Nicholas Carvalho never took art seriously, but after several successful art shows, his focus has changed.

After graduating from Kapaun Mt. Carmel, Carvalho began his college career playing soccer and working on his studio art degree at Friends University. After three years and several injuries, soccer fell out of the picture and art became his priority. Now a senior, he has participated in several area shows.

Carvalho’s most recent exhibit at Tangent Lab in Old Town, simply titled Solo, was his most successful to date. Although his works are no longer on display at the Lab, the pieces are still available for sale.

The show was booked a year in advance. While setting up the show he told the Lab that he needed time to get a feel for what he was doing and get some experience under his belt. During that time, he entered pieces in shows in May and August; the latter he called a disaster because of a lack of time and preparation.

Solo was Carvalho’s way of taking a step away from the serious nature and direction his work was following. The show wasn’t themed; rather it showed his personality and growth.

“I paint because I see something in it, otherwise I wouldn’t paint it,” Carvalho said.

The Tangent show was a combination of several mediums including photography and paint. He said before working on the show he was facing serious artist’s block and was stuck for ideas; however, he managed to create all 30 pieces in the month before the show and sold all but five.

“I had so much help from everyone.” Carvalho’s mom provided food for the show and local bands provided music. “Everything turned out really well,” Carvalho said of the final product.

Ted Krone, art professor at Friends, said Carvalho has great potential.

“His next step is to do shows outside of Wichita, solo shows,” Krone said. “He’s got so much talent and now it just all depends on his choices. Now he has to decide what he wants to do.”

But don’t expect anything new anytime soon. Carvalho has nothing in the works for the first time in a long time, he said.

After Solo, Carvalho crashed. He was hospitalized for four days from pneumonia and exhaustion. He said the pneumonia was from a previous minor illness that he hadn’t allowed to heal.

The experience taught him a lesson in balancing time between work, home and his art. He said he worked nonstop during his preparation for Solo, 20 hours at one job, 40 at another and constant work to complete his pieces. For now, Carvalho plans to take it easy and catch up on school and other projects.

As far as life after graduating, Carvalho said he’s undecided. He has plans for a month-long stay with a friend in Colorado to snowboard, another of his passions.

“I’m just going to get away, relax and clear my head,” Carvalho said of the trip. “I’m not going to work on anything, maybe just take a sketchbook.”

After Colorado he’s looking into several career paths including illustration and becoming a tattoo artist.

“I’m not sure where I’m headed after this, but I just know that art needs to be involved,” he said. “Otherwise, I’ll go crazy.”