By Abby Mickler
Amongst the graduating seniors of Valdosta State University’s (VSU) class of Spring 2020 is Nariel Tribble, graduating with a BA in Art. Nariel was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, until she then later moved to Savannah, Georgia; she has lived in Savannah ever since being in the first grade. Valdosta State University has really helped shape Nariel as a person and, furthermore, as an artist. The small, family-like, intimate atmosphere of the Art Department at VSU has been an amazing aspect of college for Nariel due to being able to really get to know fellow peers and instructors. She explains that everyone knows everyone and that it is just a very close-knit place. Also, “it gives more opportunities for growth and to dive deep into the specific media you love”, she explains. Nariel was granted the opportunity to study abroad in Japan as well, deepening her knowledge of art and culture as well as aiding her in making many more new friends.
Nariel, before starting her college journey, simply loved to draw on her own and just doodle; it wasn’t until starting her major that she discovered a love and seriousness for other medium. She soon came to realize that she had a deep love for sculpture and printmaking in particular and claims that the instructors she had for those classes really inspired her and helped her grow in the media.
Nariel’s favorite thing in the world is and always has been plants and nature in general. Her love for plants sparked when she was a young girl. Nariel explained that, as a young girl, she felt so overwhelmed and distraught from all of the negativity around her in the world. She felt as though she couldn’t do much to aid in bettering the life of humans, so she searched for an alternative. This is when her love for nature started. She stated, “the natural world became my sacred ground in a society that lacked both sympathy and empathy. I wanted to protect nature since I couldn’t protect everyone else”. So, Nariel’s work in the Senior Show, and in general, reflect this idea and theme.
In Nariel’s pieces, she analyzes not only the natural world but also the nature of humans and the commonalities between them. She states, “in my work, I address homogeneity between the disconnected worlds of nature and man. I visually express those connections by utilizing organic matter and the language of flora with sculpted forms, metal, and printmaking media”. She enjoys exploring ideas that cause people to stop and think about the world and the negative events occurring in our environment, both natural and human. She often “challenges the power dynamics of both worlds against each other, hoping it will influence us to be more humane”. Nariel informed me that there are no particular stories behind her individual pieces, rather, they all work together as a whole under this theme and idea.
Nariel’s work definitely gives its viewers a sense of both nature and the destruction within our beloved environment. Some of her works draw more attention to the beauty of nature, while others draw attention to the destruction within it. Regardless, Nariel hopes that her audience will find peace by experiencing some of her pieces and hope that they will also realize that there is so much cruelty being done to our world that, together, we can little by little fix.