It feels great to make art. Self-expression, whether through painting, dancing or music always feels good. When does one transcend making art or expressing oneself and actually take on the title of artist? Senior art major Catherine Monahon sheds light on this transformation.
Monahon is an ambitious individual, full of passion and creative energy. She is an unbelievably talented artist who finds joy in collaborating with others, working with fervor toward understanding people and the world through art. Her openness to culture, awareness of the world and connections to gender and identity give her a unique, mature artistic edge that makes the sky the limit.
When asked if she describes herself as an artist, Monahon laughed as she said, “I am a person that makes art, so yes, I guess I am.” Her uneasiness about calling herself an artist comes from her own belief that it is much easier to be called an artist than it is to define oneself as an artist. She’s beginning to accept the title even though the term ‘artist’ elicits the impression of an individual reaching a distinguished level in his/her work or maintaining a profession making art. For Monahon, defining herself as an artist is of little importance—the talented senior art major is far more interested in the artistic processes that give way to identity formation and self-discovery.
Monahon’s passion unfolds when she discusses connecting with others as a consistent source of artistic inspiration. Addressing this connection as “the experiences that make us people,” Monahon opened up about her creative process of making art through some of her inspirations. Aspects of daily life, nature, gender, artistic collaborations and self-identity formation are constantly shaping and developing through her academic and personal experiences at Conn.
Having a developed interest in government and politics, Monahon was drawn to Professor MaryAnne Borrelli’s course Women in U.S. Politics during her sophomore year. The course was analytical and structured, but taken alongside fundamental drawing and collage classes, it gave her a chance to develop her passions and artistic work. Given an open-ended final project for Borrelli’s class, Monahon decided to create a portrait of Hilary Clinton, “analyzing how Clinton presents her identity to the public through campaign advertisements, speeches and even fashion choices…how [Clinton] feels under the surface about gender, and how she caters to the American people.” While incorporating artistic disciplines, the project allowed Monahon to develop her social and political passions.
In describing her intellectual collaborations with Professor Borrelli, Monahon excitedly explained, “I took the first draft to Professor Borrelli and she was really insightful, excited and helpful. We talked about symbolism and where and how I could take it further. And even though she’s not in the art department, she made me totally excited about art.”
Her process of working with gender and identity through her project was clearly an important step for her in the development of her artistic goals. “I think that was really when I began to get excited about how art can dip into any department—and it was really great.”
Also a student leader, Monahon co-created and runs a new multimedia art club on campus called Fluxus. Last spring, she started the club with fellow art student, Savitri Arvey ’12, as a way to connect artists of different mediums on campus. Thus far, the club has been successful at offering students a chance to connect and collaborate through art. Fluxus sponsors informal figure drawing classes and various events, as well as guest speakers.
Nowadays, Monahon spends a great deal of her artistic efforts working on a White Box exhibition in Cummings, where she is working alongside fellow art major, Carina Schneiders ’12. Their process began by choosing five words together and collaborating through different mediums. While they are still in the early stages of the exhibit, Monahon is excited about working with another artist and the prospect of a piece that will reflect each artist’s individual styles.
During her time at Conn, Monahon has found a way to transcend criticism by moving forward with her art and constantly collaborating with other professors and students. As Monahon put it, she no longer worries about simply fulfilling an assignment. Rather, her focus is on making good work and passionately giving all of herself to the process of making art. Having grown as an art student, Monahon finds that composition is only a small part of what matters to an artist. Much more importance lies in effectively communicating the point.
As she moves forward, Monahon is full of goals and aspirations for the rest of her time at Conn and post-graduation. She dreams of working with a group of artists in residency, perhaps beginning as an apprentice, learning about different artists’ processes and collaborating with them. She also wants to teach in a community art center and eventually run her own. As she grows as an artist, Monahon plans to continue pushing herself. With a deep passion for art and the application of gender and culture in her work, Monahon is unafraid of exploring her identity, experimenting with different mediums and collaborating with others.
Okay, I know I’m treading on thin ice, because I both know and like the author, but I can’t stand idly by on this one. And in the interest of full disclosure, I edited this article in the Voice office personally and was disappointed to see that none of the suggestions I made (or even the typos I corrected) made it into the final version of the piece. I’m not sure why that happened.
My first problem is the fact that you have a friend writing about a friend, which is problematic at best. It’s the cardinal rule of journalism not to write an article on your friends, a team you’re on, or a group you’re in. There’s an inherent bias and the A&E editors shouldn’t have let Liz write this in the first place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest
I think, for example, that if Miss Charky had chosen to write about a really talented athlete, or a bio major doing interesting research, this article would have been really fun to read. Nobody wants to read about someone flattering her friend with every line and calling her “unbelievably talented.”
Having said that, Conn’s art department is full of talented people and I’m happy to see that one of them is being featured in the Voice. The problem is that I didn’t learn anything about Catherine’s art. I learned that she did a portrait of Hillary (it’s spelled with two Ls) Clinton for a government class. That’s like doing a profile of a really gifted, innovative chemistry student and neglecting all of her research in favor of mentioning a model of a molecule she made in a sculpture class. The only other reference to Catherine’s work is that she chose five words with a friend looks forward to “collaborating through different mediums.”
I’m not trying to be overly critical; I really want to know what she’s doing. Does she have a rough idea of what she wants to do for her thesis? With all the talk of “different mediums” (a phrase used three times), I never even grasped what medium Catherine usually works in. I naturally assume painting, but there’s not any evidence in the article to support that. If she really is “unbelievably talented,” prove it to me!
There’s a lack of concrete, substantive examples:
“Thus far, the club has been successful at offering students a chance to connect and collaborate through art.” Cool! But how? Give me an example.
“During her time at Conn, Monahon has found a way to transcend criticism by moving forward with her art and constantly collaborating with other professors and students.” Transcend criticism? As in, she is beyond doing anything wrong? Not even the most talented, most respected artist in the world has managed to transcend criticism.
“As she moves forward, Monahon is full of goals and aspirations for the rest of her time at Conn and post-graduation. She dreams of working with a group of artists in residency, perhaps beginning as an apprentice, learning about different artists’ processes and collaborating with them.” But what is she doing now? What is she working on now that’s helping her prepare for the future?
Liz, I hope we can still be friends.
#otv