DRAWING ON THE
Beloved Community
NICK ROMANENKO
COURTESY OF TEHYLA MCLEOD
STUDENT HONORED FOR WORK SKETCHING STRUGGLING P O P U L AT I O N S I N NEW BRUNSWICK In September 2020, Department of Art & Design student Tehyla McLeod grabbed her sketchbook and headed to the New Brunswick Train Station. Her goal: create portraits of the displaced and struggling community of people who congregate at and around the station. McLeod, who says her religious faith spurred her to launch the project, was initially met with a measure of suspicion. But the young artist was tenacious: She kept returning to the downtown station, spending most Fridays hanging out, talking, and, eventually, with the people’s consent, drawing. Not everyone welcomed McLeod; at times, she says, she was met with stares. She witnessed fights. But little by little, she forged a rapport with some of the people she encountered, getting to know them by name, people like Dominique, who shared stories about her children, and Ernest, a father of
five who invited McLeod to his cardboard dwelling.
whom also have artwork on display at Winants through the summer.
The result is an intimate portrait series not of “the homeless,” but of individuals whose facial expressions and body language reveal them as three-dimensional people with history, joys, sorrows, and, perhaps most importantly: dignity.
“What Tehyla has done is simply extraordinary,’’ says Holloway, shown above with McLeod at the reception. “These aren’t simply impressive pieces of art. Though they certainly are that; much more important, they are the product of an intimate and personal relationship she has built with each of the individuals whom she has portrayed. They are about humanity and beauty and trust. I couldn’t be prouder to include them among the outstanding artworks by Rutgers students we have installed at Winants.”
On April 20, McLeod was one of three Mason Gross School students to receive a Beloved Community Initiative Award for her art from the university’s Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes (CACP). The award recognizes faculty, staff, and students who among other things, according to CACP, “Engage in frequent acts of kindness toward all, particularly those who may be ‘invisible’ within the Rutgers community [and] makes others feel seen, heard, and valued.” Other MGSA award recipients were Department of Art & Design students Ria Monga and Emma Broggi. Now, four of McLeod’s sketches and one of her paintings are on view in President Jonathan Holloway’s office suite at Winants Hall. On April 28, he greeted her at a reception along with MFA student Grace Lynne Haynes and graduating MFA Kyle b. co., both of
Ultimately, McLeod has not emerged merely with a portfolio, but she says with a deepened understanding of connection—an especially significant revelation given that she launched her project during a pandemic. “It is through these experiences— through the light-hearted and laughfilled games of Uno, the sorrowful conversations about the tragedies of past and present, the passionate ruminations shared over a bowl of soup and a drawing, and absolutely everything in between,” she says, “that I am powerfully taught about love.”
17
SPRING 2022
