Meet the Artist Behind Weinstein’s Iconic Whiteboards
Marieke Bauer, an NYU junior, is using their art to catch eyes and make statements.
Weinstein is a major hub on campus. With Chick-Fil-A, Downstein, and Sidestein, it’s one of the most convenient places to stop by for food and more.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the residence/food hall is the giant whiteboard behind the front desk. For the past two years, the whiteboard has featured some pretty impressive artwork that gets many students to look up from their phones.
Right now, the board is covered with a few iconic faces such as Jonathan van Ness, Lil Nas X, and Greta Thunberg. The colorful, realistic drawings turn heads and slow walks left and right.
Who is the artist behind these incredibly detailed portraits?
Meet Marieke Bauer. A junior in Tisch Drama’s New Studio on Broadway, Bauer has a strong background as a triple threat: actor, singer, dancer. Clearly, their creativity doesn’t end there, as they spend loads of time making sure the Weinstein whiteboard looks amazing.
Bauer has been drawing as long as they can remember. Since the age of five, they were drawing faces.
“My sisters and I were looking through drawing books and drawing eyes,” they said, smiling. “And it’s just kind of gone from there.”
Two summers ago, Bauer was hired as a programs assistant, which is where they started experimenting with the whiteboard art.
At first, they used exclusively dry erase marker: “I was doing shading by tapping the board and redistributing the pigment, but you could see my fingerprints in the drawings.”
After a trip with their father to San Francisco, they were inspired by another artist who was using wet-erase markers (which need water in order to wipe off, unlike a typical Expo) on a whiteboard. This allows them to smudge the marker while it’s still drying to create shading without their fingerprint being visible.
Depending on the medium they use (Bauer also draws in pencil, charcoal, and pastels), the process can start anywhere from a rough sketch of the entire face to simply going top to bottom. For the whiteboard pieces, they draw starting at the top of the face going down.
“Because it’s wet-erase marker, once it’s dried it’s not smearable anymore, which means I can’t go back and adjust things,” Bauer explained, meaning that starting with a full-face sketch would make proportioning difficult.
Among their past whiteboard repertoire include the girl/guy looking back meme, portraits of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and the arch in Washington Square Park. These drawings can take anywhere from a couple of hours (Lizzo took about four, Bauer said) to a few desk shifts (the NYC skyline they did over the summer, for example).
Some of the board themes have been a collaborative effort with other Weinstein faculty, but recently, Bauer has made it their mission to make the whiteboard relevant and eye-catching “without being too exclusionary.”
Through RA training, talking to classmates, and being an NYU, Bauer has learned “there isn’t very much representation of a lot of people. NYU only has so much diversity, even though it says it’s diverse.” They realized this lack of representation can be harmful, especially in an RA setting.
Students and RAs alike, Bauer claims, may not have any higher-ups they can seek out regarding certain concerns because they don’t have an RA who is like them. For example, students who are not cisgender may only have cisgender RAs to go to, or an RA of color may not have a leadership member of color to talk to.
The board, as it is now, is Bauer’s attempt to fight back against that problem. Lizzo, Normani, Eugene Lee Yang and more are celebrities they consider to be “popular right now, but represent a lot of things that haven’t been celebrated in the media until recently,” if at all.
In drawing these figures, Bauer hopes to create a space for students that is more diversified than what is currently offered.
Bauer hopes that students will feel more accepted by their drawings because they are people who usually remain unseen in advertisements or magazines. As an RA, Bauer knows it’s their job to make students feel welcomed, safe, comfortable, and at home — the art is just another extension of that job.
“I feel like it’s pretty cool to walk into Weinstein and look up at the board and see representation that hasn’t been there before.”
You can follow Marieke on Instagram at @mariekepaprika and keep up with Weinstein happenings by following @nyuweinstein on Instagram.
