The senior combines her interests in sustainable agriculture and the environment with her love for creating art.
Although Charlotte Murphy ’19 arrived at Elon unsure if she could be an artist, once she took a fundamentals design class her first semester, everything changed. Pushed to engage her innate curiosity, Charlotte was drawn to using her hands to build and experiment. She switched her focus from digital design to painting, interested in expanding painting to be more sculptural while investigating nature, community and food sources.
Charlotte’s academic path reflects her upbringing. She grew up in a large farm house in Vermont, hiking every Saturday with her family and spending the summers barefoot, venturing into the outdoors. “There’s so much creativity in nature, and my desire to be an artist comes from wanting to reflect that. I think environmentalism needs more than just scientists. I see the need for art to offer a more metaphorical view.”
Working as a resident assistant within the Sustainable Living Learning Community in the Colonnades Neighborhood has been instructive in other ways, teaching Charlotte leadership and communication skills. She says one of the most significant lessons has been refining her listening skills. “It’s humbling to hear people first and then respond,” she says.
Charlotte is finishing her senior thesis, which focuses on nearby Cane Creek Farm. Passionate about food, she wants her art to be a vessel promoting local, sustainable farms. She’s using the farm’s red clay soil to create sculptural paintings, abstractly illustrating the farm’s land and animals. “A beautiful landscape painting doesn’t interest me. I prefer to let the materials inform my work and expand the boundaries of art beyond a white wall gallery.”
Nearing graduation, Charlotte says she’ll miss the closeness she’s found at Elon and the ability to overlap her interests and learn on a broad scale. “I love being here because I’m not locked into certain communities and I’m always exploring and learning. It’s never boring.”
Charlotte is Elon and one of the many stories that are part of our “I Am Elon” series.
By Kim Walker