CREATING ORIGINAL ARTWORK (+5)

As a psychology major on the pre-medical track, I spend the majority of my time in lab or in the science center. However, when school is out of session or I have a little extra time on Saturday, I love to paint. Each of my paintings remains untitled. Partly because other people don't see them often, and partly because I never know if I am going to turn around and change it. I painted Untitled while I was at home on a break. I had recently been thinking about what I would do if I wasn't a doctor, and my immediate thought went to astronaut. I immediately realized I could mesh biology and physics on paper by looking at plants and planets. Organizing these objects into an afro was even more beautiful for me; it was a way to express and claim my space in these predominantly white fields that I felt I had no business being in.

Fast forward, I am now a pre-medical student studying Neuroscience (biology) and taking a 400-level astrophysics class. After the break, I'd expressed to a professor that I'd loved space and I'd loved physics. When he asked me why I hadn't considered physics as a major, I told him that coming into Spelman I didn't think I was going to be good at science. Most of my high school teachers thought I was going into law because I am talkative and opinionated (and maybe Black). He encouraged me to take his astrophysics course, and despite other professors telling me I would struggle, I took it. It is by far my favorite and most interesting class each week.

Even as a STEM student, art is important to me because it allows me to imagine a world without restrictions. Space felt so far away for me, and so far from what I wanted to do. But my artwork allowed me to realize that I loved space, and I wanted to study it more. It allowed me to express that interest so much that I got invited into a room I had no business being in as a psychology major. 

Nia Terry