5th year senior and art major, Madelyn Schider, fell in love with art as a sophomore in high school. As she prepares for graduation in May, she plans on pursuing her dream of owning a vineyard.
How did you get started with art?
I started my sophomore year of high school. I basically had to decide between choir and some kind of art and I ended up really liking art. I was pretty good at recreating things, so that was kind of my jumpstart into art. There was one piece that I did, it was an etching of an old man, and my teacher told me that it was AP Art, like portfolio work, and she suggested I pursue AP art. I stopped doing choir, which I was overjoyed by. I don’t like singing in front of people—in a group is good—but the next step would have been to do a solo. My mom is a professional singer, but she was like, “If that’s your dream, go for it.” That was kind of the beginning.
What inspired you to continue art in college?
When I came in, I wasn’t in any drawing classes, I was actually set to be a biology major, and then I got an email from Dr. McArthur which basically said, “Hey, you said you were interested in fine arts, there’s a drawing course available, and there’s not a lot of people in it. Would you be interested in taking it your first semester?” So I ended up taking Drawing I my first semester and I loved it. It was with Professor Suarez, and it was his first semester as well. I learned so much from him. The rest in history. My parents were like, “If you really liked it that much, you should definitely pursue it.” I was kind of hesitant about it, I mean, what are you going to do with an art major? But that was the turning point where I started being an art major, rather than a biology major.
Which medium is your favorite and why?
That is a difficult question for me. I love the simplistic paper and pencil, where you can just do it anywhere. I love the fact that it’s easy and it’s efficient. You can draw a picture within 10 minutes. But lately, I would consider myself more of an oil painter, or watercolor painter. I took watercolor two semesters ago, and I had always hated the medium. Then after taking the class and learning my own technique, I liked it a lot better. The same thing happened with oil painting, I always told Suarez I was just going to be a drawer, I was never going to be a painter. Then, after Oils I I was like, “Oh, I’m a painter.” I would say it’s kind of a toss up between those three mediums right now. I love graphite because it’s easy, but then oil painting and watercolor has a special place in my heart, there’s so much color to it and you can do so much with it.
What is your favorite subject to draw?
Definitely people. I haven’t done this lately, because I’m always super busy, but I used to just, in-between classes or something, take out my sketchbook and ask my friends to just go on their phones, and I would do a five to ten-minute sketch of them. The thing I like about that is that I’m pretty good at getting a person’s likeness. I used to do that all the time, so I have a sketchbook full of hundreds of them.
What artist is your favorite and why?
I really like Caravaggio. I feel like his work is kind of dark, but it’s also never fake. He would get models off the streets, and he could be portraying a god or goddess, and you can still see the dirt underneath their fingernails, because they’re from the streets, they’re beggars and stuff. I’m also pretty fond of Titian. He’s similar in that he just knows how to get a likeness. And also Sargent is an amazing portrait artist. Then I like Edward Hopper for watercolor. I’ve never appreciated paintings of architecture, but one of my favorite paintings is an Edward hopper, and it’s just a building.
What do you hope to do after graduation?
I’m a fifth-year senior, and for our art portfolio, we had to get a basic foundation for an actual business, that is the last class we take our senior year. It’s preparing us to be professional, traditional artists. Luckily I have that foundation, so I would love to pursue a career in art later on. Right now my plan is to do a year of commission work, if I don’t take a job that I was offered—right now I have a job to go work at a vineyard. My dream is to own a vineyard, and then after a couple of years, to be able to be a mom and then an artist while everyone else basically runs my business for me. That’s the dream. Right now I’m deciding between what the best route is for me to take at this moment in my life.
What inspires your work the most?
I would say, although my work isn’t necessarily of nature and the world around me, I think it’s kind of the expression of what I see in people. A lot of my pieces are of loved ones, or just things that I find interesting, although I love a good composition. I love drawing people just because everyone is so unique in their own way; and I love to bring out their character. I would say, just the world around me, and how I see people and how I portray them inspires me. That’s why I don’t like drawing myself, because I don’t really necessarily understand myself, like who I am at this point. What I see in myself, like what my character is, is so different from seeing an outside perspective of someone else. It’s so much easier to be like, “This is my perspective of you.” For myself, I know what is inside and I know what’s outside, so it’s a little more difficult.
