3 minute read
The Arts
The Arts
Creating Beauty
Cullman Scholar draws on her experience in a Dominican Republic maternity ward for her capstone project.
Last summer, as many high school students were relaxing and shaking off the stress of the school year, Ariatnny Castillo Montero ’23 threw herself into the center of a chaotic maternity hospital in the Dominican Republic. As a Cullman Scholar, she shadowed doctors; witnessed births, c-sections, and hysterectomies; and observed the harsh reality of obtaining quality healthcare in the country where she was born.
The Lawrence, Mass., native returned home confident in two things: She would look to pursue a career in medicine or healthcare, and her experience would inform her capstone project for the Arts Scholar Program during her senior year at Kimball Union.
The Cullman Scholarship Program supports students in off-campus study programs as an opportunity to explore their academic interests in an area of their choosing. “I was very in love with my Cullman experience, and I wanted that to come across in my capstone,” says Castillo Montero.
Her early capstone idea—to create figurines that express fertility, female productive rights, and empowerment—would demonstrate her talent in ceramics, which she discovered and cultivated during her four years at KUA under the direction of teacher Ursula Fries-Herfort P’14, ’17. Castillo Montero’s proposal was inspired by ancient, prehistoric figures such as Venus of Willendorf, a statuette of a woman believed to have been carved nearly 30,000 years ago. She hoped to address the evolution of beauty standards.
With time and reflection, however, her cap- stone evolved to include all types of beauty. “I wanted to represent women, but also everyone in society, and my project changed to include masculinity and people in the middle of both genders,” Castillo Montero says. “Each figure represents something different to me, but they are open to interpretation and the perspective of the viewer.”
One figure is an older woman surrounded by vines, evocative of Mother Nature. One figure represents growth and learning, while another expresses the pressure on young girls to cover their bodies. Fragile masculinity is represented through spikes protruding through the body of a male figure, while a smaller piece suffers from scratches and scars.
The bodies were wheel thrown, then molded and shaped. Castillo Montero added decorations and surface designs by hand before finishing them with a wash in cool tones of blues and greens.
“It’s a discovery process for me,” she says of her work in ceramics. “I never would have thought during my freshman year I’d be able to do this, but I really enjoyed the process. It’s very therapeutic.”
With her capstone and graduation behind her, Castillo Montero is looking ahead to attending Brandeis University, where she hopes to continue chasing all the passions that came to life during her time on The Hilltop. “I see medicine as a career and my future,” she says. “My Cullman was such a pleasant experience. Being in the hospital made me realize that this is really for me.”
