I’ve dearly missed interviewing student artists this semester, picking their brains to understand the myriad ways creativity blossoms in each person differently, getting to see their masterpieces and have genuine conversations about their craft. Luckily, that longing was satiated by Phoebe Finkel ’28, a BFA student whose paintings and prints combine absurdity and realism, color and shape, humor and seriousness in a way that’s completely captivating.
Like many other artists, Finkel is a lifelong creative. From childhood, she’d always be doodling or otherwise expressing herself through the material medium of visual art. “I can’t remember a time where I didn’t love to draw or paint or doodle or make things,” she shared. However, it wasn’t until senior year of high school that she decided to fully commit to pursuing a BFA. Faced with the question of what to major in, art was her choice.
Finkel’s favorite mediums are painting and printmaking. The former has always been in Finkel’s wheelhouse, but the latter is a newer avenue of exploration. “I took an intro to printmaking class last year, and I loved it. … I was like, ‘Woah, this is definitely something that I'm meant to be doing.’ I fell in love with screen printing. That’s become a huge part of my art practice.”
A new medium isn’t the only thing Finkel has gained during college. Cornell, although not an art school, per se, has provided exactly what Finkel wanted out of her artistic education. “I've always wanted to pursue art, but I wanted the possibility of doing other things and meeting other people who aren’t in art. I think it’s a great program and pretty perfect for me in that sense,” she said. “I like the chance to meet people who aren’t artists and get their opinion on my art because [those are] the people who’ll be looking at your stuff.” And the community that Finkel has found here has been helpful to her. Where Finkel’s high school art classmates never wanted to talk about their work, her Cornell classmates are more than willing to have those productive discussions and critiques that are so vital to improving one’s artistry.
Being at Cornell, in total, has been a great experience for Finkel. “It’s hard not to grow in a new space,” she shared, a sentiment which I find to be quite powerful. Art is already something constantly evolving; with every piece, an artist learns better how they want to create. Finkel elaborated further on the specifics of this growth: “If anything, just the scale of my work. … I’ve been more confident to try bigger things.” As someone who exclusively worked on small canvases until my AP Art teacher made me work bigger, I understand how impactful the shift in size can be to an artist. A bigger canvas is so much more space to paint, to get deep into those tiny details that Finkel puts into her pieces. Her process is an involved one — requiring a coherent idea before starting her pieces, rather than diving right in. A bigger canvas means more space to play with, more room to plan before the paintbrush comes out.
Beyond the semantics of actually making a physical piece of art, Finkel takes an artist’s eye to the world around her in its entirety. “I think it’s possible to make art out of many things. Is everything art? Maybe not at first glance. But it can be elevated,” Finkel said. “I see art in a lot of places, … the shape of the trees and the color of the sky, … I’m often inspired by things that are more mundane. … I think anything can be inspiring.” I greatly admire that way of seeing the world. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the stress of daily life. It takes a special kind of person to stop and appreciate the world for the beauty it offers, and an even more special kind of person to turn that into something creative and entirely their own. There’s a dialogue between artists and their inspiration, a dialogue that Finkel feels between herself and the world. She believes in beauty for beauty’s sake, reflected in the lighthearted fun of her art, which she sees as reflective of the inherent beauty in the people, nature and things all around. I, for one, think that is beautiful.
If you’re interested in seeing more of Finkel’s work, you can find her on Instagram at @blue_on_bleu.
‘Student Artist Spotlight’ is a column that runs intermittently, featuring student artists of all kinds on campus. For interest in a feature, please contact Melissa Moon.
Melissa Moon is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is an Assistant Arts & Culture Editor on the 143rd Editorial Board. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
