South Carolina Review Spring 2025 Issue 57.2 is almost ready to be released! Here is a look at this issue’s cover art, Alien Spaghetti by Margaret Smith.
Alien Spaghetti uses color theory to evoke different emotions from its audience. There are four panels, each taking a unique approach, illustrating the wire’s texture and color schemes. Each panel is meant to inspire a different emotion.
“The first panel uses warm colors such as orange, pink, maroon, and primary red to convey the energy of the composition,” says Smith. “The second panel uses analogous colors, meaning they appear beside each other on the color wheel. The two rolls of wire are depicted using green and purple respectively, and the blue background unifies them because it sits between green and purple on the color wheel. The third panel uses cool colors like blue teal, and green to create a calming atmosphere juxtaposed with the warm one above it. The final panel is where the title Alien Spaghetti comes from, as the analogous colors come together to create an otherworldly experience.”
These diverse color schemes create a unique experience for the viewer with each panel. Alien Spaghetti is an exploration of how color affects the emotional experience and alters the perception of a piece of art.
Margaret Smith is a senior in Clemson University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program with a focus in ceramic arts. She is from Greenville, South Carolina, and graduated from the Fine Arts Center in 2022 after three years of intensive study of the different mediums of visual art. She is drawn to illustrating organic materials and foliage, as well as the emotional connotations that certain objects contain. Her depictions of plants and animals are physical representations of her connection to nature. Growing up in the lower Appalachians, she was surrounded by nature and those motifs are often present in her work.
Check back with us soon for the release of the issue with selected readings and the announcement of the Ronald Moran prize winners in fiction and poetry.
