The walk to the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art felt longer than it should have — elongated by my rising nerves and a couple of near-miss encounters with cars that failed to understand the concept of a sidewalk.
By the time I reached the museum, my mind was spiraling about how I would navigate my first day of my internship. Realizing I was 10 minutes early, I hesitantly walked in. I decided to kill some time by exploring a new exhibit titled “Complications in Color.”
As I walked into the room, I was instantly confronted by three-dimensional geometric shapes filled with an unidentifiable powder. I walked around the piece hung on the wall. It was a blue and purple prism, connected in the middle and half-filled with a substance. I looked more closely and saw that the substance was a cosmetic pigment. This piece was a part of a series called “Particle Dispersion,” created by the renowned abstract artist Rachel Lachowicz.
I looked over and saw another sculptural piece titled “Truncated,” which was made up of solely purple and pink eyeshadow tins, coalescing to form an organic shape. I continued to admire Lachowicz’s creations as I wandered through the exhibition, observing how she transformed makeup into paintings and sculptures. She used bright red lipstick to melt over a whole canvas and even covered eyeshadow tins in a yellow powder coat to create the shape of a hay field. Her use of a material that was so familiar to me mixed with my nerves, unlocking a craving for something I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Sitting out on the grass outside of the museum, working with a group of high schoolers brainstorming projects centered around the work within, I could only ponder Lachowicz’s art. The colors echoed in my mind, and I soon realized that the craving I was feeling was the need to be creative.
Rachel Lachowicz, a native Californian, continues to make art that introduces a feminist perspective through the abstract style. Reading the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art’s description of the exhibition, the abstraction canon in Southern California was dominated by male artists such as Karl Benjamin, who is also featured in the museum, leaving little room for female artists to shine. The museum’s goal to include female artists within the scene of abstraction led to the inclusion of Lachowicz, an artist who utilized abstraction to address the binaries of gender in art. She analyzed the difference between “craft” used for female artists, which belittled them by not considering their art as “fine art.” Meanwhile “craftsmanship” was used for male artists, a term used to praise male artists and their great skills to create “fine art.” She aims to break down these barriers through her use of bright colors in makeup to create large paintings and sculptural pieces that cannot be mistaken for only craft, but definitively fine art. Lachowicz was labeled as a “Lipstick Feminist” by the art world. This type of feminism is where women can embrace their sexuality and femininity, which carries both literally and conceptually through her art as she directly uses lipstick to reenvision the gender politics of abstract mark making.
As her art echoed in my mind, it made me reflect back on my own practice, where I had built an art portfolio in high school exploring different mediums such as fabric, acrylic paint, embroidery and man-made objects that begged the question: What does femininity mean to me? One of the first art pieces I created for my portfolio, I focused on makeup and how its role in my life has changed over time.
As a kid, I would constantly watch and even create makeup tutorial videos on YouTube. Before art became my main form of expression, makeup was in its place. I had a giant cart that I dragged around the house, filled to the brim with makeup. I would hide in the bathroom, propping my phone on a makeshift stand of eyeshadow palettes and film myself doing all different types of cosmetic looks, ranging from glam to special effects. As I got older, makeup became more of a chore inflicted on me to appear more mature and feminine, and less of a means of my artistic expression. I felt the need to fit in, to not stand out in any way.
When I was ideating for my portfolio centered around femininity, I instantly thought of makeup. I went back and replayed my old makeup tutorials, cringing as I watched my 11-year-old self talk me through each step of her makeup routine. I paused at certain parts, capturing myself in moments that inspired elements of my portfolio.
Following Lachowicz’s practice, I used makeup to add color back to black-and white-portraits I’d created of my younger self. To symbolize the way makeup’s purpose has changed throughout my life, I composed three handheld mirrors on top of each other, the top and bottom held my childhood self, while the middle was me now, all putting on makeup.
Although I was cringing at myself watching these videos, I also felt a sense of sadness as I realized I’d lost my creative spark while being away at college. It is extremely hard to find time for creativity that isn’t required for an assignment. Even when I do find that time, I feel guilty spending it on creating art or doing my makeup.
As a kid, that guilty feeling was never there. Even though no one — besides family members that constantly remind me of those videos — viewed my makeup tutorials, I was doing it for fun. Seeing Lachowicz’s work made me feel like a kid again.
Her use of makeup to create powerful pieces that dominate the spaces they are in made me feel empowered to do the same. It helped me realize that makeup should not be seen as a task, but as a creative form of expression, just like how I used to see it as a kid.
When I get up in the morning, makeup has become a break in the chaos of school where I can create something. I can embrace how makeup makes me feel like a kid again.
“Complications in Color” made me realize how being creative can take so many different forms, whether through creating art or applying makeup. I’ve realized that the unfamiliar feeling brewing inside was not nerves, but a longing to be creative again, just for myself. Those moments of creativity keep me sane through such a stressful time in college. It is so important, especially as finals season comes up, to find a moment where you can be creative for yourself.
Meiya Rollins PO ’29 believes, like Michelangelo, that art takes time – most of that time being snack breaks and watching “Good Mythical Morning.”
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