It Always Comes Back to Beautiful by Madylin Nixon-Taplet
Our new Associate Director of Artist Training, Madylin Nixon-Taplet, remembers her journey with The Beautiful Project that started as an internship in 2015.
Activism.
Representation.
Justice.
Care.
My activism started with my art.
My art [as it is today] started with this organization. This organization started with HER dream. And the dream…has always been rooted in the activism.
And it always comes back to Beautiful…
Art has been a part of my life for as long as my mind can reach back and form the memories of when. I wrote stories of my imagination’s wildest places and drew characters that understood me even amongst the chaos of finding the me I wanted to be. I felt like the world didn’t understand, my kinship didn’t understand, the endless number of questions with no answers about who I was becoming was overwhelming. But my art. The art expressed my becoming. Even before I could interpret all of the pieces. My pen, my lens, my soul. My respite and reprieve. The way I felt seen, heard, and secured.
It wasn’t always photography. I would not know that love until I joined this cohort in 2015. Before then I expounded my expression through music, writing, dialogue, interaction, fanfiction, anime ; anything that felt good to the tug and pull of my left and right brain. But as I got older, the stress of accomplishment paired with the influence of those outside of my art led me to studying the sciences. A more “practical” medium that should turn a profit by the end. A way to secure my financial life once life began.
But then, I was led to Beautiful…
Welcome: Madylin Nixon-Taplet, Associate Director of Artist Training, The Beautiful Project
The start of my senior year of undergrad began in turmoil. I remember turning to my friend, in the most random sort of way, but with the most profound and determined understanding.
I said, “I don’t want to be a Veterinarian anymore.”
She turned back to me and said with the utmost support, “Ok, but what are you going to do instead, then? You’re about to graduate, and this is what you’ve been doing.”
In that moment, I had no idea. But I knew I wanted to make an impact on something other than myself. “Gut a bus, travel the states, and pick up beautiful souls on my way,” was my answer. My logical left responded with the reality of my college student bank account vs the reality of that ask. My artistic right (a little lost and very transformed by that point) was screaming in the background. And though I could not hear it for what it was trying to say, apparently it was loud enough to reach the ears of someone who could.
And so I was brought to Beautiful…
I met with Khayla Deans, at that time a member of various social justice organizations striving for similar kinds of communal change, now the Co-ED and Creative Director of TBP. She listened to my enthusiasm for wanting to be a part of this community, and also understood my lack of direction in the field. She stopped the ranting that I often fall into when my brain and desires begin reaching and searching, calmly and sweetly, and said, “we can finish, but I think you should check out this organization.” And I did. Duke University Center for Documentary Studies Presents the “Self-Care Exhibit” by The Beautiful Project. I sat in awe. Explored the art in wonder. Listened to expressions of Jamaica Gilmer and the artists her team trained. Watched as the influence of their words and their work moved the minds and spirits of everyone around us. Felt that tug and pull of my left and right. Let the right win… for the first time in a long time…again. And then I knew without a doubt.
I was meant for Beautiful…
They only needed one more intern. From UNC. And she was me. The art I produced, and everything I accomplished with TBP led to the rest of my life’s work. Led to the discovery of my deep love for the visual arts, made connections that I hadn’t been able to make with a community I didn’t know I needed, affirmed my desire to make an impact on that community. And most importantly, RE-discovered the me I was once becoming.
And it always comes back to Beautiful…
Last year, after I had my son, my art took a bit of a turn. I thought I wanted to create something more intentional within the photos themselves. So I changed my art style, reimagined parts of my LLC, brought new ideas to my business model. But that wasn’t exactly it, which I wouldn’t completely understand for a few more months that came in the form of a conversational “Virtual Brunch” with the team. As we caught up, my artistic right screamed out again in earnest. And then again, I knew.
Being a part of this team again is where all the work has led me. It’s how I have been pushed and pulled and been brought back again. Because I understand, more than most, the impact of this organization, and I want to be a part of how others understand it as well. I feel the most at home that I have in a long time, because of the opportunity I have been given to be a beacon for other artists struggling with the tug and pull of their left and right. I’m so excited to be on this team and be engaged with this part of the art.
Because it’s always been Beautiful…
and Beautiful has always been…
Follow Madylin Nixon-Taplet on: Instagram
