Almost a year ago, I met Ava Babcock ’27 at Kitao. It was right after our First-Year Art Show, and Ava was organizing an event. I was struck by her confidence. She had only been at Swarthmore for a few weeks and seemed poised and confident proposing this event to a room of intense art majors.
It was only a few weeks ago, when I was searching for artists to interview, that I realized Ava is not only an artist, but also an art major: she was a perfect fit for Artist of the Week! When we finally met at Science Center Cafe, I asked her to begin by sharing her artistic experience.
She replied, “I enjoyed art in my junior year of high school. That was when I started taking more advanced art classes. I’ve always been interested in video game development, but not digital art.”
Ava continued, “I actually came into college as just a computer science major. Then I got assigned an art advisor, and he asked, ‘You’re taking an art class right?’ I originally wasn’t because I knew I wanted to program video games, and art was in the past. But, I took Painting I my first-year fall, and got back into it. I think having a structured class made me realize that I could pursue both.”
Admittedly, I was confused. Since coding and art have a creative nexus, I wondered why Ava didn’t want to pursue video game design. As an art major, I envied her opportunity to blend her professional and personal interests. Ava provided a thorough response, “I decided against designing video games — and digital art — because I have too much love for both computer science and studio art separately. They’re different, and I want different things out of them.”
She elaborated, “Video game programming comes from my passion for problem solving. Computer science allows me to think logically, while art is almost the opposite for me. I kind of shut my brain off and impulsively paint what I feel like painting. I think trying to be methodical about art defeats my interest in the process. I make a lot of my artistic decisions on the fly, and don’t really like sketching or planning. It’s the opposite of programming to me.”
Since my majors are in the humanities, I’ve never experienced the level of separation Ava described. Moreover, her approach was completely unconventional. In an artistic world that seems to prioritize clever planning, her prioritization of the bigger pictures over detail and representative form fascinated me.
“I feel like I try to paint holistically. I’m concerned about the whole work. I paint on a larger scale, which is part of the reason why I use a palette knife. It’s hard to focus on details when I’m using a big brush or a palette knife, but I think you just need to identify what your subject is,” she shared.
However, Ava clarified that her approach changed during her time at Swarthmore. She explained that Visiting Assistant Professor Mariel Capanna’s Painting II: Color and Structure course deeply informed her understanding of color relationships and interactions.
“Mariel really influenced my artistic interests because I paint very physically. I use my body, palette knives, and broad strokes, so I’m not super interested in form or line necessarily. I’m more interested in color and how color interacts,” Ava said.
She continued, “I haven’t ever been super detail oriented, but Mariel’s class made me realize that I didn’t have to focus on the subject if I didn’t want to. I could focus on color, and that was a perfectly valid way to paint. Now I’m in Painting II: Figure Composition with [Sara Lawrence Lightfoot Professor Randall Exon] and I think I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I can make color the primary focus of my paintings. I don’t have to be super committed to the figure’s realism.”
Interested in hearing more about Figure Composition, I asked Ava whether she felt that Professor Exon allowed her to radically explore form. Given that the course focuses on representational studies, I wondered if she has the opportunity to divorce herself from the detail she describes.
“Professor Exon is my advisor, and I think his figure class is very focused on composition and aligning figures with their environments. I’ve always struggled with composition as an artist, but I’m beginning to realize that color can be part of my composition. Maybe my figures don’t have the most exciting poses, but the composition can become exciting if I balance colors or add a pigment that realistically shouldn’t be there,” Ava clarified.
I began noticing a continuity among Ava’s responses: she dislikes realistic representation.
Ava agreed with my assessment, “Before college I got bored with realism. It’s a completely valid way to paint; I just personally wasn’t excited by it. I kind of experimented with color in Painting I, but that class is very broad. When I met Mariel, she really encouraged me to search for the colors I wanted to see. I think that class taught me how to add new values, just because I wanted to have a different color relationship in the painting.”
She continued, “In high school, I think I initially took art too seriously. I truly don’t feel that art has to be serious all the time. You can simply paint something as you want to paint it. And for me, color became a way to express myself freely. Just because a figure is looking off into the distance doesn’t mean that the painting must be melancholy. I try to use color to make my paintings more exciting and fun.”
I was curious why color spoke to Ava as her means of creativity. When she can consider her work in a three-dimensional space, why experiment in the second dimension with color?
She responded, “Adding inventive colors allows you to express feelings in an unnatural, but emotional way. Everything about a painting changes with one simple stroke of orange against a green background. It’s such a small impact, but suddenly everything you’re looking at is different.”
Additionally, Ava does explore working in a three-dimensional space. She shared that most of her paintings are thick, with texture forming a new surface. She explained, “Mariel introduced me to a wax medium you can mix in with paint. It almost makes it feel sculptural. The paint sits farther from the canvas, and you have to use a palette knife. It creates a three-dimensional texture. I loved how physical painting with the medium felt.”
Given that I rarely have any physical experience with my work, I asked Ava to elaborate on how she physically feels the making of a piece. She replied, “Professor Exon used the athletes as an example of making arts physical. She said that the athletes in his classes tend to be less naturalistic. They paint with larger strokes, using their bodies. That’s not to say there aren’t athletes who paint more methodically, but there’s an aspect of physicality in their movements.”
Her desire to paint with broad strokes translates into her process. “I’m a really, really, really impatient artist. I don’t like waiting, and the main reason why my colors are inventive is because I usually don’t clean my brushes. I mix everything together, and whatever color comes out of that is now what’s on my palette, and that’s just how it’s gonna be.”
As I walked out of the Science Center after our interview, Ava’s words stuck to my brain like glue. They followed me to Target, where I stood in the crafts section and stared at glitter paint. When the time came for me to check out, I almost placed the paint on a shelf away from the scanner. Looking at myself on the monitor, I swiped the barcode and put it into my bag. I used the paint for T-shirts that I made with two of my closest friends. We crudely swiped paint all over the shirts, onto my desk and floor. It was beautiful.
I don’t believe Ava is arguing against detailed work or even realism. Rather, I think her physical process allows her to set emotion at the center of her artwork. In other words, by using bright, exciting colors, she reminds us that art is fun. And I’d argue that it can be found in the unlikeliest places. You just need to seek it out and have the courage not to leave it on the shelf.
