UNT Art Student's Talent ‘Soars' in School's Frisco Branch Campus

University of North Texas sculpture major Archit Karkare's career is soaring, and he hasn't even graduated yet.

Karkare's 'Soar' sculpture was chosen from a dozen entries. It hangs 10 feet above the floor at UNT at Frisco's Frisco Landing.

"I was elated, honestly," Karkare said. "I cannot believe that I got this, but it's real!"

The design was the result of a class assignment.

"It wasn't homework as such," Karkare said. "We were given complete creative freedom as to how we want to approach the sculpture."

Karkare worked with 23 Design Co. to fabricate his idea into reality.

'Soar' is inspired by the indigenous people who once called the land where UNT at Frisco sits home.

"It is a design that has 3 abstract eagle feathers that sort of twist around each other," Karkare said, adding that inclusion was an important message to convey. "And that's why the feathers are intertwining and sort of spiraling next to each other."

Inclusion was a message that hit close to home for the artist, who was born in India and moved to the U.S. in high school.

"The fact that I belong from a different culture, but had to sort of set incorporated into this culture," Karkare said. "So that's what I tried to convey."

'Soar' changes with perspective.

"So it expands as you walk up the stairs," Karkare explained. "But when you're underneath the sculpture it almost looks like it's 2-D."

Karkare is a 4th-year art student who will graduate soon, but his art will remain, suspended in time.

"Maybe in 25-30 years if I walk in, it's gonna be, 'Did I really make that?" Karkare exclaimed. "It's surreal, honestly!"