IU senior and Hudson and Holland Scholar Claudia Brooks is spending her summer as a studio assistant intern.
Brooks explained the Hudson and Holland Scholars Program requires she complete an internship related to her field of study before graduation. The HHSP website clarified this requirement is meant to help scholars plan for life after college.
As a Painting BFA, Brooks said she had a hard time finding an acceptable internship position that both met her needs and those of the scholars program.
Luckily, Brooks said the painting faculty were willing to help and she was given a position as a summer studio assistant to both the painting graduate students and faculty. She then sent out an email offering help to anyone who needed her.
Brooks said only two graduate students responded — Mitch Raney and Julio Suarez.
While she did work with Raney, Brooks has spent most of her time in Suarez’s studio. She said so far she has helped Suarez build 33 wood panels for painting, modeled for four portraits and on occasion and just sat and talked to him while he worked.
“He told me he likes people to talk to him while he paints, so I’ve done that a couple of times which is always interesting,” she said.
Brooks revealed she has learned a lot about painting from simply talking to Suarez and watching him work.
“Anytime I work with Julio he is always dispensing little gems of wisdom,” she said.
Specifically, she said he emphasizes the benefits of painting from life.
“He’s really about drawing from life,” she said. “Like that is the way.”
Brooks said the bulk of her internship thus far has been sitting and talking to Suarez while he paints her. She explained this is to help Suarez get started on the large series of portraits he plans on painting this summer.
Normally, being the one painting the model, Brooks talked about what it has been like being on the other side of the canvas.
“It’s so strange,” she said. “No one has ever looked at my face so intensely. It’s strangely intimate, not in a romantic kind of way though.”
Brooks said Suarez is intensely focused on the fine details of each painting. She said after an outdoor modeling session the chair Brooks had been sitting on was moved to a different spot. She said when they returned the next day, Suarez used topographical indicators in a photo he had taken of the set up to put the chair back exactly in place.
“He was like a forensic scientist,” she said. “I was really impressed.”
Overall, Brooks said she has really enjoyed working with the graduate students and learning more about them as both artists and people.
