The Daily talked with freshman combined degree student Kendall Trotter about painting, apprenticeships in the art world and a future in art preservation.
Tufts Daily: What would you say is your favorite medium to work in?
Kendall Trotter: Probably my favorite is painting. I think recently I've only really been taking drawing classes, so I've been doing a lot of charcoal and cont?© crayon, but when I do my own work for myself, it usually is some sort of painting.
TD: Is it just that you've had more experience or what?
KT: It's a mixture of having a lot of experience with painting, I learned how to paint when I was in fifth grade, so I use more mixed media, so I mix painting, like painting is the base that I use and I build up from it.
TD: Can you explain your mixed media process?
KT: It varies from piece to piece, and I usually use some kind of texture, like medium gel, and mix it with paint to build up the texture on the surface and then either rub charcoal on top of it to make it look vintagey or old, or I just add in little details with pen or charcoal or cont?© on top of that. There's even some kind of collage in some of the pieces that I do.
TD: What has your experience been like as a freshman combined degree student?
KT: It's been good. I guess I would say that having access to two completely different school environments has been really helpful because SMFA is obviously a really open environment and everyone's artistic there, so they support what you're doing and there's a wide variety of classes. But then the courses offered at Tufts, academic classes, are essential to giving a strong backbone to your artwork, because you have to know what's going on in the world and you have to have inspiration for your work.
TD: Is the piece you've included a part of an ongoing project or have you been working on other projects at the same time?
KT: That's actually from last year. I was still working on it, changing and finishing some pieces up until right before I got to Tufts. That's the last complete project, and that was 12 pieces, so it's the last thing that I really put a lot of time and thought into, whereas here, this year I've been focusing on my assignments for class.
TD: So you're just taking art classes now rather than doing long term projects?
KT: At least right now. Like I'm trying to build up my basic skills, I suppose, so that I can make better pieces later.
TD: What experiences have most influenced your art?
KT: Well I think the major thing that's influenced me to want to come here and focus more on art is that I worked for this program called "Artworks" for four years.
It's a summer program; it's kind of like an apprenticeship that you get paid for over the summer. A professional artist comes up with an idea and apprentices work with them on it over the summer. I've done murals, advertisements, graphic design, screen printing and collage.
It's really exposed me to the artistic community more than classes do. I think that's the main thing that pushed me more towards art, because I've actually worked with a professional artist. I'm also going to teach next summer - they have assistants who teach.
TD: What would you like to do with your art in the future? Do you plan on pursuing an artistic career?
KT: Yeah, art conservation. I just feel like I'm more drawn to art history and I feel like it's important for me to do my own artwork but I don't really see myself doing it as a career, I more so do it for myself. So I would keep on doing art as a hobby and art conservation as a career because I think it's important to preserve what's already there.
-by Sarah Cowan
