Alicia Wagner Calzada | 210SA Contributor Recent high school graduate Emily Royall conducted an artistic evolutionary experiment on eBay, and the result is a primitive-looking abstract.

WHO: Emily Royall, 18

MEDIUM: Mixed media

BEST KNOWN FOR: Combining science and art. For her series of paintings, Royall mimicked the theory of evolution. Each series represented a different permutation in art such as subject matter, color, composition, etc. She began by painting three works — a landscape, an object and a portrait — and placed her creations up for auction on eBay. The painting that received the highest bid was deemed evolutionarily successful and determined a component of each subsequent painting. For instance, the painting of an object, a billiard ball, received the highest bids of the first three and each painting thereafter was of an object. The final painting, “Mitosis,” a larger abstract work painted on a piece of sheet metal, is the culmination of the evolutionary process.

“The ironic thing is that it looks primitive and I didn't really mean for that to happen,” Royall said of the final piece. “But, it's kind of a statement in itself that we continue to progress and evolve forward but we are still animals. We are still prisoners of our basic instincts.”

PAYING THE BILLS: Royall graduated from . Clark High School in late May. She plans to attend UT Austin.

PHILOSOPHY: She says her art explores connections that are often overlooked. “I think that really art and science are different languages for expressing the same abstract ideas,” Royall said. “I suppose that art takes components of reality and juxtaposes them and synthesizes them into something new whereas science analyzes components.”

CHECK HER OUT: “The Evolution of Paintings,” Royall's portion of the joint exhibition with high school art teacher Luis Valderas, titled “The Geneaology of Transmission,”  will run at Centro Cultural Aztlan, 1800 Fredericksburg Road, Suite 103, through June 15. Call (210) 432-1896.

Jennifer Lloyd | 210SA