Labor in Love

*note: This article was originally published in the program for the Five Town Massive Art Festival in January 2006.*

If you watch what other people are doing during study hall, you will find a few types: those who actually study, those who whittle at the clock with games that fall beneath the radar of authority, and those who choose to use the time for interests not well fed during the average school day. When I first met Nissa Kauppila, she sat down across from me, and pulled out a sketchbook.

In the years since then I found that she was a great artist, whose talent is only overshadowed by her work ethic. If she sets a goal for herself, be it with painting, filmmaking, or just meeting someone for a cup of coffee, she will do everything in her power to make that happen. This quality is what set her work apart from others in high school; the details spoke of someone who has spent hours making choices of color, line or texture. The early paintings I can recall were images that spoke of a young woman exploring and crafting her response to the world. She worked with stylized imagery that seemed to grow and move beyond the frame as evidence of the fluid process of creation Nissa chose to take part in.

It is her trust and effort in this process that has brought her thus far. Nissa graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005, and though she went in a visual artist with a strong background in painting, she emerged a filmmaker. While attending college she found work to support herself on the lobster boats that have long been a part of that community's economy. Nissa's film work has been personal, often finding some aspect of her own experience to share with the community. There is an essence of social responsibility in her work, she is aware that moving pictures have an effect on the minds of the viewers. Her films are a celebration of free speech that tell her story with the trust that in sharing our stories, we may better understand the world we co-inhabit.

Nissa's most recent film work, "I Live Here, but I Stay in Vermont", is her documentation of a specific time in her life, and the process that led her there. Like her paintings, the images in this film often move beyond their frame. They tell of the greater reality that brings them to life. This is the story of a young woman who has learned the value of life by making the choice to follow her aspirations despite whatever may block the path, as told through her family's shared experience of growth. It is her decision to live a life she can love, and her effort to follow through on this, that brings such personal work to connect with a public audience.