Drawing is a hard skill to master. Articulating a form on paper using pencil, pen or charcoal is a challenge, testing one's perceptual skills as well as one's ability to record one's surroundings. For Allie Wilkinson '11, however, this process is second nature.
An interdisciplinary art history and visual arts major, Wilkinson came to Bowdoin not planning to spend much time in the studio. Although her father's artistic career primed her to work with her hands, she was more interested in art history. However, after taking Drawing I during her first year, she realized that perhaps visual art, rather than history, was her true calling.
"My dad is a professional sculptor in New York, so when I was growing up I went to his studio and did drawing," she recalled. "You know, normal kid activities. For a while I wanted to focus on art history in school, but then I came to Bowdoin and took a visual art course. That's when I realized, 'Oh, this is what I'm supposed to do.' So I kept the art history and added visual art."
Since making that decision her first year, Wilkinson has devoted much of her time to visual art, particularly drawing. Now enrolled in Senior Studio, she has immersed herself in figure drawing—a passion she developed while studying abroad in Paris.
"On my program, we had a live model for class everyday," said Wilkinson. "It was very traditional. I really benefited from having a different model every week and became really good at drawing in pencil. It was also there that I started doing large-scale work."
Making larger-scale work appealed to Wilkinson even after Paris, and she returned to campus motivated to draw life-size figures. Soon after, she created a large-scale series about long-distance love and the emotional ache that can accompany it. Displayed at the Fishbowl Gallery of the Visual Arts Center (VAC) this past fall, her work received much acclaim from professors and peers.
"The show was really amazing," she said. "When I started doing art at Bowdoin, I told myself that one day I had to be in the Fishbowl. It's just such a great space with so much opportunity to be seen. It was a really great experience."
The Fishbowl show allowed Wilkinson to promote her own work, but she received her first taste of the art world via another artist—the New York City-based post-modernist David Salle. While working as his studio intern in summer 2009, Wilkinson gained exposure to the professional artist's daily life. She also assisted Salle personally with his work—an experience she deems rare and unforgettable.
"In the middle of the summer, [Salle's] studio manager fell ill and needed the four interns to step it up," she said. "We ended up really taking the initiative, and I ordered his canvases and stretchers and organized shipping works to his studio in Long Island. He took a special liking to me and had me come work out there with him. He'd say, 'Oh, I don't like this section of my painting. Can you take it off?' So I'd get to touch the painting. It was such an amazing experience."
A regular contributor to Q, Bittersweet, and the Quill, Wilkinson sends in pieces that are figurative at their core. Wilkinson finds the process an ideal means by which to publicize her work and further her creative process.
"I'm pretty involved in the queer community on campus and one of my friends asked me for art submissions for Q," she said. "That's actually what started the beginning of my Senior Seminar show. I started submitting small-scale drawings to Q and then they turned into something more. My work was also on the cover, which was awesome. It was a great way to get visibility and also to contribute to the publication."
With such increased visibility, Wilkinson's work is thriving, especially as she prepares for the Senior Studio group show in mid-May. Her plans for next year involve teaching English in France, but she hopes to keep art in her life even while abroad.
"I definitely see art being part of my future," said Wilkinson. "Whether I want to be part of the cut-throat art world, I'm not so sure. But art has always been a part of my life."
"It forms the way I see the world," she added.