MASR | Q&A on ART w/ Liz Sweibel

The arts initiate a sense of expression no other form of communication can achieve. Whether it be writing poetry, orchestrating symphonies, or reconstructing wooden panels into an art exhibition, the arts allow a sense of freedom to reflect and love. It is something we should all embrace and simply not place on the back burner especially when it can potentially bring communities together. Next up on the MASR Q&A, we have artist and professor Liz Sweibel talking to us about art, writing, and sustainability.

Who are you and where are you from? (no limits to this question)

I am an educator and a contemporary artist. I was born in New York City and my first home was in Forest Hills. My family moved to Long Island when I was two. When I was 14, we moved to Miami Beach. This was not a happy development for me, to put it mildly.

Three years after graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in English, I left Miami for Boston. I had been working as an editor for a medical publisher, and my intention was to continue in publishing while earning a graduate degree in English. I was hired by a start-up sales training company, and when the logistics of grad school proved too difficult, I put school aside.

I left the start-up after three years to become a freelance writer and editor. I was successful, and I had everything I thought I wanted. Still, as I reached 30, I grew agitated. I liked my work and life, but needed more.

On wise advice, I took an art class. One led to another until I had the overwhelming realization one morning – while sobbing over the sink – that I had to go to art school. I became a full-time, first-year student at Massachusetts College of Art at 36. MassArt was one of the best, hardest, and most impactful times of my life.

In 2003, I completed a low-residency MFA in Studio Arts at Maine College of Art. It was just as impactful as MassArt, though for different reasons, and it sparked my return to New York. Even as I left NY when I was a teen and decades had passed, it was a return for me. And it turns out that I live mere blocks from my parents’ childhood homes and schools, which I only learned after settling in Brooklyn.

Did you travel throughout your life? If so, where?

I don’t consider myself a traveler. My family did some traveling, but what we really did was sailed. We had a beautiful sailboat that could hold the six of us for days and days, and that’s where we spent our time – in NY, and then in Florida. Sailing isn’t so much about reaching a destination as about the process of getting there, and I love it.

Between my junior and senior years at UF, I took a summer course in literature in England, then traveled around Europe by myself. After college, I returned to Europe with a friend, and we traveled for about three months.

Since then, my travels have been low key and domestic except for three weeks in Paris with French Fashion Analysis in 2014. But I am going to Japan in May! I’m doing a walking tour from Kyoto to Tokyo, plus spending a few days in Kyoto on my own.

What got you into art? Why do the arts matter?

I come from a creative family, and was always artistic. My mother was a painter. But I gave art up in high school, then had the powerful experience of returning as an adult. Making and showing my work, seeing others’ work, and participating in the conversation are very important to me, even as I struggle for time to be as active as I would like.

The arts help people – makers and viewers – process our existence and experience as surely as any other field. The languages are different, but the impetus is the same: to make sense and meaning of how we (and others) live in order to grow.

What got you into writing? Why does writing matter?

I turned my focus to English in high school, partly as a response to moving away from art. Writing matters for practical aspects of living and working; writing also matters as an art form in the same way visual art does. It is a way to process, share, and learn from experience, feeling, and thought.

I am not a creative writer, though have a good number of writers as friends. Our conversations about our work and process are so close to each other that the output – whether a poem or a drawing - is almost incidental.

What got you into teaching at LIM College - "Where Business Meets Fashion”?

When I returned to NY after my MFA, I planned to restart my freelance writing and editing business to earn money to support myself as an artist. I was quite unnerved when I realized I just didn’t want to do that anymore. So I went back to school for a Master’s in Counseling, thinking of becoming a therapist. At the same time, I saw an ad for instructors at LIM College and decided to throw my hat in. The rest is history.

While LIM is my first teaching position, my years in corporate training had prepared me in key ways. I was skilled in instructional design and course development, and that transferred to my work at LIM. The classroom was new to me, but I had always been encouraged to teach and knew this was the right time, place, subject, and audience.

What does sustainability mean to you?

Sustainability, for me, is about self-fueling:having the resources to continue an action without depletion or destruction

How do art and writing connect with sustainability?

That is a question for each artist and writer. My studio practice is sustainable in the sense that very little goes unused; I save leftovers and rejects for new uses. I recycle old work into new work. My materials – wood, paint, wire, thread, fabric, paper - are not toxic. I work quietly.

What social issues would you like to bring more awareness to?

I’m most concerned about human rights at the most intimate level: between any two people. I’m concerned with empathy, civility, kindness, accountability, responsibility, ethics, thoughtfulness, respect, listening. These are the foundation for working on any other issue.

How can the youth get involved?

“The youth” is so broad. I do wish people would put their phones down and engage with each other and the world more. We are only going to grow more isolated if young people can’t be alone with themselves, watch the world unfold in front of them, communicate directly with others, and make the meaning of living that enables growth and mutual care.

What advice do you have for students entering into this evolving environment?

First, to engage more with the self and the world – on the street, in the classroom, after a certain time each night. My advice is to make space and time to be, and to become comfortable with just being.The distractions are seductive; it takes courage and strength to insist on oneself apart from them. For me, that insistence is necessary to a life worth living with relationships that matter.

Last question: Is climate change real?

Of course it is.

Keep an eye out for her future art exhibitions. Check out Sweibel's website here.

-MASR

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