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!
