One of the many things that Covenant prides itself on is community. Between the faculty, professors, and other students, many of us here at Covenant will attest to how great the relationships here are, but we often fail to mention how rich and valuable our community is beyond campus.
With homecoming weekend having just passed, I have been reminded of how great our alumni are and how they are still a valuable and cherished part of our Covenant community. Abi Ogle (‘18) is an example of someone who has blessed not only Covenant’s campus, but is now enriching other communities through her art.
Ogle is widely recognized as an unstoppable, art-making machine. During her senior year at Covenant, she dabbled in everything from installation art, to embroidery, to watercolors, and even paint palette jewelry.
Whether it was her senior exhibition piece or another work of hers, Ogle had a way of inviting the viewer into intimate spaces of memory, loss, and nostalgia. Currently, Ogle is still creating art along a similar theme of stories and memories.
For example, one of the projects she is most excited about is the Mononmatriach portraits she did with the Harrison Center in Indianapolis. Each of these portraits features one of six women who have lived most of their lives in a particular neighborhood in Indianapolis. The women Ogle highlights each had powerful stories to share with her about the ways in which their neighborhood has changed and grown over the years.
In return for hearing these women’s stories and being invited into their memories and space, Ogle wanted to, “enter into a conversation with them that is dignifying, tied to art history, and honoring them for their time spent loving the community so well.”
To accomplish these goals, Ogle paints each of these women purple, the historical color of royalty. Additionally, each of these portraits has a specific reference to an art historical piece done by an African-American woman artist. Individually, each of these pieces have a lot more depth, meaning, and symbolism that Ogle explains on her Instagram story highlight called, “MONONMATRIARCHS”.
Currently, you can see these portraits in Indianapolis hanging up on the side of the Gleaners building on Monon & 16th. Ogle states that she feels very grateful for the opportunity to hear these women’s stories and be able to paint their portraits.
If you’re an art major or any other kind of creator and are interested in using your work to serve the community, Ogle’s advice is to simply put your work out there. She encourages all creators to put in the time and effort into creating shows and collaborating with other artists.
Ogle admits, “You’re gonna ‘get too busy’, but you will never regret working with other amazing people, or trying for something. It can be scary to put your work out there, but it’s really neat to watch the unexpected unfold because you took a chance.”
If you’re interested in keeping up with Abi Ogle and all the work she is creating, follow her on Instagram @abiogle for more content.