Orli Swergold Introduces Students to Paper Pulp Sculpting

If art is an imitation of nature, there’s no better boarding school for aspiring artists than Millbrook. With 800 acres of stunning scenery to explore, access to a zoo filled with exotic and endangered wildlife, and a community dedicated to appreciating and conserving the natural world, student artists here have unlimited inspiration. And when artist Orli Swergold visited campus at the invitation of Art Instructor Kiernan Pazdar, the symbiotic connection between art and nature was fully reinforced.

A visual artist who works mainly with paper pulp, wood, and metal, Swergold received her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2021 and is now based in New York City. Her work has been exhibited all over the world—including in our Warner Gallery, in 2023’s Autonomic Materials, and the current exhibit, Graphic Language.

In addition to referencing her own experience, Swergold draws heavily on nature to create her art, sourcing everything from butterflies to sulfur deposits in Iceland and termite mounds. She finds beauty in often unnoticed corners of the natural world. Describing one series of her paintings, she explained, “I was thinking a lot about moss and lichen and slime mold, these parts of our ecology that we don’t really think so much about that actually allow our entire world to function.” Also, the paper pulp she uses for her art is recycled byproduct from a paper mill, a clear parallel to Millbrook’s core value of sustainability.

Swergold was busy during her time on campus. On Friday, she spent time in art classes and gave students feedback in our honors art studio spaces. She also gave an artist talk in the Warner Gallery, detailing her artistic journey from high school to today. Showing images of her work, she explained how she progressed from traditional oil painting to sculptural pieces, creating her own visual language. She shared about how her experimentation with different mediums and concepts shaped her unique style, giving students an example of freedom of expression to follow:

Students in Pazdar’s Honors Drawing & Painting and 2D Design classes began blocking out ideas for their own paper pulp sculptures before Swergold came to campus, and on Friday she walked them through dying and applying the pulp. The Millbrook creatives immediately took to the medium, producing vibrant color palettes and making great progress on their projects.

This exposure to a level of creativity typically reserved for college and the professional world is one of the qualities that makes Millbrook an ideal environment for artistic development. We’re thankful to Orli for sharing her time and technique with us, and we’re excited to see the beautiful art students produce as a result!

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