7 minute read
HU Students Are Finding Creative Expression in, well, Everything.
Words by Lydia Hansen
Roommate = easel
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Photo by Sophie Warrick
Depending on your perspective, either Payton Mansfield lives in a painting studio or her painting studio lives in her room.
Life and oil painting have gone hand-in-hand for Mansfield since she got her first oil paints in high school. Now a junior and English major at Hamline, Mansfield adds new work to the collection stashed away in her room on a regular basis.
She also does commissions.
Mansfield has painted on commission for four years, mainly portraits of people’s kids. Most of her paintings are about the size of a laptop and take seven hours or more to complete, depending on whether they are full color or black and white.
She describes her approach to painting as a form of realism where she tries to recreate a photo in oil. Her first subjects were celebrities or characters from TV shows like Game of Thrones and Walking Dead, but she branched out to paintings of family and friends soon after.
Although completing commissions is harder during the school year, Mansfield decided to be more public about her artwork and plugged her willingness to do work on commission through social media this February.
“It was super scary for me,” Mansfield said. “I’m scared of looking full of myself, but I just made this post [on social media] and people were really awesome about it.”
A self-taught painter, Mansfield learned most of what she knows about painting through trial and error and from the internet.
Photo by Sophie Warrick
“There’s so much I don’t know about oil painting still,” Mansfield said. But the more she’s done it, the more she’s fallen in love with the art form. “If my future is just, like, painting and being an artist, I would love that.”
Photo by Sophie Warrick
Photo by Sophie Warrick
No pencils, no problems
Photo by Sophie Warrick
First-year Parker Reindahl checks his campus mailbox every day. Most days, there’s something in it. Not because he’s an online shopping junkie, but because Reindahl, a communications and digital media arts double major, is always sending people postcards.
Reindahl’s postcard bug is partly fed by his participation in an international postcard exchange. Over the last year he has sent and received more than 50 personalized postcards from total strangers all over the world.
But when Reindahl started making a habit of sending postcards and letters to friends, family, and total strangers two years ago, it was primarily as a way to share another of his hobbies: hand lettering.
Reindahl has been practicing hand lettering and calligraphy for five years. His interest started in fourth grade when he learned cursive and became interested in the artistic value of handwriting.
Photo by Sophie Warrick
Photo by Sophie Warrick
“People are drawn to handwriting because it’s not mass-produced,” Reindahl said. “Everything about hand lettering and writing is so unique.”
Reindahl is self-taught in both hand lettering and calligraphy, but he’s well-versed in the techniques of each one. Hand lettering, he explained, uses the pressure of brush strokes to determine the shape of letters while calligraphy uses the shape of the tip of the pen.
“It’s a lot more scientific than you might think,” Reindahl said.
He currently owns more than 150 brush markers that he uses for lettering, but he has dozens and dozens of other markers and pens as well. And so. Many. Colors.
“I don’t think I’ve used any type of pencils in five years,” he said.
Reindahl said he turned to mail as a way to share hand lettering because the time and effort he puts into preparing each letter or postcard makes them different from sending a text.
“I love putting a lot of time and effort into something you do every day,” Reindahl said. “It’s something that comes with you for life.”
Photo by Sophie Warrick
Makeup a thousand times over
Photo courtesy Janie Schwartz
Thanks to YouTube makeup tutorials, sophomore Janie Schwartz discovered a talent for makeup while she was in high school. Now, she gets paid to do formal and prom makeup for others.
“It just started as a simple thing,” Schwartz said of her interest in makeup. After she started watching YouTube videos to learn about different products, however, the compliments she got eventually led her to consider practicing her new skills on others.
But before she made that transition, she had to make some additions to her makeup kit. Lots of additions.
“When I do something, I go all in,” Schwartz said. She estimated she’s invested well over $5,000 in makeup, including foundation, concealer, bronzer, and contour products for a variety of skin tones as well as tools, cotton pads, rubbing alcohol, and other sanitizing products.
“It’s a lot of money to keep your kit stocked and sanitized and to have makeup for everybody and for all needs,” Schwartz said. “It’s an expensive hobby.”
Schwartz usually only does makeup for a handful of people per year. But when she does get out her kit, she said the most rewarding part is seeing people loving their look when she’s finished.
“I’m totally against people being like, ‘you don’t need makeup,’” Schwartz said. “It makes people feel confident and like they’re on the top of the world...That’s how I feel when I do my own makeup.”
Photo courtesy Janie Schwartz
She enjoys the complexity of working with eyeshadow, but emphasized the importance of a good foundation, especially for canceling mistakes.
Although she’s happy to be able to earn some money through her hobby, Schwartz said she’s mostly does makeup for the pure enjoyment. “I love it because I like putting it on. I would rather put makeup on a thousand times over and take it off rather than wear it all day.”
Photo courtesy Janie Schwartz
Photo courtesy Janie Schwartz
Sewing, but fun
Photo by Sophie Warrick
When Madaline Haney was a first-year at Hamline, they embroidered the word “Dad” on a hat in a moment of randomness. What they didn’t know was that this would kick off a fascination with embroidery that has since turned into a small business.
Now a junior and an anthropology major, Haney maintains a small shop on Etsy called ThreadAndFable. There they sell embroidered wall art—framed puns and sayings or zodiac signs stitched on funky fabrics.
“I like using words,” Haney explained, pointing to designs that say things like “Fox you” and “Bitchy witchy” as examples.
Photo by Sophie Warrick
Photo by Sophie Warrick
Two years into the embroidery business, Haney remains self taught, relying on videos on YouTube and Instagram to learn new stitches. They said embroidery was an easy skill to pick up and continue to enjoy how relaxing it is.
Haney added, “That’s what I was missing my freshman year. I wanted something comfortable.”
After their first embroidery project (the “Dad” hat), Haney practiced by doing more embroidery on clothing—stitching flowers, words, and even an avocado on clothing. Although they still do this to make gifts and to spruce up their own wardrobe, for their business Haney concentrates on the wall art, which is easier to make and recreate.
“It’s a nightmare to try and juggle school and the things I love,” they explained. “I’m always balancing what I want for me and what I want for the shop. Honestly all I want to do after college is work on my art.”
Over January, they embroidered 21 hoops for their Etsy shop. They use small three- or four-inch embroidery hoops and swatches of fabric they collect to make each piece. Haney has a stash of cloth and threads in their room, and they cycle fabrics in and out as they make up new designs.
“I have two boxes of embroidery thread, and it’s my favorite thing,” Haney said. “This is how I realized I’m getting way into this. I love embroidery, and I had no idea I would fall down that hole.”
Photo by Sophie Warrick
