Driven student answers call to art

In an ideal world, junior Meg Christensen would spend the rest of her life in a classroom. Christensen, an arts-communication major and a crafts minor–, said she could not imagine life without learning.

“It’s pointless if there’s nothing left to learn . there’s no reason left to live,” Christensen said.

Christensen’s passion for education is one she hopes to turn into a career. Once she earns a Master of Fine Arts, Christensen hopes to become a professor.

“They make enough money to kind of live on,” Christensen said. “It’s one of the best things I can do. Professors have changed the way I draw and think about things.”

While Christensen attended Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, Va., art instructor Betsy DiJulio particularly inspired her.

DiJulio thinks Meg will succeed as an art professor.

“Meg has the intellectual, artistic and organizational strengths and skills needed,” Dijulio stated in an e-mail. “She is an open-minded and engaging person with interests – like her music – beyond the art studio.”

DiJulio said she admired Christensen’s moral stance when it came to appropriation, the issue of borrowing another artist’s work to create new art.

“I remember being positively impacted by her outrage at a fellow student who was content to ‘appropriate’ images in ways that weren’t particularly innovative,” DiJulio stated. “She was incensed that this student would be content to be so lazy and swerve so dangerously near plagiarism.”

Admittedly being one of the few students in high school who excelled in art, Christensen said coming to VCU was an eye-opening experience.

“I came here, and everyone in my classes was talented, and it made me work really hard,” Christensen said.

Christensen hopes arduous work will disprove the stereotype that artists are lazy.

“There’s a tendency to think that artists do what they do, not because they are creative and artistic, but rather, because they can’t do anything else,” Christensen said. “I could have been an engineer; it just happens to be that this is what I enjoy.”

When not dabbling in art, Christensen turns to her other passion – music.

Christensen, a self-taught guitarist, began to play music in 7th grade. Curiosity led her to try other instruments, such as the ukulele, the mandolin and the slide guitar.

While Christensen enjoys the rigidity of art, she takes an unstructured approach toward music.

“There’s nobody telling me where I should take it and what I should do,” Christensen said. “That might be a tragic flaw, but I think it helps me feel like I’m creating something that’s all me.”

DiJulio said Christensen’s artwork has been aware, both socially and culturally.

Christensen has incorporated women’s rights issues- – a topic she feels strongly about – in both her music and her artwork.

An art piece titled “Ovarian Fists” serves as an example.

“It was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend. It’s just kind of an illustration based on the idea that talking about women’s issues can make us stronger,” Christensen said.

At the end of the day, Christensen believes art is her calling.

“I think no matter what I did– – even if I decided to major in English – I would still be an artist,” Christensen said. “It’s not a profession . it’s a way of thinking.”

Each week, the Spectrum Section selects a talented student from the School of the Arts (music, dance, theater and visual) and showcases his or her achievements both in and around the VCU community. Do you want your name and work in the CT? E-mail Spectrum@Commonwealthtimes.com for consideration.