University senior Lexis Clay-Weary, a digital arts major, has always been into art, but she never liked to draw people. will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas changed her mind.
When Clay-Weary was a junior at Sheldon High School, a picture of the Black Eyed Peas ran in “Eugene Weekly” to promote the popular hip-hop group’s upcoming concert.
“I really liked the contrast,” she said. “I reduplicated it and it turned out really cool.”
Clay-Weary’s picture of the Black Eyed Peas will hang alongside several of her other pieces when she debuts her art at the Museum of Unfine Art and Record Store Friday night.

During the first Friday of every month, the Lane County Arts Council leads its ArtWalk, a tour through different downtown art galleries. While this Friday’s ArtWalk will focus on Broadway galleries, such as Diva Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts and Passionflower Design, MUARS is an additional stop recommended by Lane County Arts Council.
“The hosted tour doesn’t go to those places, but they’re open during the tour,” explained LCAC board member Meg Trendler.
Though Clay-Weary has shown art in the Black Student Union’s Black Arts Festival, Friday marks her first gallery showing.
Clay-Weary’s artistic focus is primarily portraits of hip-hop pioneers, such as LL Cool J and members of Run-DMC.
“It’s funny because I used to hate doing faces and now I hate doing anything but faces,” she said.
MUARS Owner Shawn Mediaclast met Clay-Weary through a mutual friend and said her music-driven artwork is a perfect fit for the venue, though other kinds of art are welcome.
“It’s definitely more of a coincidence in that sense,” he said. “I’ve shown people who do everything from collage art to landscapes to portraiture to more abstract stuff. It’s really all over the map.”
Mediaclast said passion is his main criterion for choosing artists to display.
“If I don’t share the aesthetic of the person, I’m not gonna say ‘no,’” he said. “Usually what I do is see that the artist has put a good deal of themselves into their art before I put it in a show.”
Mediaclast is an artist himself, primarily in collages, one of several mediums featured in Clay-Weary’s work.
In her portrait of a De La Soul rapper, his afro is a collage made from pictures she cut out from the group’s CD booklet.
Clay-Weary also used acrylic paints, colored pencils, watercolors, oil pastels, and old cassette tapes and gold spray-paint, which she used to decorate some of her frames.
Mediaclast is glad to showcase Clay-Weary’s art and said he is excited for people to see it.
“She’s a great painter,” he said. “Her art’s very expressive. It’s very historical and completely relevant to the history of music and hip-hop.”
Clay-Weary, who said pricing her art was the hardest part, plans to continue participating in gallery shows.
“Each month, I’m gonna try to get into another gallery, trying to work my way up to more exposure,” she said. “My goal is to use my talent to its advantage, and see how well my stuff can sell and help pay for school.”
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