KELLY MARVEL
Staff Writer
Have you met Rachael Mays? She is a junior at VWC who loves chocolate, cheesy romantic comedies, long walks on the beach and she has a serious passion for all things artistic.
Psychology is Mays’ major, but her passion drove her to take up art as a minor. Mays pursued art all throughout high school, but she did not decide to choose art as a minor until her second semester at Virginia Wesleyan College.
When she enrolled in a painting course, she realized something was missing; it was like “an athlete getting back into their game,” said Mays. It seems that her passion had been woken up from its long dormant slumber, and she could not turn away from it.
While studying at VWC, Mays has taken courses in painting, ceramics, digital art and is currently enrolled in sculpture. Ceramics and painting stand out as her favorite forms of artwork, but acrylic painting is what captivates her most.
“With ceramics, once your piece is fired, it’s done,” said Mays. “You can almost always add something to your painting later on.”
The painters who most inspire Mays are Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Johannes Vermeer. She admires the stories that are behind their artwork, as well as their pieces’ unique and realistic qualities.
Mays prefers to learn about art by getting hands on experience rather than listening to someone simply talk about the procedures. Mays said that one of the most valuable lessons that she has learned through her art courses at Wesleyan is that “not everyone will like your work, so you have to accept that and stand behind your piece.”
Although art is her passion, Mays does not plan on taking it up as a career. Instead, she plans to continue expressing herself through art in her spare time after graduation and to really take pleasure in it.
