Who even is Swirl Girl? Penny Shapiro and her infinite devotion to continual creation

Barnard student artist Penny Shapiro, known as Swirl Girl, approaches her multi-media artistry with a unique ambition and dexterity, never failing to express her inner self within each liminal mode.

Photo provided by Isa Otero

By Sasha Zimet

November 21, 2025

Whether it be a painting doused in a collage of acrylic, polaroids, pen, and pastel, handmade zines featuring personal photographs and sketches, or an album of songs recorded on a keyboard gifted by her mother, Penny Shapiro (BC ’27) uses a bevy of artistic mediums to express herself. To learn more about this artist of many modes, I sat down with Shapiro — also known by her artist alias Swirl Girl — for an interview to learn more about her artistry and how she finds the balance between paintbrush, camera, and microphone.

Excerpt from Swirl Girl 101 No. 1

Artwork by Penny Shapiro

Shapiro’s inner spirit always embodied that of an artist, though her artistry was not fully embraced until high school: “Well, it probably started before then, but not consciously,” said Shapiro. 

In high school, she began outwardly exploring this budding artistic creation via photography. “I just started photographing my friends,” she explained. As it turns out, that was only the beginning. During the pandemic, Shapiro zeroed in on her artistry, this time by putting paintbrush to canvas. In the midst of quarantine, while the rest of us were numbing our thumbs with endless TikTok scrolls, she used the extra downtime to draw and paint. 

“It became a habit,” said Shapiro. “It was a moment of meditation, something for myself.” The products of these meditative creations were large-scale canvases doused in a diverse palette of colors using acrylic, pen, and oil paint. These painting sessions were the impetus of art as an important and stable pillar in Shapiro’s life: “I realized more and more how important it was to me, and I’m still learning what it means to me.”

Excerpt from Swirl Girl 101 Issue No. 2

Artwork by Penny Shapiro

Shapiro’s infatuation with the spiral symbol was inherited from her mother. “My mom told me this one time that all she used to draw were spirals,” said Shapiro, “and I was like, that’s so beautiful. I want spirals to be a motif in my work.” 

Yet, the swirl carries significance beyond Shapiro’s maternal connection; it is also ubiquitous in nature. In her junior year of high school, Shapiro took an environmental history class that warped her perspective on the spiral entirely. “I started thinking a lot about the environment and how nothing is linear and spirals are found all throughout nature,” said Shapiro. “So then, I started to feel like I had some deep philosophical connection to this symbol. Spirals are the secret to life.” 

When Shapiro entered college, the swirl continued to loop around her life, philosophy, and artistry, prompting one of her friends to nickname her “Swirl Girl.” From then on, the title stuck. “I just resonated with it,” she noted. “Whether it’s going to stick forever, I don’t know, but right now, it feels right.” 

While the swirl continues to appear as Shapiro’s motif, over time, her art has transitioned to the reflect her own experiences, metamorphosing into an expression of the inner self: “I feel like so much of my work in the past year and a half has been so much about my body, what it means to be in my body, and what it is to exist in a body.”

Excerpt from Swirl Girl 101 Issue No. 2

Artwork by Penny Shapiro

In her first semester back at school after taking a year off due to health issues, Shapiro collaborated with Sophia Arnaboldi (BC ’25) on a performance art piece titled “Ulcerative Colitis - Assertive Crisis” for CoLab, Barnard and Columbia’s performing arts collective dedicated to producing interdisciplinary art showcases across mediums. Emerging from a poem crafted by Shapiro, Shapiro wore a hand-painted dress she designed with her video projected in the background, performing a dance choreographed by Arnaboldi. All of these images worked in tandem with one another to evoke sensations of the uncomfortable and the bloody, while simultaneously serving as a cathartic moment for Shapiro. “It’s what came out during a time that was just really hard,” said Shapiro. “I’m really happy that I was able to do a performance, because it felt good to relive it in a way, in a moment, and then to let it go.” 

Much of Shapiro’s work, like this performance piece, has to do with the ebbs and flows of her personal life. “What I have to say right now is what I’m experiencing right now,” noted Shapiro. Yet, this does not hinder Shapiro’s work from dually resonating with its audience. “Inherently, it’s going to be personal,” she said. “And then, hopefully, it has truths about other people’s lives too, and people can resonate if they relate to certain experiences.” 

Excerpt from Swirl Girl 101 Issue No. 1

Artwork by Penny Shapiro

Though her eclectic artworks all stem from her as an individual, her approach to each the mode of her art manifests in different ways. “Collaging and photography are more archival, like archiving pieces of my history,” said Shapiro. Painting, however, taps into a more elusive, vulnerable facet of her expression. “Painting, I think, is more of something spiritual, like a meditation, and I’m creating things that I don’t even know why I’m creating, or I don’t know where they come from.” For Shapiro, the entire process of painting is sacred: “it’s an experience of making it as much as it is showing it.” 

Light Paintings

Artwork by Penny Shapiro

Shapiro is still figuring out how her newest mode of expression — music — puzzles into the mosaic of her multi-medium artworks. Over this past summer, Shapiro found herself enamored with the landscapes of auditory art, glued to her keyboard. “It was literally like an addiction,” she said. This “addiction” produced six instrumental and vocal songs, all written and created by Shapiro, on an album titled “I’ve Never,” which is available to listen to on Bandcamp. The album is emblematic of Shapiro’s devotion to experimentation; she uses her uncertainty and beginner musical skills to inspire, rather than hinder, her work. “I’ve literally never done this before. This is a trial. This is an experiment. And that’s okay. That’s what makes it special,” she said. 

Cover of "I've Never" EP

Artwork by Penny Shapiro

Shapiro recently debuted her album at an event she hosted called “Sonic O!” where she also featured other student musicians in an initiative to bring the up-and-coming music scene to Barnard and Columbia students. Through music, Shapiro continues to express her multifaceted approach to art.

CDs of "I've Never" EP

Photo by Penny Shapiro

Nevertheless, even though Shapiro’s microphone and keyboard occupy one hand, her paintbrush still takes up the other. Now, not only is Shapiro continuously working on her music, but she is also developing a series of self-portraits. The paintings are — in classic Swirl Girl fashion — mixed-media pieces, featuring a mosaic of painting, collage, and polaroids taken of herself. “So it’s mixed media because I’ve been taking a lot of polaroids of myself, and I’m trying to blend the two,” she said regarding her upcoming series. 

Self Portraits

Artwork by Penny Shapiro

Painting from the new series

Artwork by Penny Shapiro

Whether it is a camera, a sketchbook, or a keyboard, Shapiro is continually finding new methods to create and express the varying ways in which she experiences life. “I’m absorbing and experiencing the world, and then eventually it will need to come out, and it will come out in the way that it’s supposed to,” said Shapiro. The infinite spiral will continue to loop, for there is no medium too daunting for the multifaceted Swirl Girl. 

Swirl Girl poster

Artwork by Penny Shapiro