Merritt Barnwell, Saybrook College, 2022
Merritt is an exemplary community member and art student, who has grown so much over the past few years. She has a demonstrated seriousness of purpose and ambition, and augments her art practice with a double major in History of Art. I have found that it is often the double majors that seem to work the hardest and somehow find more hours in a day. Merritt has always been a stand-out student in the Art major and has worked harder and more deeply than many of her peers. She took a deep dive into painting as a medium, but then was incredibly open to what she could learn from exploring other media, as the major is designed to encourage, and found that making work in sculpture and printmaking fed her practice and allowed her to communicate ideas in new and exciting ways. – Lisa Kereszi, MFA 2000, Senior Critic, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Art, Yale School of Art