Portrait of the artist as a young athlete

From her early childhood in coastal New England, Neve Duston ’24 loved art and soccer, so she came to Lenoir-Rhyne knowing would thrive while pursuing her core interests here.

“When I was first getting recruited to play soccer, I wasn’t expecting LR to have a visual arts degree, but they do, and my goal always was to get an art degree. I’ve always felt like this was a place where I just fit.”

Art was a constant in Duston’s background. Her parents — both with their own creative talents — owned antique stores in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and York, Maine. Her grandmother studied art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and continued that study in Japan.

“My dad still collects. To this day our walls are covered with art. It’s just something I’ve always been around,” said Duston.

Encouraging their children to pursue their own interests, Duston’s parents enrolled them in a wide range of activities. “They never pressured me, but they wanted me to be well-rounded, so they used to put me in everything. If it wasn’t for me after a year, then that was fine, but I always liked art and felt like I had some talent for it.”

Similar parental encouragement brought Duston to soccer. “My parents also put my brothers and me in basically every sport. Soccer was the one that stuck with me,” she said.

The athlete

Soccer continued to stick after the family relocated to Florida, where Duston discovered a competitive and enthusiastic culture surrounding the sport.

“Where I grew up, soccer is huge, and it seemed all the other players had a focus on going on to NCAA Division 1 programs. Their attitude was that anything less than D1 was nothing, but my coach always believed whatever level you were playing at, it would be good. He’s the one who connected me with the coaches at LR,” she said.

Proving her high school coach’s prediction correct, for the last four years Duston has started for a women’s soccer program that won the SAC regular season title in 2019 and 2022. In 2021 the team won the SAC tournament, followed by a trip to the NCAA Division 2 tournament where they advanced to the final four.

“That experience was amazing, and I won some awards here and there, including second team all-conference last season,” Duston said. “Plus, my teammates are my best friends. I’ve been really blessed to have such good people assimilate me into the team and make me feel welcome here from day one.”

The artist

Duston found similar support and encouragement from her professors in the visual art program, enabling her to develop a unique style and pursue new ways of working with different media.

“Professor Pope has been extremely influential. She’s so good at giving criticism but at the same time giving compliments because it’s the same in academics and athletics — if you knock someone down too much, they won’t want to get back up. You have to balance that with praise and encouragement to keep people moving forward,” said Duston.

Duston’s style and preferred materials continue to evolve during her time at LR. She currently prefers working with ink and paper to create images that resemble woodblock prints with fine detailing, but she is exploring ways to bring her aesthetic to photography and painting.

“I like to take architecture, landscapes or people — mainly landscapes — and use the shapes and shading to change the reality of it, make the person or place look the way I see it,” she explained. 

The future

Under ordinary circumstances, Duston’s four years as an athlete would be ending in spring 2023, but the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the NCAA to grant all athletes playing during the 2020-21 season an extra year of eligibility. Duston decided to use the extra time to take on a second major in marketing.

“Marketing has taught me about how I put myself out there, being approachable and presentable through social media, but my main goal moving forward is to continue with soccer and get a master’s in art history,” she said.

This semester Duston is an intern at the Hickory Museum of Art, focusing on preparing and setting up exhibits. She hopes to turn to full-time museum work after her soccer career ends.

“This is my first time working in the art world. It’s more interaction with people and putting together the art to create an atmosphere for someone to step into. It’s something I could definitely see myself doing long term,” she said. “Hickory has built a great sense of culture, and that’s one of the things I love about LR. It’s not just about the school but this strong community around the school.”