Isa Cruz

As a dining service aide for Bowdoin Dining Services, Savanna Austin has found a place to express both culinary and artistic freedom. In addition to working in the dish room, this semester, Austin drew the large-scale detailed Polar Bear on the bulletin board at Moulton Union Dining Hall. Austin’s role as the artist in charge of the bulletin board came about spontaneously.

“I’ve been [drawing the polar bear murals] for a few years now,” Austin said. “Suzanne [D’Angelo-Cooley], our dietitian, was working over here as my boss. She couldn’t get to [decorating] the bulletin board one day for some reason. She asked me if I could do it.… She gave me the freedom to do whatever. That was when I first did my original polar bear.… They saw that I could do it, and they’re like, we know who’s doing the bulletin boards now.”

When she drew the current polar bear at Moulton this past summer, Austin caught several students’ attention.

“The day that I was actually drawing this [mural], it was before we opened for the year,” Austin said. “I think there were some students around, but not many. The amount of people that would stop and look at it as I was working … [and say], ‘Oh, my God, you’re drawing this.’”

Although her first drawings at Moulton were spontaneous, Austin is a meticulous artist—her most recent polar bear took over three hours. When asked about her artistic inspirations, she expressed fondness for both the Bowdoin Museum of Art and the Art Department. However, art has been a part of her life since elementary school.

“I originally started drawing at a really young age, so I want to say I was [in] maybe third grade when I did my first portrait,” Austin said. “I think actually my first portrait was Tupac, and it just got recognized.”

Austin developed her art skills by taking classes in high school, including AP Art, but she wasn’t able to go to college. She continues to do side projects of portraits and drawings of pets.

“I planned on going to college,” Austin said. “Life got in the way…. Since then, I’ve just been doing commission portrait work. Whether it’s people or their pets,… it’s a nice little pastime at home. It helps my mind be quiet and just shut down.”

She expressed gratitude for the supportive work environment in Dining Services.

“Mark Dickey—he does the ordering for Bowdoin Dining—has highly encouraged me to reach out to the art department and take an art class or see if maybe other bulletin boards around need to be filled with artwork,” Austin said. “He’s been in my corner cheering for me.”

As a Brunswick native, Austin has connected with fellow Mainers and Bowdoin faculty through her art. Before Austin drew the polar bear mural, she also drew the polar bears on the white board in Moulton’s entrance with her high school friend Meredith MacEachern—who is also a former Bowdoin employee.

“[Meredith] was working in the silent room,” Austin said. “She did checking. She’s the one that [drew] the polar bears in the front entryway at Moulton on the whiteboard there. [She] and I actually went to high school together, so it was cool to see her here doing the same thing.”

Austin hopes to continue her mural work in the future.

“I normally like to see my work for a long time,” she said. “There [are] talks of copying [the polar bear mural] so that they can at least put it up somewhere else, and then I could do something else here. I’m hoping that’s what happens. I really like how [the mural] turned out.”