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Unveiling the Inner Artist: InterArts Cabinet of Curiosity

Gillianne Nugent

Gillianne Rose Nugent is a visual and musical artist born and raised in Connecticut. She is currently studying psychology and hispanic studies at Trinity College in Hartford, CT as a first year student. Her preferred mediums for artwork are drawing, painting and collage, but she has also dabbled in sculpture and ceramics. Drawing inspiration from artists ranging from Frida Kahlo to David Lynch, the thematic span of her work is fairly broad. Singing has also been an important outlet for Gillianne, and she has been involved with chamber choirs and acapella groups of all kinds for the past seven years. In high school, Gillianne was the chief editor of her school’s literary magazine, “Calliope,” as well as an editor for the newspaper. She hopes to continue her work in writing and singing at Trinity. Thus far, she has only dipped her toes into the pool of artistic possibilities, and she has no plan to stop experimenting any time soon.

View some of her artwork from the fall 2020 semester below.

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Calcite Stone Elephant
By Gillianne Nugent
For my found object for our Cabinet of Curiosity, I have chosen to submit an item that I have had in my possession for a short while. It is a calcite stone elephant that was gifted to me before coming to school here. I didn’t know much about it when it was given to me other than the fact that it is made of a mineral that has energy moving properties. It was originally found by someone I consider to be like family, so it holds a lot of importance for me that way. However, upon learning more about my little elephant, I am even more intrigued by it.

The stone statue is made of a mineral called calcite, which is known for its emotional properties. When looking at this mineral in a spiritual context, it is said to bring together emotions and intellect, as well as open us up t0 a higher level of consciousness. My mother and her sisters have always been interested in different crystals and stones for their special properties, so this mineral, calcite, was an interesting thing for me to research. It is also said to help cleanse the “elimination organs” that produce waste in the body. When my elephant was gifted to me, I was told to first cleanse it with salt water and then only I could touch it. What I gathered was that once it is cleansed of others’ energies, it should only have mine in order to properly do its job. If you ask any of my friends and family, I take this very seriously, and I have not allowed anyone else to touch my elephant.

Perhaps my favorite part about calcite as a mineral is that it can also cleanse the negative energy in the space it occupies. In the form of the elephant, when the rear end faces out of the space and the trunk faces in, the energy is able to flow through the space cleanly and efficiently.

The fact that my object is an elephant is symbolic of strength and gentleness. The trunk in the air leans more toward strength in difficult situations with a gentleness underneath. Elephant totems have been popular across many cultures for hundreds of years. An example of this is in the tradition of Feng Shui, in which the trunk curled up also calls for good luck. While I know that my little stone elephant is not an artifact or even very old, the mystery surrounding the traditions and the energy has piqued my interest since I first touched it. This item has a great personal value to me, as well as a strong symbolic value. I like to believe that my energy has been more positive and open since bringing my little figurine into my personal space. I would be interested to know more about the specific reasoning behind the gift choice made my loved one, and where she obtained it.
Continuation Collage
By Gillianne Nugent
The object that I selected from the Watkinson is a photograph by the photographer Danny Lyon (1942). The image was taken in Nashville in the year 1962 but was printed in 2016 with gelatin silver print processing. Titled “Outside, Lester MacKinney, Bernice Reagon, and John O'Neal wait to get in [a Nashville Tic Toc restaurant]”, this digital copy belongs to Trinity’s photography and art collection.
I chose the original image, because it caught my eye in the sea of colorful, Hatian paintings in the Watkinson collection. The simplicity and candidness of the photo contrasts the bright sign advertising 10¢ hamburgers. The aesthetic of the 60s has also always grabbed my attention, but it is extremely important to also remember the flaws of the time period. Namely the racial discrimination, which is pictured here, as well as the inequality that it includes. I think a lot, when looking at the photo, about how history repeats itself- or in this case how the original issues that called for a Civil Rights movement were never solved. I titled my response “Continuation” instead of my original thought “Repetition,” for this reason. The three or four black patrons pictured are waiting outside, while white women, maybe waitresses, peer at them through the front window from inside. This simple photo is quite symbolic of the systematic problems of the time, where African Americans were put last and given segregational treatment. The Civil Rights act had not yet been passed at the time of this photo, so it was not illegal in Tennessee to mistreat these customers this way.
Especially considering the events of this summer, it is very important to reflect on what happened in our Country (focusing here on the segregation and racism of the 50s and 60s) and what is still happening to this day.My transformed object is a collage that I created using the image I selected from the Watkinson as well as an article from the April fools section of the Trinity Tripod newspaper. I was originally looking for a serious article about the hate crime that occurred on campus last week, but what I found was a satirical version that shamelessly calls out Trinity’s administration for their lack of action against racism on campus. The foreground contains images of the backs of the two white men, originally pictured outside of the restaurant, looking at the black patrons waiting outside. It is reminiscent of some kind of exhibition, so I had the idea to keep these men to the front still looking back. I chose to place the African Americans from the original picture behind the columns of the article to represent the way in which they are always placed behind the white people, in the 60s as well as on Trinity’s campus. They ended up almost looking like they were in the shadows by force. I added some blobby figures around the negative space to represent that many people experience discrimination in America, but they are rarely paid attention to. Unfortunately, many black people are referred to as just that, “black people” as a group; really, they are being stripped of their voices, individual identities and ultimately their rights as citizens of the United States.
Finally, I made the decision to burn parts of the collage to represent the damage systematic racism causes. Ideally, it would have caused holes in the underlying paper to show that we, as a society cannot be complete when a large part of our people are mistreated and discriminated against. As someone with a fair amount of privilege, I recognize that it is my responsibility to do everything I can to help end the systematic racism in our country. Especially considering the banana incident that recently took place, I can no longer be a bystander to injustice. I hope this art piece achieved that. Either way, the original photograph is an important piece to the Watkinson, and I believe it would be well suited for a display.
A Gift For Faith
By Gillianne Nugent
For my third submission to our class’ cabinet of wonder, I decided to create my gift for Faith. I definitely took a bit of time to think of what I wanted to give to her, but I did know that I definitely wanted to channel my creativity into something unique. A regular portrait did not feel like enough, and I did not want to do her dirty, as I tend to with other paintings of actual living people. I remembered back to an art class I took in high school where I drew only some features of some of my favorite actors, but focused on enough specificities so that they would be recognizable without the rest of the face. Since I have been working a lot in collage recently, I decided to combine a bit of my previous project formats to make a bit of a hodgepodge of Faith.
I first sketched out the pieces of Faith’s face using a multitude of images of her from different angles. Then, I used my gouache paints, watered down quite a bit, to color in her rosy cheeks and blue green eyes. I purposely left some parts in between the pieces of her face empty to represent things I have yet to discover about all of the intersections of Faith. Finally, I outlined some parts with my trusty micron pen to make the lines stand out. I also used a white gel pen to emphasize the highlights.
I do not know Faith, my fellow interartist who lives down the hall, on a very deep level, so for me, the bits of her that are depicted represent the little things that I do know of her. For example, she is sweet and kind. She likes theater, and she is easy to talk to. I must be on the same schedule as her, because I often see her in the morning when I am in the bathroom brushing my teeth.
These are all surface level things; I do not yet know a lot of deeper more profound things that make Faith who she is. I hope that in the coming years at Trinity I can get to know Faith better, because I consider her a friend!
Moody Tones
By Gillianne Nugent
For my final object submission to our cabinet of Wonders, I have created a little spread full of colors and some simple line drawings. The inspiration for this came out of nowhere, really. I didn’t know what to do for this final piece at first, because I usually need a narrower prompt to begin brainstorming. While I was in the library one day, I noticed something about my regular routine. Before beginning my work, I always open up my bullet journal and doodle in my calendar or track my moods by coloring in little spaces with colors corresponding to different moods.
Bullet journaling has really helped me out a lot, especially since it is so customizable. I am a type A person who loves to keep organized, so the blank pages of my bullet journal really help me keep myself scheduled and on track while still being creative.
The colors and designs in my monthly mood trackers made me think about colors corresponding to moods and emotions in other contexts. That same day, I took notes on the six basic emotions by psychological standards: anger, disgust, fear, surprise, sadness, and happiness. All of a sudden, I’d found my inspiration.
What I created from “nothing” was a thin gouache spread of some of the colors I use in my bullet journal’s mood tracker. Over the top of that, I included some rough sketches of my own facial expressions to represent some of the basic emotions I had learned about through my psychology course. During this process, I tried not to correct or adjust myself and simply let the lines and colors flow out, as emotions do in real life. I am ultimately pretty happy with the result, and I would like to even make a gouache addition to my bullet journal in the future, so I can look back on it and remember this project.
Looking at the mundane through a new lens is something we have discussed a lot in this class, so it made sense that my final object followed this thematically. I journal daily without even thinking about it, so it feels very authentic and true to my own self to create something from this thing that I might otherwise take for granted.

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Photo of Gillianne Nugent