Creative Awakenings, Vol. 5: From Museums to Real Life

Writing by Edith Manfred and Graphics by Anna Porter

One of my biggest personality traits is that I’m a “collector.” Ever since I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with collecting and saving bits of life that I find interesting or beautiful. This has taken many forms: extensive journals of middle school findings, YouTube vlogs and ultimately, my eternal love for photography and the practice of documenting and saving this global experience of life.

One of the earliest forms of collecting was my childhood dedication to coloring books. Coloring books were my jam, and one could say my Creative Awakening. I had so many, and though they were rarely completed, I just loved how coloring books could contain all art in a volume to be worked on over time. Though my child mind definitely didn’t view it quite this concretely, I now believe that coloring books helped me to understand stylized illustrations and storytelling in a way that has always fascinated me.

An early creative awakening moment was my first gallery exhibition as a child: my ripped-out coloring book pages hung with tape on my grandparents’ hallway walls. One day in early childhood, I worked my little butt off completing a lot of pages throughout the day in order to create an “art museum” in my grandparents’ house. I hung up the pages, invited my whole family, and proudly stood in front of the walls as they “ooh-ed” and “ahh-ed” at my work. I vividly remember the pride of that moment, showing off my art to those I cared most about. Sure, it wasn’t my best work (as my current Color Theory professor could attest, I’m sure), but it inspired me. It made me feel like people wanted to see my art and that my art was worth ripping out and hanging up. In a roundabout way, I believe that moments like that helped me to understand the value of sharing art with others and how joyful and fulfilling it can be.

SCAD painting graduate student Talia Sullivan’s family similarly has an innate value for art that goes back deep into her childhood. With a painter mother and a musician father, Talia has always been surrounded by art and, consequently, tried her hardest to avoid it for as long as possible. Unlike most children, Talia’s childhood rebellion against art took the form of scientific ambition. When she realized how much she enjoyed art and painting, she would secretly make art, hiding it from her family until she finally accepted her love for painting as inevitable and worth pursuing. 

Like most children of artistic parents, including myself, Talia was semi-willingly dragged around copious art museums throughout her childhood. Growing up, every summer, her family went on adventures to the most artistic places around Europe, like Rome and Venice, admiring the art and historical museums. Though at the time she yearned to leave the museum and just go to the ice cream cart, Talia now recognizes that those early museum experiences shaped her current artistic interests. As every current art student would attest, under appreciated artistic experiences throughout our childhoods are often some of the most impactful. 

As time went on, Talia accepted her growing love for painting and though she didn’t pursue that rebellious biology degree, her interest in science and nature is very apparent in her current work. Suddenly, she couldn’t see herself doing anything besides painting.

An accomplished oil painter herself, Talia’s mother’s work often focuses on nature and humans’ relationships with water. It’s easy to understand the line between her mother’s work and Talia’s, as they both paint scenes focused on nature and our physical and spiritual relationship to it. There’s an existential nature to her work: big canvases with large areas of paint and small people occupying tiny portions of the abyss. It speaks to her love for solitude in nature. Growing up amidst a national forest in a rural area of England, a quiet yet grand love for natural beauty speaks volumes to Talia’s upbringing and journey into her artistic career.

Like Talia, the environment we grew up in often shapes who we are and what our interests become. Being surrounded by an artistic family will most likely push you to the arts, and growing up immersed in expansive nature impacts the subjects of your work. There’s something beautiful about the innate fascination we have with our pasts and how that influences our art. Each artist’s unique Creative Awakenings can help explain their artistic journeys and how they landed at SCAD.