Art is a way of life for Whitney Dearden, and always has been. Whitney is originally from Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia where she grew up with her parents and three younger sisters. She has drawn and painted since she was 10 years old, but thanks to her mother, she also went often to major museums in Philadelphia and New York to see great art. She ended up loving both: the doing and the seeing, the creation and the interpretation. Not unexpectedly when she came to the University of South Carolina in 2007 on a McNair Scholarship, she opted for a double major in art studio and art history. Whitney has taken advantage of the academic richness of USC, as well as many other resources that make extracurricular activities possible beyond the classroom: creative work in art for a senior thesis, study abroad and involvement in student organizations and activities.

This coming fall and spring Whitney will be completing a senior thesis with work that presents art in the form of a narrative: a series of interrelated drawings telling a story. She is hoping to evoke an imagined world in which the kidnapping and rescue of invented characters provide key archetypes, such as those found in Greek myths, with which we can all relate. 

Over the past summer Whitney had her first chance to visit Europe as a study abroad student. This is an experience that the College of Arts and Sciences would like all our students to have to expand their views of the world in which they live. Whitney took a painting course on ‘Landscape and Meaning’ from USC Art Professor David Voros in Umbria, Italy. It was an eye-opening experience in a setting in which landscapes, history and art are intimately intertwined. After the course ended, she stayed longer in Italy to visit Rome, and then traveled to Paris, and northern France visiting museums and seeing art in some of the greatest collections in the world. As one who especially appreciates the impressionists, she visited Giverny and the home of Claude Monet (see picture).

For Whitney art is an act of creative expression and, as such much more than simply painting or drawing. For her intellectually and personally, it also includes writing, theatre, dance and creative performances of all kinds. In this expanded view of art, she has interests in theatre, particularly stage management.  She is a stage manager of the USC Lab Theatre at the Booker T. Washington complex, which is presently in production for the upcoming show ‘Proof’, and will be having its premier at the Lab Theatre in early October, 2010. She is also the treasurer of Green Room Productions, a student organization that has spearheaded space renovations at Benson School for student productions and theatrical experiments. Whitney plans to fuse her interests in art, art history and theatre into a career in stage management. After graduation in May 2011 she hopes to undertake graduate work in the prestigious MFA programs in this discipline at Columbia or Yale. Her experiences in class and outside class have given her exceptional credentials for such a career step.

Museums, grand art, colored pencils and child painting kits captured Whitney’s imagination when she was young. Her experiences in the Art Department and in theatre at USC as an undergraduate have continued to fuel her creative expression and maturation as an artist and historian. Her academic success in the College of Arts and Sciences is a tribute to her hard work and the great faculty with whom she has interacted in her career here. We are proud to name her our Student of the Month for September.

Back to Archive