Picture this: you’re sitting just outside Cox Hall enjoying a delicious smoothie. You notice the expansive mural in front of you, painted on the wall of the entrance ramp. It’s hiding in plain sight — a rich, colorful display of Atlanta-specific tributes and imaginative Olympic-themed images. You ask yourself, “Why haven’t I noticed this before?” You wonder why no one else, out of the dozens of students entering and leaving the building, seems to notice either. You may get to keep the fruity aftertaste of the smoothie in your mouth, but you may also feel a little put off by the realization. People seem to be looking more at the brutalist architecture of the clunky hospital building sitting right next to Cox Hall, or they seem to be looking at nothing at all.
Emory University’s art scene mirrors this reality. It’s colorful, rich and present — but it’s also underemphasized, subtle and relatively hard to find. Whatever the reason for this stifling dichotomy, finding an artistic community at a for-profit research institution is still possible: you just have to know where to look. Art like the Cox Hall mural hides in plain sight all over campus. And, just like the art itself, the people who create it are everywhere too. Some of them happen to be part of our student body, right here on campus. Their creativity takes many different forms, as dynamic and impassioned as those who engage with them.
However, without the reason to make art, there is little room for its creation. For artists at Emory, inspiration is paramount due to the difficulty of engaging with one’s creative side while simultaneously attending a business-driven for-profit institution. And, at a school like Emory — one where art is by no means a top priority — finding reason is a radical act.
Filmmaker and writer Paige Sullivan (26C) finds inspiration in certainty.
“I’ve always been really fixated on the concept of Dharma,” she said. “Everyone has one true path that’s their destiny, and for me that was creative writing and film.”
Dharma, for those who are unfamiliar, takes many different shapes for many different people but most often centers around the coming together of one’s understanding of the reality of truth and an understanding of the self. This often resonates as a practice of cultivating potential and aligning with one’s personal truth. Still, it is important to engage with other people outside of the self — those who occupy the same world as you — in artistic practice.
Sullivan also said she finds a deep appreciation for people who surround her in her creative process. We can romanticize a place, but it’s the people who occupy it that truly give it imaginative potential.
“[They] can turn a s***** dorm room with bad lighting into the setting of a coming-of-age movie,” she said.
Also important to Sullivan is her identity as a woman: her unique female experience drives her expression and “constantly calls out to” her.
For other artists though, inspiration comes from an intrinsic, almost instinctual, drive. Mixed-media artist Katherine Zahra Khayami (25B) likes to experiment with a variety of artistic forms in order to satisfy her creative appetite.
“I have this kind of necessity to make art and to represent my identity,” she said.
For Khayami, the creative process is a way to feel “more confident” and also “free;” she said her craft is an intersection between understanding the self and portraying it.
Photographer Jason Kraft’s (25C) expression comes less from a place of articulated reason and more from one of intuitive exploration. He said he believes in “art for the sake of making art” and has found that “it's a way of growth, both in skill and in taste.”
Perhaps more important than inspiration, however, is the art itself. For a school that lacks a large creative population, the diversity and originality of Emory artists’ works are particularly impressive. Khayami, Sullivan and Kraft all produce artworks that are at once uniquely their own and easily accessible.
Khayami’s artwork consists predominantly of mixed-media and collage.
“In a way, mixed media can be infinite,” she said.
Khayami said this medium allows her to relinquish control and engage with her more subconscious creative mind.
“You’re more confined, in a sense, materially, but you get to tell a story with the pieces you collect,” she said.
Khayami’s creative process is an organic one.
“Normally it just comes naturally,” she said. “After a while, I go towards either black and white or colors or a specific color palette, and then it’s so much fun putting it together,” she said.
While Khayami’s artistic process is an embrace of the subconscious, Kraft’s is more concrete. In his photography, Kraft searches for original visuals. He likes the idea of bringing something that “[he has] never seen before but [wants] to see” to life. To do this, he said he will often “reshoot something four or five times” before he is satisfied with it.
While engaging with the camera, Kraft thinks about the way we may perceive a subject.
“I feel like it’s always inevitable with any art form that there’s the pressure that someone will be watching or peeking in,” he said. “There’s always potential for someone to find out your secrets.”
Despite this pressure, Kraft said he enjoys when people see his work and appreciates that they may have their own personal reactions to it.More than anything else, Kraft said he hopes his work provides something new — whether that be simply a visual, or a more profound experience — to those who come across it.
“I hope that my art gets people to repackage an idea that’s already in their head in a new way,” he said. “I just want people to stop and say, ‘I’ve never seen something like that before.’”
Although innovative artists and their outputs are not at a shortage, open and enriching spaces for creatives are pivotal in a world that often suppresses artistry and prioritizes productivity just as Emory does. Art will always persist, but is Emory lifting creative voices or only allowing them to occupy its grounds as a twenty-first-century platitude? If so, how do creatives at Emory find ways to enrich themselves regardless?
Emory’s art scene isn’t invisible. In addition to the mural outside of Cox Hall, Emory’s campus houses the Michael C. Carlos Museum, which is rich with ancient artifacts and original modern pieces in rotating exhibits. On top of that, Emory boasts numerous creative clubs, some of which feature student works in annual print-productions. Emory also provides various options of artistic academic study, complete with a talented and encouraging staff for students to engage with as well as artistic resources — like several arts studios and accessible equipment — for those involved in such areas of study. On paper, this seems more than adequate, but the impressive resume doesn’t seem to translate into the lived experience of creatives at Emory.
Sullivan said she notices a discrepancy between the ways students engage with art at Emory. She observed that people often find space for creativity in the classroom but wishes that more students would get involved in artistic opportunities on and around campus. This cultivates an on-campus environment she called “art-neutral.”
Khayami also voiced her concerns about being a creative at Emory. Not only is it difficult to obtain enrollment in the small number of art classes Emory offers, but art students are a strong minority and the creatives around campus often struggle to find community. In the fall 2023 semester, the University will offer seven art classes at Oxford College and 10 art classes in the College of Arts and Sciences, according to the University’s course atlas.
Perhaps it is an unavoidable fact that a university as entrenched in capitalistic efforts of profit and productive output will never be a place that enlivens and uplifts creatives. After all, Emory does have an endowment ranked 13th in monetary value among all U.S. universities, according to 2020 data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Despite the unfortunate nature of Emory’s insistence on capitalistic productivity before artistic endeavors, its location is a distinct advantage to those who call it, at least in some sense, home. Atlanta is one of the most prolific art hubs in the country, and creatives almost universally take advantage of this privilege.
Exposure is important, and Khayami said she has found exploring Atlanta art “inspiring.” In particular, she said the city’s “graffiti scene” has impacted her as an artist.
“Each time I walk on the BeltLine, I see the collaboration of so many artists, and it’s a beautiful mess,” Khayami said. “It’s not cohesive at all, but it’s also powerful.”
Khayami places a large emphasis on her Iranian-American identity in her artwork and often creates work written partially or completely in Farsi, which she began learning at 12 years old. She appreciates how Atlanta-based artists use creativity to express their backgrounds, and it inspires her to do the same.
“I realize that the Atlanta arts scene is so different,” Khayami said. ”People are much more bold ... That pushes me to be more bold in my art as well.”
Sullivan also said exploring the surrounding community is important in her creative process.
“Exposing yourself to other art forms is a great way of finding an end to creative block,” she said. “The best pieces of art come from spontaneity, in a way.”
“The moon would weep silver tears over the patch of vibrant hues, leaving dewdrops to be discovered in the morning by curious eyes leering over muddy rain boots that looked like ducks.”
from Breathing Life into Hydrangeas. (Paige Sullivan)
Emory, by its nature a money-driven institution, is not a place designed for art and artists to thrive. Despite that, creatives that occupy its spaces continue to find a community in which their art belongs. Art can be difficult to find, but it is by no means invisible. You just have to know where to look.
For more information on creative and artistic events on campus, see our latest weekly ‘Arts Aplenty’ Calendar or contact one of The Wheel’s Arts & Entertainment staff members who would be happy to help.
If you are an Emory creative who would be interested in having your work highlighted, reviewed or covered in some way, please reach out to one of Arts & Entertainment’s editors or the writer of this piece at njrubin@emory.edu.
The Creatives:
Jason Kraft: to see more of Kraft’s work, follow @jasnkrft on Instagram.
Paige Sullivan: to connect with Sullivan or inquire about her work, follow @widowpeake on Instagram.
Katherine Zahra Khayam: to see more of Khayami’s work, follow @katherinekhayami_art on Instagram or visit https://www.katherinekhayamiportfolio.com
