Public Faces

At one of the colleges we visited in Maine, there were these student paintings in the reception room. I was drawn to the straightforward, almost photographic approach of these portraits, and their rich use of color and distinctive posture. I feel as if I would recognize these people walking down the street. They have their public faces on. They seem so guarded in a way, so watchful and reserving judgement. And yet the artist caught something of their internal world, too. I called the school just now and learned the name of the artist is Julia Rice, who did these portraits as her senior thesis in 2007.

Here is a photo my girl, filling out the paperwork to attest that she visited and toured the school, and that she does lots of fascinating extracurriculars and is a worthy candidate in case she decides to apply. I don't think she will choose to apply. She's wearing her public face, too. The school felt isolated to her, despite the fact that our tour guide was a Jamaican student of Indian descent, who went to the same Kingston high school as my niece. This vibrant young woman turned out to be one of two people of color we saw all day. The other was an Ethiopian student studying in the library, with whom I struck up a conversation. She shared that she sometimes felt lonely, but the professors were top-notch and her financial aid package very generous. The photo below is how my daughter looks when she is in self-protected observer mode.

And here she is with a member of her girl crew, back in the city, just before they met up with a group of their long time friends. They went for ice cream at Shake Shack and compared notes on college visits and everything else. Such lightness here. Nothing like the assurance of being in a place where one is sure of one's welcome.