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I tuned in to my weekly discover on Spotify, absentmindedly listening to songs while I weeded through tangled thoughts. Midway through folding my laundry, the words from my stereo harnessed my focus into one single line of thought. I ran to my phone to check the name of the song “Praying to a God” by Mr. Probz (LUKE remix). I listened closely.

There was a story. The song writer uses euphemisms to gently describe a callous life, softened descriptions an intensely painful lifestyle surrounding drugs and hopelessness.

Then, I began pondering the meaning of the title. How curious it is that people have faith…and keep faith even when their god doesn’t respond to them or decide to let go. I dug up the novel song published in 2015 originally by the Norwegian duo Nico & Vinz. I’d heard of these guys! They did the radio hit “Am I Wrong?” that anyone with remote exposure to contemporary R&B music would know, but how come more people don’t hear this one? I always wonder what merits a radio hit. Praying to a God includes expressive language about the absence of peace and order, like what one would see without the presence of, for many people, God. Statistics show an obvious decline of organized religion. Why this is the first time in history that “no religion” dominates the results of surveys of Americans’ religious identity?

Throughout college, I’ve spoken with people who live with an absence of religion or are deeply grounded in one.

Multimedia artist Grace Coudal is an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan studying Art & Design and LGBTQ studies. In addition to her academics, she runs STAA COLLECTIVE, an activist artist group that explores themes such as identity, sexuality, and intimacy. Grace also co-founded Between Girls, a space for girls to have honest conversations about intimacy and identity. She also is an experienced designer, photographer, and fibers artist. I sat down with the 20 year old artist hailing from Chicago to talk about how she became an artist and her perspectives on art.

At a young age, Grace told me that she was into sports, and even rowed competitively for two years in high school. Ultimately it was a zine class in elementary school that sparked her need for creativity, opening her mind to making art that was personal, relatable, and could be sellable. Grace says the teacher of that zine class showed her that there was more to art than just crafts, and to be accepting of one’s gender and sexuality. Later on, Grace would be out on the water for crew practice and let her mind dwell on the artistic projects she could be doing–she then realized that she could be putting her time towards art instead. For the rest of high school and in college, Grace met other unique artists and realized that art was truly her passion.

Art has many meanings–to Grace, she believes it to be “a universal language that challenges and enhances and confuses your brain in a way that other fields don’t. It’s so much deeper than day-to-day stuff, and up to the person to define.” As an artist, Grace strives to be honest and vulnerable in order to make others feel seen and heard–art with social impact is her speciality. She says, “Conversations, books, podcasts inspire me to make art that talks about [sexuality and human connection]. I make art that’s seen as taboo and I love hearing other people’s stories.”

One inspiring project of Grace’s is a suit and lingerie set created last year promoting rights for sex workers. Grace explains that she is “so satisfied with it because it’s impactful and a wearable–it’s intriguing material and people interact with it, so it continues to have a life. I like to interact with art daily by wearing it.”

Clearly, Grace is on a path to do great things and influence others to be truly open and vulnerable. For now, she’s a junior in college, but sees herself as an entrepreneur of a sustainable business–“I never imagined working for someone else. I envision running a brand or art group and still pursuing my own work. I know it will happen.”

Lectures are tough. Interesting? Indeed! But still, tough. 

All Stamps students are required to take two art history courses, Art and Design History and Art and Design in Context(which is basically Part II of the first one). Don’t worry, I can assure you they are as “bleh” as they sound. Occasionally there will be exciting topics in lecture and discussion but for the most part, the class is filled with information I will not retain even if I tried. Last semester many students decided not to show up because they believed they could make better use of their time by working in the studios instead. Since so many people skipped, my professor eventually made it extra credit if you attended. lol.

The small “rebellion” towards our required course led us to this semester for Part II of Art and Design History where my professor(same one:)) has implemented a new strategy to reel us in and trap us for an hour. Her secret weapon… iclickers. These $40 little remotes are the devil. They allow my professor to smirk at us and say, “Lecture is not mandatory but it is welcomed.” To put the cherry on top, this semester’s lecture is at 5pm. Although it is not tooo late, everyone is dead by the time lecture rolls around and most people fall asleep during it. Honestly, very good lecture entertainment if I do say so myself. 

To make these one hour lectures on Monday and Wednesday go quicker, students chat and doodle. I mean it’s art school. What do you expect? Doodling is a pastime and makes the clock move faster than one can imagine. My “note-taking” pages in my sketchbook are filled with a bunch of random thoughts, weird monsters, the occasional note, and drawings of my professor. The other day I noticed it was not just my sketchbook filled with these things but everyone else’s as well. This brings me to my “argument” for this week…drum roll please…du.du.du.du.dudududud…doodles are art! I started to ask all of my friends to see what consumed their notebooks and was happy to see their pages dancing with doodles. I mean, a whole gallery could be dedicated to ARTDES150’s lecture doodles! Okay. That’s dramatic. A wall could be dedicated to ARTDES150’s lecture doodles!*

My favorite characteristic of doodles is that you don’t have to try to make them. You kind of just do it, it’s there, and nothing really happens besides simply bringing the one who drew it joy. (Although I must mention too, sometimes doodles can start a career. There is literally an artist named Mr. Doodle, who creates patterns with doodles. Granted, they are pretty amazing, but still, there is proof of a doodle career!)

Furthermore, another quality of doodles I enjoy is that literally, EVERYONE creates them. Going to the University of Michigan I have met numerous people with a variety of majors and they all have lil doodles in their notebooks too. Whether or not people believe they create art for enjoyment, there is proof it is inside all of us. Doodles are the evidence that everyone has creative energy and although they are usually small they can lead to big ideas. 

This week I encourage everyone to doodle there professor like the Stamps kids in ARTDES150. It is quite fun and again, passes the time. For inspiration and to end this post, here are a couple of snapshots of the doodles that fill the Stamps Lecture Hall. Enjoy!