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THE ARTISANS Name: Kira Livingston ’19 Major: Art Origin: Atlanta, Georgia Classification: Junior Artistic Expression: Painting Instagram: kiralivingston Kira Livingston: I’ve had some great professors who were very encouraging and helped me plan out careers for the future if I want to make a career in art. Demarcus Fields: What does art mean to you? Kira Livingston: Art is a way to ■ express myself. As a pretty qui et person, when I have a real | statement to say, I do it through my art. I Demarcus Fields: What is some of your favorite art? Kira Livingston: I like Renais sance and your older artwork because it is realistic but dra- I matic. I love art like The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio. Demarcus Fields: If you got to paint anything live, what would it be? Kira Livingston: Donald Glover. I really really like him. Demarcus Fields: Any Spelman experiences that have helped you out as an artist? Demarcus Fields: If Spelman de cided to name a building after you or give you a statue for your works, what would it be for? Kira Livingston: For being a pi oneer at Spelman and sticking to my art even when the cur riculum for me to learn art was taken away. Demarcus Fields: What is your perspective on art and social issues? Kira Livingston: Artists definitely have a platform to discuss is sues, but artists should not feel required to answer these issues. If they want to answer I think that is great, and visually they will be drawn in to attract more attention. Demarcus Fields: What are your thoughts about black art? Kira Livingston: It is great and an interesting category. People expect your artwork to auto matically be tied into the civil rights movement as a black art ist, which is. sometimes inevi table. Yet, sometimes I believe the best black art is displayed through expression of self as a black person. Name: Chancia Fairley '19 Major: English (Education Con centration) Origin: Leavenworth, Kansas Classification: Junior Artistic Expression: Singer/ Songwriter OF; When you perform and sing, how do you feel? Chancia: The feeling is beyond words. It is very spiritual. No matter what I am feeling, I know that opening my mouth and letting sound come out, that is a part of me fulfilling my purpose. Demarcus Fields: How does faith play a part in who you are artistically? Chancia Fairley: God gave me this. I made a song that says “music is my lil brother” be cause to me it is something I have been given to take care of until Jesus returns. So, my faith is the filter in which my music comes. I consider a song weak if I do not feel I get it from God. Demarcus Fields: What brought you to Spelman? Chancia Fairley: I knew I wanted to go to an HBCU in the South. I went to a multicultural school my whole life, so I wanted to learn more about us and myself as a black woman. Spelman popped up as I scrolled on the computer, but I passed it be cause the website looked bor ing. Haha. When I looked back at it, I fell in love with it. I offi cially became a YouTube addict from there on. Demarcus Fields: What is black art? Chancia Fairley: Africa. Every part of it is rooted from Africa. When we think of art and mu sic, everything we do is tied to it. We can never escape from it because that is who we are. Demarcus Fields: What makes you different from other artists? Chancia Fairley: My soul is in this. My parents told me I would eventually have to charge peo ple for singing, but I could sing for the rest of my life, never get paid, and still feel rich. My ev erything is in music. I do not need the extra to come along with it to feel like I benefit from it. Demarcus Fields: What is your advice for artists? Chancia Fairley: The most au thentic work we can create is the work that is true about us and to us. Tell your story. What ever is true to you at the time, put that in the rawest form of your music. Demarcus Fields: One message you could leave with anyone reading this article? Chancia Fairley: Life is not a struggle to find yourself or pur pose. Life is the struggle to al low God to show you who you are and take the responsibility off of yourself to find out who you are, because you already have something laid out before you. If life is a movie and you are the actor, the only way to properly play your role is to consult the director. -021- Chanda Fairley