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Thursday 4 February 2021

“Tenderness of Strength”:

How Roslyn Schwengle

turned darkness to light

through art

Next to this, the green light thing that is just precious
team, including myself, or- and rewarding.”
ganized the entire event
independently from the What did you display in the
school. This was approved exhibition?
by the Director of Minerva “In this exhibition I pre-
Academy, Jose de Lang sented “Tenderness of
who has our development Strength” (Ink on acid-
as young artists from the free paper 21 x 29, 7 cm)
beginning. From looking for and “Darkness of Day”
a venue, curation, funding, (Paint on textile 143cm
promotion, concept, trans- x 195cm).’Tenderness of
port, including our digital Strength' includes aspects
platform which included of vulnerability and brav-
Oranjestad — This year is the year of the creative industry, thus also the year of information on the artist ery, such as when we face
creative artists and entrepreneurs. Today we are catching up with the new up- pages supported by a 360 obstacles that frighten or
coming young Aruban artist in the Netherlands who is breaking the ceiling in the degree walkthrough. We intimidate us and observ-
fine arts. The Creative Islander interviewed Roslyn Schwengle to find out what she even collaborated with de- ing them from another per-
is currently up to and how this could contribute to a dynamic Aruban creative signers in the Department spective. In life, hardships
Industry in the future. We want to support our artist and especially the new gen- of Design who helped us and challenges are com-
eration of artists. Covid-19 has been devastating for the cultural sector, but read program the website from mon. However, through
how Roslyn has managed to transform darkness to light and her message to other scratch. The Green light’s these situations, we discov-
young artists on Aruba. exhibition was inaugurated er parts of ourselves, grow,
on January 31st 2021 and and ultimately prosper. The
Who is Roslyn Schwengle? will be available until Feb- purpose of my work is to fa-
“My name is Roslyn Schwengle and I am 22 years old. I am an Aruban artist finishing my ruary 6th 2021. Together cilitate a space where my
Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the Hanze Hogeschool Academy Minerva in Gronin- we innovated and made audience can self-reflect.
gen, the Netherlands. In 2017 I received the opportunity to further my studies and with- history within an unprec- Tenderness springs from
out hesitation, I left my beloved island to pursue my dreams. From a young age I used edented pandemic. Even strength and capacity, but
to enjoy painting and seek for creative and artistic ways to express my emotions. Never though we could not re- there are extra qualities
would I thought that I am becoming an emerging artist and how art could change my ceive and host visitors in and depth that can only
life. I am very much known for my ambitious character, cautious instincts, humility, kind- person, we welcomed come from a heart that has
ness, and my critical and analytical thinking. Now I can say that my hard work is paying even more people by go- experienced its own vulner-
off and that is the biggest lesson I could have learned.” ing online. ability and pain. This experi-
ence of being "tenderized"
What is the Green Light exhibition? Why is it so important? The Green light is very im- can strengthen us, and
“The Green light exhibition is a yearly event hosted by Academy Minerva that deter- portant to be because it also help us become more
mines if a student can receive a “green light” to the next phase of graduation and will determine my future tender in loving, not only
participate in the final graduation show. It is the culmination of the years of hard work career. We organized this others but ourselves. With
students have displayed. In the event that you receive a “red light” you are then not event to motivate and “Darkness of Day” I wanted
allowed to graduate. So, you can imagine how nerve-wracking this is for most students. giver hope to the world to illustrate my journey up
Minerva Academy’s Green Light Exhibition is organized by the exam committee of the through our creativity and until greenlights. With the
Department of Fine Arts. This year the exhibition had 55 participants ranging from differ- passion. With the inspira- message that life continu-
ent artistic disciplines and backgrounds. Due to the pandemic, this year it had to be a tion of the art compass, my ous even in darkness.”
bit different. The participants displayed around 53 works offline and 55 works online. It is colleagues and I could our-
also the first time that Minerva displayed an exhibition in the center of Groningen situ- selves and our artistic disci- Continued on Page 9
ated at Herenstraat in the building known as “men at work”. plines to the world. Some-