 of Sheridan, Illinois;
Photography: Makaela Robinson '26 of Galesburg, Illinois;
Sculpture: Casey Shevokas '25 of Union Grove, Wisconsin.