Name: Nicolette MartinClass: Senior
Sport: Beach Volleyball
Major: Fine Arts
GPA: 3.7
Aubrey Kragen (AK): When did you fall in love with art and decide you wanted to pursue it as a career?
Nicolette Martin (NM): I've been doing art my whole life, like ever since I can remember. All I wanted for my birthday or for Christmas was a new box of crayons. So I've always known what I wanted to do with my life -- I've always known that I wanted to pursue art.
AK: Some might say art isn't the most practical major. Did you ever encounter that with your parents or have they always been supportive?
NM: No, they've always been so, so supportive of whatever I've wanted to do. I understand that it's hard to make a lot of money and get a job with art, but they saw how easily I fell in love with it and how talented I became so quickly that they were totally supportive.
AK: Do you have a favorite type of art to create?
NM: My emphasis is drawing and painting, so I really like oil painting and just drawing with pencil. But it was a blessing and a curse that my schedule with volleyball kind of conflicted with the art classes here, because I've actually been in everything -- photography, ceramics, sculpture. But I kind of like that that happened, because I've gotten to try everything.
AK: Do you have a favorite piece that you've created?
NM: I guess I love them all. I'm really into print making right now, which is etching on a metal plate and rolling it through a printing press. I guess that's my favorite technique right now. But I don't know if I have a favorite piece.
AK: What do you want to do with your degree once you graduate?
NM: I'm not really sure yet. I know I want to play professional beach volleyball right after school on the AVP Tour. I'm still going to be making art, but it will just be freelance stuff. I've made wedding invitations in the past, so if I have friends or siblings getting married, they'll ask me to do that for them. Just little stuff on the side for at least a year or two.
AK: Does being an artist and being an athlete ever conflict? Or do they work together in some ways?
NM: I went through a period of time where I was making art about my team, which was really cool. I kind of stopped doing that, but it was really interesting. I'd never thought about combining the two. They don't really conflict. Sometimes it can be a good thing -- I like to make art about some experiences that I've had in volleyball, which is fun to show especially people at Roski who don't even know we have a beach volleyball team.
AK: Outside of your own experiences, where do you get inspiration?
NM: Most of the inspiration comes -- especially in my drawing class I'm in right now -- from artists that are working right now. We take a ton of field trips to LACMA and show openings and we get to talk to some amazing artists at Roski. They have some amazing people coming in to just speak to us. I guess that's where some of my inspiration is coming from, just the big names that are working right now.
AK: Who are some of those artists?
NM: The first really amazing show I went to was Pierre Huyghe at LACMA. Some inspirations for me right now are Sophie Calle and Karl Haendel, who just came and talked to us. He does some amazing drawings.
AK: As the only fine arts major on the team, do you ever feel out of place? Or is it nice to have something unique to bring to the table?
NM: I think it's kind of fun. I think there are more, but I only know one other athlete in Roski. I think it's fun to be on my own because I have my team who's always interested in what I'm doing and then my friends at Roski. So it's just like two groups of people that have no idea about the other. It's like a double life.
Yeah, she gets artsy. ??????Check out @Nic0letteMartin's print entitled "Separate Functions" at the Roski BFA Senior Seminar Show #FightOn pic.twitter.com/s9p3OchZdO
-- USC Beach Volleyball (@USCBeach) November 16, 2016
