Coming from a family of artists, Shanice Pimentel ’14 was surrounded by the rich conceptions and histories of art even at an early age. Pimentel vividly recalls sitting next to her aunt, who is from the Dominican Republic, and watching her brush strokes create dimension and color on a white campus as she painted. Now, Pimentel hopes to pursue art as a main course of study in college.
At Andover, Pimentel started further exploring art in her Lower year. “I took Art 304 [Drawing 1] with [Elaine] Crivelli, [Instructor in Art]. That’s when I learned a lot of techniques that I’ve been using, but never really was educated on,” she said.
She is now actively immersing herself in more formal artistic endeavors. Pimentel spent this past summer abroad in Provence, France, with the Barat Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on the development of arts among youth. According to Pimentel, central aspects of the program included a month-long homestay with an emphasis on French language immersion and art workshops.
“I visited a bunch of cities in the South of France that have been influenced by famous artists like [Vincent] Van Gogh and Marcel Duchamp. I did a lot of art installations, and I got a lot of time to think about my art and my artistic personality,” said Pimentel.
Out of all the artistic growth that Pimentel has experienced over the past four years, she feels that the greatest development is the shift of her artistic commitment from a leisurely hobby to a more serious passion.
“I started out being able to take something and copy it perfectly. Now, it’s a lot more creative and I try to be expressive about it. I try to do things that use multimedia, where before I would do mostly drawing. I’ve been able to teach myself how to use different types of materials and create art that way,” said Pimentel.
During her Senior year, Pimentel explored art in depth in Art 500. She displayed her Art 500 project as part of an outdoor exhibition in the Sanctuary in Fall Term. As the visitors to the exhibition walked through the clearing, they encountered a large web of white, red and blue yarn strands suspended between two tree trunks. The trees surrounding the web had long pieces of yarn looped around the trunks. Four empty plastic water bottles were interwoven in the web.
Pimentel said that she was inspired by the concept of spider webs as naturally-occurring dreamcatchers.
“I decided to wrap up the water bottles in the spider web to [convey the effects of] pollution. And so, [the web] is what I feel like if nature was to have a dream. It’s just a message especially about pollution and how we should be taking care of the nature and Mother Earth,” explained Pimentel.
Reflecting on her time at Andover, Pimentel has one simple piece of advice for emerging artists.
“If you’re interested in the art program, go talk to someone. Get informed and get involved. If you really feel that you love it, you should really pursue it,” said Pimentel.
