Watch how senior Malayah Reynolds uses paint to capture the tension of anxiety and the cycles of self-reflection in this installment of our Senior Spotlight video series.
Malayah Reynolds’ practice explores the physical manifestation of mental exhaustion, utilizing both portraiture and figuration to represent the tension between mind-body connections. The forms she paints are contorted and strange, but recognizably human — a visual way to express how excessive thought patterns trigger anxiety. Spirals and textured surfaces are often incorporated within the background, illustrating the cyclical nature of introspection, and how a self-examination that was supposed to foster growth became a source of pain.
In this spotlight, Reynolds shares how music shapes her creative process, her recent experiments with new materials — such as incorporating salt directly into paint — and how her senior studio became a meditative space during her final year.