spirit

Sydney Maubert sports an impressive resume and is gifted with creative talent. She is a MArch II graduate student at Yale’s School of Architecture class of 2022. She just completed her BArch at the University of Miami’s five year program and is also the owner of Sydney R. Maubert LLC, art under which she’s completed two murals in Wynwood. She hopes to use her educational, professional and personal experiences, in practice and pedagogy to design equitable spaces for marginalized students and users.  How did you get involved in the world of art?   I got involved in art through my parents who really supported my interests in art by buying me all the paper, canvases and brushes as a kid. My Dad especially fostered my interest in art by giving me lessons through his own talent and the books he bought me. I think my skills were refined in architecture school at the University of Miami.    What art do you most identify with?   I’m not sure which genre I’d be in. I am a portrait artist, an Afro-latin artist. I use acrylic paint to convey personality and emotion, and it’s clear that I have an interest in identity and exploitation through my own lens and identity. It’s an expression of myself more than mimicking a particular style or person. I have a loose classical background from architecture school but my style is constantly changing as a result of me being self taught. I mostly look at people I know for inspiration, mainly writers and professors, like Cornel West or Angela Davis.    Professionally, what’s your goal?  I want to be an architect, an educator and an artist. In all my work, whatever artistic media, I have always been fascinated by humanity’s changing forms. I hope that I can use the education and opportunities I receive to open doors for other students, and potentially remain a student for the rest of my life. It’s why I invested in additional education at Yale. I’d love to see myself as dean of one of my alums one day. I hope my art continues to be shown in public venues. I’m trying to create a legacy for my students and children.  Your mural at Syndicate Kava Bar… Why did you create this particular art media?  I really enjoyed this mural project because I enjoy painting at larger scales. It allows me to play with form, color and lighting more playfully than the challenge of a smaller surface. Given that it was my second mural with them, I began to grow my confidence and have kind of a first taste of being public. I do sell paintings to friends or anyone who finds me online, but I haven’t been publicly shown in the way that an outdoor mural warrants. Murals are my favorite and I hope to do more. As for the three music artists represented, the owner really loves music, and I tried to accommodate both of our music genres.  How does your art stand out from other art from today?   I think that the wonderful thing about artistic expression is that it captures the intangible in a comprehensible way. Even though two people might look at my paintings or designs and notice different things, they might interpret my soul or the subject’s humanity in a way that sometimes the banality of life doesn’t allow. It allows suffering to speak in a beautiful way. I don’t know if that translates in a simple portrait but it’s what I feel especially when my paintings are more charged, more of a conversation piece.    What do you love about Miami’s art scene?    I love Miami for its culture, honesty, charm and vulnerabilities. I didn’t really feel like an artist until I started to notice Miami in its full richness, its culture, wealth and poverty, the beautiful and the inequitable. I visit Wynwood a lot to learn from what other artists are doing or saying. Being Cuban and Haitian, I’ve always had a deep appreciation for the food, music, art, architecture, the vibrance of the Caribbean, and its people. I have a deep love for people, but especially my heritage, so Miami allowed me to relish in both cultures. A lot of my curiosity and passion revolves around people, art, architecture and education which all revolve around capturing and analyzing the human mind, body and spirit.  To learn more about Sydney and her work, visit her website at www.sydneyrmaubert.com Follow Sidney on Instagram @sydneymaubertarc