Bantam Artist of the Week: Mandi Payne '18

LAUREN MICHALEC ’17
STAFF WRITER
Mandi Paine ’18 is a recent transfer from Bates College. As an artist, Paine brings an intrinsically artistic eye to the Trinity art studios. Paine, a New Hampshire native who matriculated from St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH, naturally gravitates towards an unusual field of art studies: modern architecture. With Architectural art and design as the outlet of her creativity, Paine has many idols and architectural innovators to study from. She is also interested in the fine arts, and enjoys learning about new fields of artistic study. Paine admits to gathering much inspiration through a pastime of navigating through Zillow, a website with current listing for homes and apartments, to find the trends and shifts of contemporary architecture. “I grew up with a guilty pleasure of spending a wicked amount of time on Zillow trying to find elements that I could incorporate into my own designs. There are many different stylistic differentiations depending on the region and climate, so the rudiments of even certain designs change a bit.”
When creating the aspirational models, Paine uses the current version of Google Sketch Up, which allows for the creation of the cutting edge of 3-D design. Currently, Paine is working to design a 3-D model of a modern house of her choosing. When asked about the possibility of attending a school or program with a central focus on architecture, Paine alluded to her values the importance of a well-rounded liberal arts education, and to her many other interests aside from design alone, such as being a dual sport athlete (Ice Hockey and Softball), involvement with the Beacon, as well other forms of studio arts.
As far as sketching goes, portraits are not a personal favorite for Paine. She explains that “the abstractness of objectivity in a face is tough to depict with just a drawing alone. The full elements aren’t given their fair justice.”
Paine instead prefers to capture ordinary objects or places with diverse lighting, because the shadows can offer an interesting contrast. With a potential studio arts minor, keep an eye out for Paine’s work throughout campus.
Another hobby that comes naturally to Paine is music of all sorts. “Generally, when I am bored, I pick up my guitar and just make up a song using new chords I’ve come up with, the lyrics sometimes come later, or I just leave it as is.” Paine says that company is always welcome to join or listen in. As far as genre goes, typically Paine will draw some inspiration from singer-songwriter or folk/country musicians. “It’s something that has always been rather intrinsic to me, that will always be there when needed.”