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Success! I have chosen a school: the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Out of the five schools that I had taken an interest in attending this fall, MCAD stole my heart. I highly recommend that anyone else who is having even the slightest thoughts of going to art school to take a look at this college. It's up north in Minnesota where there are blisteringly cold winters, so all of the buildings in the city are connected by large glass-insulated bridges for people to avoid going outside. It's a beautiful sight - almost futuristic at first - old relics nestled in between a network of tall modern buildings - neon signs and wacky theaters on every corner. It's a lot of jam-packed activity for a city not much larger than Austin. And the food is great. My first meal there was alfredo - damn fantastic! Not too far outside of downtown, there are several major art museums - I got to see Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, Rothko, and Calder in a matter of an hour. That's not something that happens often down here in Austin. The art community is strong as hell in Minneapolis - a ton of artists, a ton of galleries, a ton of art buyers, and of course, the most important component - a ton of coffee houses. It's a great climate for prosperity.
The school itself is amazing. Downright amazing. It's the perfect size for a private art school - about 850 students, so you can get a good amount of one-on-one with the professors. But despite being a quarter of the size of my public high school, it is an academic powerhouse. The facilities are state-of-the-art, where professionals and companies will come in to use them as part of their productions from time to time. Pretty much all of the professors are also working artists, so not only is the curriculum strong, but you also get a realistic perspective of what it is to be an artist. The campus is beautiful - green and ivory, complemented by sculptures. One of the best features of the school is that it's connected to an art museum - the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, which has a collection of 80,000 pieces that spans over 5,000 years of history. So basically, I could read about Rembrandt in my textbook and then go walk over next door and go see the painting in the flesh. It's super-amazing-fantastic-delicious. Heaven on earth. Folks, go check it out. Go apply and come here if you have the means. There is a lot of opportunity for scholarships, grants, and loans - and MCAD was generous enough with me to practically pay for me to go there. There is a way, and it is possible - it's all a matter of trying.
Once I attend MCAD, I will be taking on a BFA program in Painting/Drawing. It will be my stepping-stone to getting a master's, which will enable me to teach art at a college level. But that is anywhere from six to eight years down the road. Things could definitely change - but that is the basis on which I'm starting my professional journey into art. It's my passion - it's a huge gamble, especially with the economy in the state it is in right now - but, I can't let that compromise my dreams. I'm an irrational dream chaser - and hopefully, one day, I'll be a dream catcher, too.
Don't ask about the Mall of America - I was too afraid to go - the idea of going to a department store, then eating and getting on roller coasters, only to see a fish eat another fish in the aquariums just seemed to be a bit nauseating.
Oh - and I'm learning Italian! For the past few months, I've been working on preparing for my trip to Florence this June. I'll be studying art in Italy for a month through a study abroad program - I'll be immersing my brain in everything from new drawing skills to ancient Roman architecture to Renaissance and contemporary art - I'm stoked as hell!
Holy freakin' shit, a lot has happened! As you can see, I've uploaded quite a bit of art - all of the pieces in the first group are unfinished - mostly my end-of-high-school-too-tired-to-freaking-finish-art.
Then there's the second group - which are all of my end-of-high-school-just-enough-energy-to-care-to-finish-art. The third - well, maybe you could tell it's my first-year-of-college-holy-shit-this-is-hard-art! And there you have it: all of my art in eight months - none of which is either finished or worthy enough to go on the main page of my website. (Sorry, geez!) But you know how it goes, summer is a void - pretty much feels like one long-ass day until the week before school starts up again.
So here are the completely uninteresting facts that have no relevance to you whatsoever, but that I will spew out into cyberspace for my own emotional satisfaction anyway: Since my last post, I've graduated from Crockett High school in Austin, Texas (beep-beep, ego-moment: top 10% of my class, by the way - yahoo!), I got accepted to Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, won a Scholastic National Portfolio Silver Award (that's pretty big, folks - that one got me to Carnegie Hall), and I got to see the musical genius-ness of Radiohead, Beck and Iron & Wine.
Slowly, I'm working my way to figuring out which art school to go to - haven't found the right one for me yet, but it's unveiling itself with each passing day - I have lots of doubts, lots of insecurities and things telling me I'll never make it - like, "the economy will eat you alive - don't do it!" sorta things goin' on in my head at night before bed, but I just keep saying, "fuck it, I gotta try." So that's what I'm doing. I'm gonna try. And that's basically where I stand now - totally unsure and doubtful of my future. But maybe that's a healthy thing - I don't know - then again, it seems that's my answer for everything these days. Bah! I think my computer just snored - anyhoo, see you in another eight months!
Hi, y'all - remember me? Right, well - just to let you know, I have fallen off of a cliff - in a way. You see, I've been hunting down in the valleys for a very exotic animal. It's long, sleek - chestnut in color, and has a very bristly tail. I'm in hot pursuit of it - and soon, I think I will have stalked it into a trap. Yes, my paintbrush will soon be caught, tied up - gutted and skinned alive to fill my new appetite for painting. As you can see, I've been working up a bit of practice lately - although a few are unfinished. I've still got massive work to do for my portfolio - which is due here in the next few months, cringe-cringe. But in between the lazy-hazy days, I've managed to refuel my innocent passion for art - which is not giving a fuck about a reason for why I'm doing it. The best art just comes, in a crazy orgasmic kind of way. So I'm glad I'm there again - even if it requires me to camp out between the mountains a little bit, it's still the best feeling in the world.
Oh - and on a side note, I had a great first gallery show - yeah, the one that already happened a month ago. To The LoneStar Studios, Alex Rubio, all of the other artists in the show, STX and The Bexar County Skill Cranes and everyone who came: Thank You!
After about fifty hours of art-making this weekend, I finally finished my second-newest gallery piece. I call it "The Emmanuel Stair-step." The main focus of this piece was to spiritually describe what it is to accept everything in your life and bring it together - hence the words: "E Pluribus Unum" at the top, which means: from many, one in Latin. The red face is the melting Ego, dying and rising to a greater consciousness - a complete wholeness, shown through the circle of flames - and revealed by the divine woman flowing out of them. The title, if feel, fits the piece well. The name Emmanuel literally means God is with us - and piecing it together with the word stair-step basically translates that through acceptance, one can step up and find unity - one can pull fragments back together and create wholeness - and holiness, with God at your side.
- For more information, go to: http://www.107lonestar.com/
I've got a quick update to make. I just finished a project for my Digital Graphics & Animation class. This is a comic book cover for one of my story concepts. I chose the traditional Japanese anime style to draw my main character in. I turned her into an illustrated cell and layered her into some digital effects and photographic renderings. This is the product. Enjoy!
