The Hewitt Times would like to introduce a new column to the Arts & Culture section: Spotlight Artist of the Month! Every month, the paper will feature a student in the Upper School who exhibits great artistic talent and promise in a variety of art forms such as painting, sculpture, and poetry.
This month’s spotlight artist is senior, Maddie M. With great devotion, Maddie has participated in the art department throughout her years at Hewitt. Recently, she was awarded two Gold Keys from Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. “The first gold key I received was for an art piece I created by etching prints using copper plates,” Maddie explains. “The sketch is of two teenage girls lying on their beds using social media. This sketch was supposed to represent the connection between the way social media positions teenage girls in public and in intimate spaces.”
Maddie’s other award was for a writing assignment for Ms. Briggs’ English class. Maddie wrote Inside the Wire: Literature of War in response to the book her class was reading, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque. Maddie says, ”For my piece I wrote a series of letters between the main character of the book and his little brother. It’s about how his little brother wants to join the war because he wants to be strong and brave like his older brother. The older brother in the war explains that war is not what he thinks it is. The brothers are German, and the older brother does not see the British soldiers as enemies. He sees them as people with families and homes just like him. The true enemies during war are the countries’ governments, convincing them to fight. The goal of my letters was to exhibit the disconnect between how war is perceived on the home front and how it is in reality. War destroys a soldier’s humanity and morality.”
During the second semester of her junior year, Maddie traveled to The Oxbow Art School in Napa, California. While Maddie enjoyed the sustainable lifestyle that Napa had to offer, she also delved into challenging art classes. Maddie enjoyed her time at Oxbow because the school’s curriculum is based on artistic inquiry and creating meaningful art rather than technical skills.
Maddie says that her inspirations come from, “looking at pictures on the internet and I follow a lot of artists on Instagram.” It is no surprise that Maddie wants to take more art classes in college. She wants to continue printmaking, sewing, and drawing, which are her favorite forms of artistic expression along with her new hobby: glassblowing.
Check out Maddie’s sketch titled Teen Dream which will be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 11!
