5 years
When I started my time in this MFA program, I was coming off of a 15 year career in graphic design. Lots of my experience was designing for corporate marketing, and my undergrad experience was heavily influenced by traditional Swiss design, and the whitespace/Gotham trend of the early 2000s.
My first few projects in my first semester, I could only make things that fit that mold. Kristen Coogan, my professor, helped me to move away from this crutch and gave me the constraint to walk away from the computer.
The prompt for this project was to answer the question, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" I was here to get my MFA so that I could teach. I wanted to bridge my past (fine art/hand making) with my future (teaching). I also planned on making this project without the computer, and using only materials I already had.
Each panel was made using a different medium: yarn/pompoms, acrylic paint and canvas, embroidery, pyrography, illustration marker, watercolor, charcoal pencil, colored pencil, collage, and chalk.
I used these tools to create a message that I could share with my future students. Admittedly I would have used different text now. Using this quote feels like too obvious a solution, but this exercise was absolutely a turning point in my ability to feel permission to explore more and take risks as an MFA student.
My first few projects in my first semester, I could only make things that fit that mold. Kristen Coogan, my professor, helped me to move away from this crutch and gave me the constraint to walk away from the computer.
The prompt for this project was to answer the question, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" I was here to get my MFA so that I could teach. I wanted to bridge my past (fine art/hand making) with my future (teaching). I also planned on making this project without the computer, and using only materials I already had.
Each panel was made using a different medium: yarn/pompoms, acrylic paint and canvas, embroidery, pyrography, illustration marker, watercolor, charcoal pencil, colored pencil, collage, and chalk.
I used these tools to create a message that I could share with my future students. Admittedly I would have used different text now. Using this quote feels like too obvious a solution, but this exercise was absolutely a turning point in my ability to feel permission to explore more and take risks as an MFA student.
