Feature Friday: Best in Show Artist Rose Wiklund

Rose Wiklund and her best-in-show portfolio

On Tuesday of this week Nipmuc celebrated another phenomenal Fine Arts Festival, the display of student art work that has become an annual highlight of our spring. During the Fine Arts Festival, students who participate in our award-winning art program share their work with students, parents, and the community. Accompanying their work are reflections and perspectives on the creative process, the meaning of their pieces, and the process they used to complete their work. As part of the art show artists and art teachers from other schools judge the pieces and award students for their achievement.

This year the art show's highest award - the best in show portfolio - was awarded to Rose Wiklund. Rose is a senior at Nipmuc who is preparing to attend the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the fall. I asked her to share some of her thoughts about her pieces and her experience with art. Our conversation is included below: 

Q: When did you first become interested in being an artist? 

A: I first wanted to be an artist when I was very young.  My parents bought a refrigerator and we used to draw like cave dwellers on the inside of the refrigerator box with crayons.  It was my first studio.  My parents are painters too, and above our sofa for my entire childhood hung an enormous abstract painting my dad did in college.  They are always very supportive of my art.  I used to fold pieces of paper in half, scribble lines on the inside, and draw pictures on the front, designing hundreds of book covers for these "books" for a "library" I kept in a shoebox.  I drew for hours with my sister, telling stories about circuses, princesses, and cats as I drew.  One day, I drew a beautiful woman wearing a fancy dress adorned with many brightly colored jewels.  But I drew her lips black.  I was so angry.  The drawing was perfect except for the black lips.  I couldn't stand to look at it anymore.  That was the first time I criticized my own artwork.

Q: What was your goal in creating your portfolio? 

A: In creating my portfolio, I wanted to show my diversity as an artist, and also the subjects I am most passionate about drawing.  I used charcoal, acrylics, markers, colored pencils, and watercolors, and in my portfolio, some pieces are realistic, while others are surreal or abstract.  This year, not only did I have to submit a portfolio to art schools, but I also had an AP Art class in which I created a concentration.  My concentration was a comic book since I am highly influenced by comic art like "Watchmen" and James Jean's illustrations.  It is based off a mythology a group of my friends and I created based on symmetry.  Symmetry and asymmetry are the forces of good and evil in this world, and four goddesses, Rotatia, Translatia, Dilatia, and Reflectia, govern the universe.  I wanted the story I illustrated to be an epic tale, filled with fascinating characters and plot twists.  Along the way during this project, I have learned many storytelling and layout techniques, as well as dialogue, composition, and perspective.  It is a complex but rewarding process.

Q: What pieces are you proudest of? 

A: My favorite pieces are ones which I am satisfied with technically as well as conceptually.  I love my "Creation of Adam" piece, which I based off of Michelangelo but instead of human forms for God and man, I used an Adam prototype, one of the early drafts of man, and a God which is both male and female, and made from human body parts but arranged in a new way.  I'm also proud of my comic book.

Q: What are your plans for life after Nipmuc? Will you be pursuing your interest and talent as an artist?
A: After I graduate I plan to attend MassArt in Boston for illustration.  I want to be either a comic artist, a freelance illustrator, or a book cover/ magazine art designer.

Congratulations, Rose. Included below is another picture of Rose's portfolio.