From the small town of Wonderlake , Ill., Meghan Freund (pronounced “friend”) is an art major at NIU. She transferred to DeKalb after studying at Columbia College in Chicago for a couple years as an advertising design major.

While at Columbia Freund realized advertising wasn’t her calling. She had painted all her life, loved it, was good at it and figured, “Why not do what you love?” Columbia didn’t have the major she was interested in, so she transferred to NIU to pursue art, even though it meant she practically had to start over. Since making the move, she met her boyfriend, begun sculpting and had her painting displayed in the halls at the Visual Arts Building.

The beginning

Freund has painted since she was a child and later picked up photography and sculpture. She particularly enjoys portraits using sculpture. For example, a small, old television set to which she attached a fishing pole for an antenna. There is a motor of a blender, along with a few cigars and fishing lures on a plate resting on top of the television. She describes the sculpture as the portrait of her father.

“When it’s turned on, it makes a gentle hissing white noise — just like his presence,” she said.

She tends to utilize her emotions as motivation for her work. She experienced a relatively traumatic childhood. She had a handicapped younger sister as well as an alcoholic father. Her parents went through an ugly divorce when she was 15 years old. Art became medicinal to her. In fact, she used to bring her paintings with her to discuss with her therapist. Freund said talking about her emotions through art with her therapist definitely helped her, particularly when she was at Columbia and struggling to figure out what to do with her life.

“I’ve gone through so many emotions growing up that I feel I can recognize a lot of emotions in art that others might not see,” Freund said.

Her favorite artists are Monet and Wassily Kandinsky, but she’s careful not to copy them. She picks up ideas from others and makes them personal to her.

“I would call my work mostly very abstract, with lots of movement. I like to use different techniques. It’s very experimental,” she said.

When painting, the artist begins by thinking of an idea or a subject. In one of her paintings, for example, she used traveling. She then tries to relate traveling to something in her life, such as her long commute from the quiet country town of Wonderlake to Chicago.

She also puts together self-portrait collages, using everything from an 8th grade class schedule to a picture of her favorite band, Neutral Milk Hotel.

The future

Set to graduate in a couple years, she’d like to teach art — possibly in high school — She would like to eventually teach in college.

Paul Giuntoli is a film critic for the Northern Star.