I’m sitting on a lot of rocks hello today I’m going to be explaining my entire art school application process and it’s long and I’m going to try to get through it as clear and concise as I possibly can obviously there might be things that I leave out I might go back and edit them and later of course if you guys have questions obviously leave them down below without further ado I’m going to explain to you how I got into and chose the rhode island school design as my school yes I’m also going to be reading a lot of this off my laptop just because if I go off-topic it’s easy for me to just go back to my computer and go oh yeah that’s what I was trying to say why did I choose art school I really liked the idea of university even as a child and junior year I started to think about what I like to do and what I was good at and it all really came down to art I just realized I had loved art ever since I was a kid and I was pretty good at it compared to math English history science all the subjects I was taking in school hated basically a research the difference between a bachelor’s and Fine Arts versus a Bachelor in art bachelor’s in art is pretty common at most universities while a bachelor’s and Fine Arts is offered at some universities and virtually all art oriented schools the bachelors in arts is about 50% academics and 50% part while a bachelor’s and Fine Arts is about 25% academics and 75% art. I knew just right then and there I was like oh definitely want to be pursuing a bachelor’s in fine arts definitely don’t want bachelor and art but again that was my personal preference this is why I’m making this video I want you guys to be educated and figure out what you want to do a general thing about art schools is that they tend to be smaller and you’re surrounded by people who live and breathe art that is the main subject of the school that’s also the downside is all I have is art. you might want an institution that offers history or science as well as art. you could be looking towards a liberal or school used to be looking towards just a university or Community College in your area there’s. many options and it really just comes down to your research and the path you want to take common for lots of our schools to not really offer a whole lot of business classes or offer any math or science. that’s definitely something to think about that’s also the reason why I applied to both universities and art schools because I was interested in business and marketing and things like that. I really had to narrow it down between that and my chosen major. if there’s a lot to think about when you’re considering a school it can be overwhelming the best thing to do is pros/cons figure out what do you absolutely need to be getting oh cool bugs a lot of people turn down the art school application process because they tell me it’s too tedious or the process is too long because they don’t want to have to deal with creating a portfolio or having to create more specialized supplemental type essays the upside to this application process is that art schools aren’t just looking at your grades or your extracurriculars and these are things that universities almost strictly rely upon to make their decision on whether you are the student that they want and that was kind of daunting to me like oh shit I don’t do anything just like I’ve got I don’t play sports I don’t really do a whole lot of club activities I wasn’t very active within my high school to apply to a school that only relies on my grades and my extracurriculars was quite scary to me especially because I had switched high school I did 7th through 10th grade at a very upscale private high school wasn’t for me I just didn’t like the environment I didn’t like the teachers. I switched and I went completely opposite I took two years at fusion Academy both have their upsides and their downside you know I thought Oh some schools might want to see my grades from I don’t know sophomore year which I don’t even think they need but my GPA was cumulative. even though I was getting really great grades at fusion because it’s one-on-one teaching I was taking classes that I wanted everything was going fine I still had those grades from the other two years that were sort of pulling me behind and I was worried that colleges would see that and think lesser of me and it’s unfortunate because a lot of people go through these negative high school experiences don’t get the grades that they want and they don’t have the teaching that they should have and you know to have a college look at you and say oh we don’t want you P early based off of that it’s pre sad and it’s definitely heart-wrenching to go through that process the upset of applying to an art school is that they’re not relying strictly upon that and your art skills can absolutely make up for what you lack in those other areas I actually started my college application process pretty late I started at the beginning of senior year which my older school I went to a college prep school people start at the very beginning of junior year and I it’s interesting because I have no idea where that would have led me if I had started my journey that early I I didn’t even think about doing art until the end of junior year. it’s crazy to see where I am now and think about what I might have been at my older school I didn’t take my SAT until the very end of junior year and I retook it again in November I didn’t start planning my individual art portfolios until September of senior year and I even last-minute created portfolios for schools that I was just going to apply to on the fly I’m glad I did because some of the school did I apply to ended up being my favorite. it’s never too late to consider applying to art school if you have the skills anything’s possible if you know that you’re a good artist and this is what you want to do make that leap and create your portfolio you you will not regret it you will become. much more proficient in your skills for creating your portfolio and you’ll really start to learn about what mediums and materials and subjects that you like versus what you don’t as long as you really organize your priorities through this process it can be done I have done it I’m living proof a disclaimer here I learned throughout the application process that each portfolio in each acceptance is vary greatly upon your intended major and your specific art mediums majors such as illustration or photography are a lot more popular than ceramics or glass but those interested in a major in illustration have far more competition than those looking towards ceramics it’s much more cutthroat and demanding and the standards will be that much higher portfolio reviews taught me that it’s important to be creative with the work in your intended major but to also show that you know the basics outside of your realm for my sake I had to show detailed ceramic proficiency while also showing that I knew the basic skills and other areas of art such as illustration graphic design and you know I had to add my own personal touch to those everyone looking to apply to art school has a specific set of skills that they’re good at and. it’s important to display those to the best of your ability while keeping in mind that everybody’s portfolio will be different mine will not be the same as yours yours would not be the same as anybody else’s. it’s interesting to look at other people’s portfolios but you also need to keep in mind that you should not necessarily be comparing your work to theirs because that’s just not really how that process works. the application process I’m going to go into as much detail as I think is necessary for this because I was pretty lost at the beginning of my process and I did go to a college counselor I went to college here in Pasadena which was incredible college but with the deso co-led GE create awesome jenny is fantastic highly highly recommend the service if your school does not offer College counseling or if you feel that it’s just not the counseling that you need especially for art school it’s very very helpful to look into other ways of counseling and if you have the funds to do. it’s definitely something to look into there’s even online programs I’ll put lots of links below that you guys can check out but there are online programs that allow you to talk to somebody who can help you really develop your portfolio as well as I’m going to get into this later but you can literally contact school admissions counselors and talk to them about creating your portfolio specifically for that school because they want to help you they want you to go to their school. to start the application process the first thing you obviously have to do is research being that I was interested in ceramics actually found a website called digital fire that has a list of like three hundred and something schools that specifically have ceramic programs. that was fantastic for me there are plenty of other websites they can work to help you find and discover schools and programs of your interests. you just have to do some research definitely take the time to look at school that you wouldn’t necessarily originally consider I was in a ceramics that I was also looking at sculpture programs in printmaking programs because those were two areas that I was also very interested in and I wanted to make sure I was applying to schools that had good programs in all of those areas and offered those areas it’s helpful to make a pros and cons list of what makes and breaks a school for you do you want two big schools you want a small school is on campus housing matter how much financial aid do you need what are you looking for in the facilities and if you have a hard time finding answers to these questions it’s always helpful to contact the admissions office at the school and to get your answers sorted out you can also email them if you have a question and you can’t Santa find the answer always contact the school directly because they are there to help you some examples of the questions I ask where are their 24 hour studios if you want to take classes and other majors is that possible it’s 3d printing available for my major I got very specific with my questions because when it came down to deciding between a few schools those four questions that we’re really going to make or break it for me I know it sounds kind of funny but once I got down to those few questions I was really starting to understand okay this is what I want this is what I need in my program because this is what I’m interested in I actually applied to most of my schools before I even visited them thus in a moment you will understand that’s why I applied to. many schools because they were the first-timer in this process and I didn’t know anybody else who was going through the process I was into the impression that I just wasn’t going to get into Oly school. my whole idea about this process was oh I’m going to apply to a lot of schools see where I get in and then – were those rather than getting my heart set on the school and then beating heartbroken when I don’t get in there are definitely pros and cons of either visiting beforehand or visiting after you’ve been accepted I would say the main kind of applying before you visit the school is you might be applying to a school that you would have never even considered applying to if you had visited it before that sucks if you apply to this school you get in you go and you’re like why did I even apply here like why did I waste my time this is absolutely not a program that I want and that’s stuck it was a lot of time on my part to apply to these schools and then visit them and be like oh well this isn’t what I want and aside from even visiting them they do have online tours. I highly suggest if you are unable to visit them or you’re going to apply and then visit definitely take it online towards the school look at photos of the campus because it will really help you get a feel of the environment and that could make or break things easily for you you know it’s helpful to continually research and get a fuel for the school regardless of where you are in the application process because the more knowledge you have on that institution a better educated you are on deciding where you want to go before I even started my application process I took the SAT because I figured that’s that’s probably the first thing I got to do right. I went through SAT tutoring. I was able to take it at the very end of my junior year most schools will accept the SAT or the a CTE and some don’t even require standardized testing at all and that being said just because they don’t require standardized testing that does not mean that they’re an easy school to get into or that they just don’t care about who they accept I think people get pretty negative connotations associated with that. in reality like Puget Sound for example they offer their own form of a test for students who often to not take standardized testing and that’s great because maybe you’re really bad at standardized testing maybe you have a learning disability maybe you didn’t have the time to have that option I think is actually really incredible and really gives students a chance I chose the SAT over the a CT purely because of the fact that I had taken the PSAT twice that’s just what I decided. I can’t really give you a whole lot of advice because I haven’t taken the apt and I don’t honestly have knowledge on it I do know that the a CT has a small science section I’ve had a few friends who have taken the a CT over the SAT simply because they just said they thought it was easier I chose the SAT because I feel like I’m pretty good at language and reading and that seems to be more of what the SAT is focused towards it could be helpful for you to take both the SAT me a CT and then choose your best score from the – I took the SAT twice and I chose my best score from the two. it’s kind of a good idea to maybe take a standardized test twice just to see what happens I do highly recommend tutoring though whether it be online whether it be just a friend or a family member or an actual tutoring service there’s many many ways to prepare you can just go out and buy a book and do all the practice tests in there it’s definitely helpful to get familiar and under and what subjects you need to work on because for me I hate math and I definitely had to work on the math for the SAT as well as the reading I’m a very slow reader I have some vision issues. that was something I had to work on. the first time I took the SAT was in June junior year and I got one 150 and this is the new SAT. the scoring is 1 150 out of 1600 I did take it with the essay purely because I just wasn’t sure if the schools I was going to apply to needed it or not. I was like might as well the essay on the SAT is very interesting because you’re not writing about a topic of your choice you’re writing about a topic they give you and not only that they give you an excerpt to read and then you have to write an essay on how the author was able to create a proper argument it’s kind of weird and not fun this is the second time it took that SAT I actually did worse on the essay and the reason I’m telling you guys my scores is just for transparency I feel like a lot of people don’t talk about these things because they don’t necessarily matter it’s very individualized you know it might help you in might not. the first time I took it I got a 22 on the FAA 620 on the reading and writing and a 530 on the math when I took it a second time in November I received a 1240 with a 650 in reading and writing a 590 in math and a 16 on the essay. I did worse on the essay in all fairness it was about birds and it sucked I also did get extra time. second time I took the SAT and in reality I don’t necessarily know if I would have done any better if I hadn’t had the extra time that’s another thing to think about you have to gauge how much you think your improvement will be the second time and that will help you to understand okay should i retake it should I just stick with my scores also good to consider the fact that some schools allow you to just send your best score and some schools even allow you to super score which is take the best individual scores from each SAT. the best reading the best math the best essay and some will say you got to send us everything send us your first one your second one your third and then another thing to consider is sending your scores immediately after you take your SAT versus waiting now I waited just because I was nervous and I wanted to see what my scores were that also meant I had to pay each school when I sent in my SAT and that got kind of expensive it was like $12 per application the upside to sending your right away is that usually you can I think sends its five for free you can get fee waivers if you have any financial questions again talk to your school talk to the admissions counselors talk to the college board if you feel like you qualify for extra time definitely talk to your school counselor whether it be your college counselor guidance counselor even the head of your school and they can assist you in talking to the college board and getting that extra time you do need to know that it takes about six to eight weeks for that process to happen if you feel like you need that definitely consider that time now if you’re not sure what SAT scores to aim for pretty good idea to just look up your school name and SAT scores and go to prep scholar and see what the average score is you can also contact admissions counselors and ask them what your ballpark should be but again it’s subjective it ranges per person because again these schools are not only just factoring your test scores but they’re looking at your portfolio and your technical skills but they want to see that you‘re a good artist. you could have the best SAT scores and be shitty at art and they’re going to be like why are you applying it’s good to make a due date and deadline spreadsheet for all of your selected schools putting the most recent deadlines first some art schools have different deadlines for portfolio versus test scores and essays. again definitely do through a research to make sure you have all the correct dates a handful of schools actually pushed their portfolio deadline back by a few days to even week or more it’s important to consistently be updating your deadlines on your spreadsheet to make sure you have all the most relevant dates and you’re not behind because that can be shitty to go to submit your essay or your portfolio and you’re like oh man it was due yesterday if that happens contact your school immediately explain what happened and they may or may not give you an extension on your slide room or your common app some schools have specific assignments and essays that are required for admission while others just use the common app this is important to note as Parsons Rizzy Emily Carr and Tyler School of Art all had different assignments and most of the schools I applied to in general had more individualized writing prompts to complete I was able to plan it. that most of my essays and assignments could used from multiple schools with a few tweaks here and there this will make the process a lot more stress-free what the other schools don’t know it won’t hurt you I think a lot of people are under this impression that their specific school assignments have to be just for that one school I was able to submit all of my specific assignments to pretty much all of my schools I actually believe that the assignments helped strengthen my general portfolio immensely it’s important to have conceptual work you know something with a story the schools want to see a picture they also want to read the stories they want to know why you made this word what is the importance of this work what is its value my boo pot the hanging planters and infographic they all started out as assignments but in the end I think they ended up being some of my strongest portfolio pieces this is why I would suggest that anyone who wants to create a strong portfolio view other schools assignments regardless that they will apply there or not it can really help give you inspiration for new and stronger work and teach you to think about art in a different light when I was developing my portfolio I also had to keep in mind my time frame I created a spreadsheet with my goals for each week up until each school deadline I know that sounds kind of intense but it was the only way I could get through applying to. many schools it was kind of necessary this was. that I could efficiently manage my time and make sure I had enough time to finish each and every assignment I gave myself more time for my ceramics projects due to the fact that home firing can take week and I gave myself less time on graphic design and illustration projects I knew I could finish right up to the deadline date. your portfolio is virtually always submitted to a website called slide room every school I applied to uses this program. when you create a common app account and you add your school’s after filling out your general info they will usually give you a link to their site or page side room is a slightly tricky website because it works on a school by school submission process. to make it easier to use I started a new portfolio application for every school after finding their slide room links again you can find these through the common app as you’re applying or just by looking up the school name and then slide room and clicking on the available searchable and then I bookmarked the all activity page. that I could just click on it whenever I needed to go to slide room and select which school portfolio I wanted to work on that day schools also have you work on assignments and essays through their slide room portal. it’s important to thoroughly read through the requirements and make sure you don’t miss anything as for photographing my work actually rented a small studio space in LA at Ft Studios just for a few hours. I could get some nice photos of my work it’s really not necessary especially if all you’re photographing is illustrative and 2d work because you can just take a photo of it in your room and then crop out the extra space I only ran into space because 3d works are usually expected to be photographed in nicer settings. that’s something to consider if you have a nature piece maybe you want to photograph it in the trees or maybe you want to photograph it in a garden it’s definitely fun to get creative with that because schools sort of like to see that you put in effort you absolutely don’t need a fancy camera though your phones will do just fine if you have a Canon use a Canon have an iPhone use an iPhone Android why do you have an Android I’m just kidding I’m just kidding androids are fine there’s nothing wrong with Android get off my house even if you don’t have a studio you can absolutely get creative actually photograph one of my sculptures on Big Bang Theory way Pasadena I just love saying Big Bang Theory way if you have an alley called Big Bang Theory way I stuck my piece on top of a trash can and photographed it in front of the white brick wall because I needed a white brick wall I just sat it on there took photos of it nobody cares over the summer I attended the RISD pre-college program for six weeks in order to help strengthen my art portfolio but I also wanted to get a feel for our school life and see if it was for me I had actually visited three our schools in junior year because I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do I looked at Savannah College of Art Design it seemed like too much of a commercial high school for me and then I looked at Pratt in New York and RISD in Provence and I really really liked Rhode Island school design because of their ceramics programs. I decided okay maybe I go there for the summer people were telling me about doing summer programs to try and get proficient in a skill it’s actually good to try and talk to students that go to the school you’re interested in. we had a family friends that went to RISD and I talked to her about summer programs and she said she had gone to California State summer school for the Arts I couldn’t get in it was too late Rizzy was still thinking opening I would highly suggest any kind of pre-college or portfolio preparation programs anybody interested in art school it really helped me to get an understanding of what I needed for my portfolio and I was actually able to make a few pieces that could then be later used in my portfolios and this was not just ceramics pieces this was drawings as well many art schools have summer programs you can take here in California we have the California State Summer School for the Arts program my local art studio the armory has recently partnered with Otis College of Art Design and they do a portfolio preparation program absolutely if you’re unable to go out of state if you have to stay local in your city there might just be a program that you can take near you we just got to look many colleges also offer summer classes that you can absolutely take some of these programs to offer scholarships the RISD program does offer scholarships however if you’re trying to enter the program with a scholarship you do need to already have a few works to show them if you’re applying without aid it’s not required to show them photos of your work all you have to do is write a short essay on how you think the program will help you become a better artist and if you’re not able to attend one of these summer programs it’s always good to just try and take up some art classes near you or watch videos online just find a mentor who could help you create stronger works for a portfolio I actually went to a place called I heart art in Pasadena this was back in September October December because I needed better drawings the teacher there Asia she’s fantastic she is a Pratt graduate and she actually helped me develop some work for my portfolio we did one-on-one classes I went to two portfolio days during the application process portfolio days are usually around four hour-long events where admissions counselors from art school all over the country and even the world can set up booths where students come and visit them and receive advice on their art portfolios you can bring physical or digital work for me I brought a fully charged laptop and showed them slides of my photos when I visited my second portfolio day I already had my slide room portfolios created all I had to do was just visit a few schools that I needed to see that I missed that the last one just got some last minute recommendations before I went off and sent in my portfolio I think I actually sent in my Parsons portfolio that same day I highly recommend going to portfolio day even if it’s a long drive even if it’s not near you it’s really a process that can give you a lot of insight into your application process it’s definitely important to prioritize schools at portfolio days if you have a lot of schools you want to visit it can be helpful to bring a parent or friends to help you with standing in the different line where folio days can also help you discover more schools I got at about several schools just by solely seeing their name on the portfolio add a list and then researching them afterwards when you present your works at portfolio day it’s extremely important to ask for the admissions counselors name for a business card system. that you can contact them in the future with any further questions that you have while also being able to mention them in any specific writing prompts do you have any questions about scholarships or financial aid they will also usually be able to help with that at portfolio day sometimes people even tell you right on the spot if you qualify for a merit scholarship it’s also important to add that you can go to portfolio day at any age or grade level I’ve literally seen middle schoolers come to portfolio day with their parents most counselors will also be okay with you emailing them before you submit your portfolio you can ask them about any additional changes that they would make early decision scholarships and financial aid my rule for early decision is if you’re ready go for it if you’re not then don’t try to push yourself I knew going into the process that I definitely needed more time to make my portfolio most our schools actually tend to have later priority deadlines because they want their applicants to have a nice amount of time to be able to complete their work. if you’re on board for taking advantage of the times and do. actually applied to my safety school Puget Sound with the early decision and they wait-listed me on my behalf I can’t speak too much on the process of financial aid because I did not apply for it but several schools make a point of offering it and sending out reminder emails if you do need financial aid that is something you should absolutely be thinking about at the very beginning of your process because that will play an important role in your decisions through sending applications through taking the SAT and replying schools I was actually offered many aid in merit scholarships after getting accepted into my school the scholarships ranged anywhere from a few thousand dollars to a little under twenty thousand per school year it’s important to keep in mind that each school has a different system for how they value your GPA your test scores in your portfolio I went to a one-on-one school usually economy as I mentioned. my last two years I was able to take specialized classes and I was also able to boost my grades and I’m very very very grateful for that because again I have no idea what my experience would have been like without that the school helped me academically but I was left without a ceramics to do in fact I actually wrote my common app essay and many of my specialized essays on working on my art from home if your school doesn’t offer many art elective it can be of your interest to write your essay on how you’ve kept yourself inspired and hard working on your art despite not being able to take your classes at school or have the luxury of taking them nearby.
I guess you could say everything really does happen for a reason thank you grades are a part of your application process but if you’re not a straight-a student don’t think art school will value your GPA as much as a traditional University because they will not it’s important to have a strong portfolio though if your test scores or your GPA are not as strong as you would like them to be it’s important to have an idea of what you might want to do in school many people will go in art school having a certain major in mind and they end up choosing something completely different later on that’s perfectly fine the main thing that matters is that you find a school that has decent programs in all areas that you might be interested in that way if you decide to switch majors won’t be disappointed with the other program that you choose you know wondering if you could have been at a better school this is how I was really able to come down to deciding what school I wanted to go to I’m interested in ceramics but also industrial design and for me that’s why I chose risky they had strong programs in those areas and that’s ultimately what really helped me for my decisions the more the better you usually need a counselor recommendation and a teacher or multiple teachers recommendations each school will specify how many they require if you visit pre-college programs there are classes outside of your school and you really like your teacher you can always have them write a recommendation as well again most of your recommendations can be submitted through the common tab at schools such as FFA I will specify if they don’t and they’ll send out emails to your teachers asking them to directly email the recommendations too that’s important to keep in mind as you might be sending your applications through the school websites through slide room or through the common app and because of that there might be different ways on how you should be sending your recommendations or your transcripts to these schools some schools require digital recommendations and digital transcripts and some don’t some want it by mail it really just depends the common app is the standard application process for most schools some schools have you applied directly for your website others have you apply partially or entirely through slide room the CONOPS pretty easy to use once you go on the website and create your account all you do is you put in your personal information and you can immediately start adding your schools to your list once you’ve added your school’s you just follow the steps to completing your application for each the common app is widely used by many schools because you typically create one essay and you send it to all your schools and they’ll give you I think it’s like four to five essay topics that you can choose from but what’s the catch most schools usually want more than one essay that’s where the assignments and supplements come in many will ask for the Common App essay and additional supplemental works on why you want to go to their school specifically or why you want to go into your particular major although each school has their own supplements and assignments like I mentioned with the art assignment you can sometimes use one essay and edit it to fit the individual supplemental requirements for each school I don’t honestly remember what I wrote for each and every school. I’ll put that in text on the screen because it’s a lot to look up right now now I’m going to get more in depth on the individual pieces in my portfolio as well as the individual schools I applied to and why I liked them and why I did. I want to start off with California College of the Arts California College of the Arts is a school located in both San Francisco and Oakland California they have two campuses they’re ceramics program is very strong they have two-story building everything from wheels to very large sculptural works and I would definitely recommend the school for anybody looking into ceramics the Oakland campus is nowhere near as nice as the San Francisco campus they do plan on moving entirely to the San Francisco campus but they’re probably going to do that in like 2020. unfortunately many majors are not offered at the San Francisco campus and this is why I decided to not go to the school I just didn’t really like the Oakland campus it was pretty rundown I just needed more of a city vibe okay San Francisco Art Institute extremely small campus it’s just one building in San Francisco very very very gorgeous architecture they have a fantastic the view on that roof is insane it’s a very very gorgeous school they don’t necessarily have a foundation here this can be both good and bad depending on how you view it you can take an array of classes in your specific interest which is great and I don’t know if I discussed this but foundation years are common in virtually all art schools basically just your freshman year you are learning the basics in drawing and 3-d principles rather than going into your specific major now schools like RISD have a winter session in between the first and second semesters where you can sort of take classes within a major that you’re interested in taking and RISD actually has you declare your major by your second semester of your freshman year which is not very common most schools you do it by your sophomore year foundation years they’re a year where you get your shit done receives actually interesting because if you don’t go their freshman year and you don’t take that foundation year you do have to take a foundations course over the summer if you plan on transferring there for your sophomore year Pacific Northwest College of Arts [Applause] [Applause] located in the gorgeous city of Portland it’s a very small campus it’s just about two buildings the student housing is pretty nice it’s very new they’re very much apartment style houses it’s a very quiet building yeah I actually quite liked the housing was fairly close to campus and the school has a very very very personal feel their mascot is a sloth they have a wonderful wonderful sense of community at the school people were very nice and warming and welcoming and the teachers came up to me and gave me tours and talked to me and let me to her the classes I really fell in love with the school however their sculpture program was very full just wasn’t necessarily what I was looking for it wasn’t very clay oriented it was mostly mixed materials however the school does have really great connections with Dida’s Nike and Leica the animation studios who made core line and the boxtrolls my dream job even have a Wacom Welcome Center where they go and send their newest drawing tablets and products and the students get to use them. I fell in love with that school I just wish they had what I wanted in terms of sculpture and ceramics and they didn’t University of Puget Sound it was my safety school it’s a liberal arts school in Tacoma Washington I didn’t visit the school. I don’t have a whole lot to say about it but it’s a mix between a university and in our school. they have people that go purely for the Arts just for ceramics and then they have those who are going for the Greek life and standard college experience. you do get a mix of both I don’t know a lot about the school I can’t say much about it or just campus. I know that Emily Carr University of Art and Design this is located in Vancouver Canada I don’t know what it is I just I love Canada it’s a few thousand students at the school the campus was on a tourist island known as Granville Island it’s not really an island yeah it’s just a small land mass in the middle of Vancouver and it’s a very very gorgeous school however they are moving to a campus on great northern way in Vancouver or this fall the facilities in school are quite incredible and I can’t imagine what they’re going to be like in these new facilities these new facilities are insane it’s a very very gorgeous modern space that they’re building the main reason I chose to not go there was the fact that they seem to have wonderful facilities but not the greatest faculty and sort of a disengaged student body there didn’t really seem to be a huge sense of community to school that doesn’t have campus housing you know the students come there and then they leave and that’s not really what I wanted because they don’t have student housing that also can become a problem because Vancouver is quite expensive however the school is very very very cheap a few thousand for Canadian residents in only a few more for international school II Art Institute of Chicago located in the heart of Chicago the campus is spread out between four buildings when it came down to deciding I was actually between SAIC and RISD they are two very different schools though RISD has a very set curriculum and SAIC is literally creating your own major it’s extremely interdisciplinary you decide I want to do film I want to do performance arts I want to do sculpture if you can do all that you never even have to declare and they have a pass or fail system. you don’t get grades the facilities are really nice and their sculpture area is a bit small but it’s not that bad I really liked the city of Chicago and it’s connected to the Art Institute of Chicago they have one building that is in the back of the art institution cago and it’s incredible to just have those connections to that museum and to be able to go into that museum whenever you want to take that advantage it’s incredible and sese has some pretty cool apartment style dorms as well university of michigan they have the penny stamps art program and it’s located within the campus they have very large ceramics facilities though the school itself is just one building it’s not a very large program it’s just a few hundred students but you still get the perks of being at a university they still require all students to go abroad and they offer tons of really great opportunities in that area it’s a very niche part of the school but it’s pretty cool nonetheless it’s just very quiet the ceramics program is pretty nice. it is a very beginners based program though. you can’t really get too advanced in terms of classes Temple University Tyler School of Art the building is located within Temple University in Philadelphia the university itself has around 35 to 40 thousand students. very very very big and it just keeps growing the student body in the art school is small they have a great glass program though it’s very rare for many art schools to have glass I think temple and RISD are want to like talk to glass programs the facilities are very very new the teachers are very very warm and they’ll help you out student body is very caring that classes are much more generalized than classes offered at like SAIC for example that’s something to think about a lot of these universities have much more generalized classes than art school and the school at Tyler is right next to the architecture school and they both offer fun minors which is something to think about if you’re interested in business or architecture and agriculture like that’s something to think about Alfred University School of Art and Design it’s known to have one of the best ceramics programs in the u.s. where’s the catch well sin a extremely shitty part of New York in the middle of freaking nowhere I I didn’t even visit the schools it was literally. out of her way to get you and all the hotels in the area had bed bug issues it’s definitely a must for anybody interested in ceramics though they’ve got it all and they have an engineering school as well. they partner with the engineering students to create new 3d printing technology Parsons School of Design it’s a very fashion and design oriented school I get Amelie don’t know why I apply they don’t really even offer a ceramics major I was very interested in their inner design major though it seems very interdisciplinary and new and business oriented I was. much disappointed with their ceramic facilities. my tour guide literally said some of the students didn’t even know that the printmaking and sculpture facilities even existed they just didn’t even go to that part of the school. that thinks that they’re very clean and they’re very new my ceramics teacher for my pre-college program at RISD was actually in charge of that Sturm program which I was like small world that’s crazy they do have brand new 3d printing facilities if you’re into that definitely school to look at if you’re in a fashion absolutely look at persons it’s the place to be Kratts Institute is barely more design oriented than Fine Arts it’s located in Brooklyn New York and their housing is pretty fun you can paint the walls as long as you repaint them at the end of the year. you can kind of see the sick paint caked on the school is on the older side but if you want to fund our school in New York this is definitely the place to look at they have great campus security campus itself is sort of a public plaza type area. they close it off at I think it was like I’ve p.m. at night. it’s just open to students. it’s very very safe nice and protected they have a great community they have cats everywhere it’s got a lot of history in that area I didn’t mention actually did not get into Pratt and I didn’t get into Michigan I don’t think I got into Michigan primarily because of my grades my GPA I think they were counting that very heavily over portfolio work and then for Pratt I don’t think I got in because it’s. design based an illustration based that a just didn’t think my drawing skills were good enough I think I just wasn’t the student they were looking for they even told me at portfolio days oh you should probably think about strengthening your drawings a little bit more and I was like well shit um you know it’s a little too late because this was the second one and my portfolio was due very very soon I also forgot to mention Pratt actually has a campus in Utica New York it’s much cheaper and it’s definitely something to look at if you want the proud experience that’s an option to Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts I love this program a small program within Syracuse University a building is away from the school but it’s a very short bus ride they actually offer bus rides going to the campus every few minutes. not that much of a problem the our building however is literally across street from a cemetery program is the personal as it gets though Cermak facilities are actually extremely top-of-the-line school has twenty kilns mostly outside it has top-of-line ventilated raw material mixing areas it’s pretty small very intimate and they give the students their own studio space aside their sophomore years. that’s really cool because most universities either don’t give you studio space or they give it to seniors in sometimes few years. have it by your sophomore years is really really great because that’s right when you’re starting your major and of course last but not least rhode island school design it’s located in Providence Rhode Island and the school has great programs all around they’re mostly known for their industrial design in their illustration programs but the ceramics program is actually one of their smallest the ceramics program is located within like a warehouse type building. they have glass jewelry metal smithing and sculpture on the other floors the studio space is very expansive and they offer juniors and seniors their own individual studio spaces and as I mentioned before they have this five-week winter session program in-between the fall and spring semesters which allow students to take more specialized classes in an area of interest let’s say you’re in your freshman year and you maybe plan on taking illustration but you want to look into industrial design you can take classes in industrial design see if you like it and then you can declare. it’s a really great program and the school itself it has a cachet it’s very well known amongst the arts community as being like the art school but I think I chose it because of how rigorous it is you’re always working not everybody wants that some people want a more laid-back program some people want to get a BA in arts and maybe they don’t want to be focused. much on Fine Arts but II know if art is what you’re into this is absolutely the school to look at yeah I just fell in love with Ruthie I was there you know six weeks over the summer and it was just I fell in love with the city of Provence like such a small city but it doesn’t really feel like it you can get around easily that’s no problem but it’s small but it still feels like you’re in a big place which I really root to love. I’m very very excited to be going there. the last thing I’m going to do is talk about my portfolio in my pieces. the first piece I’m going to talk about is nine months it is not pregnant top piece the pots were basically created to show a process of transformation they were specifically my assignment or Emily card I used them for you know all my other school applications they’re built entirely by hand and I focused the nine pots on simple uniform papered shape while changing the breast and belly size for each month I carefully sculpted each piece by closely following a chart of the physical transformation within each month of pregnancy I did run into some difficulties these with the glazing of the project. I actually spray-painted them using like a tape and spray method. I taped them off with painters tape and then spray-painted them the speckled boobies created some pretty good contrast against the belly they were actually made to be miniature planters I wanted them to host like a sprout and each one but I couldn’t find sprouts to match my concept.
I literally just Illustrated them in Photoshop here we have the nine months idea and development sketches this was I think also for Emily Carr because they wanted to see how you created your assignment it’s pretty self-explanatory it’s just a really fun little sketchbook page of how I developed the planners actually made it afterwards you can do that you can make your sketchbook pieces after you make your work and make it look really nice and say oh this is what he did it actually did start out with four pots I was going to do a child adolescent adult an elder pots and I was like you know my pregnancy that could be really fun I really want to do nine pots and go all out specially sculpting it by hand in order to just fun to sit down in school boobs now we have Gro discussed milk I named this pot Mable but whatever I made it there is the pre called program it reflects the methods of one of my favorite artists Amy look how she gets in it could be Luke’s Kowski and not sure anyway I developed a list of verbs that I felt captured the essence of her works and the impressions that they carry many people find her work to be kind of gross you know the bulk of her pieces contain like multiplying eyes and tapered horns and their bulbous and yeah pretty sure works really interesting oh there’s a lizard doing push-ups. I chose the birds grow disgust and melt I basically did a coil building technique which is where you take like a roll of clay and then you put another rule clay on top of it and you build it up that way rather than throwing it on a wheel it’s mostly just hand culture this entire piece is basically all built by hand I used to kick wheels just sort of help row it a little bit but it was mostly just me sculpting it with my hands I just really wanted to do some shock value. maple is pretty big that was sort of to help capture the essence of growing or disgust and melt I obviously chose rainbow bonnet because it’s a pretty bizarre oxymoron I did a disturbingly long nose to aid in the principle of disgust mouth has cut open which adds some pretty cool dimension without making it look. flat against the sculpture repeted planters this project man this was this one took me forever started in September and I finished it in December. there were three months projects that revolved around creating a sustainable container to hold succulents this was my RISD assignment my other RISD assignment was that I used the pregnant pause for that as well. they doubled the goal was to basically create uniform slip cast pots that had varied surface design slope casting is basically where you create a plaster mold and you pour liquid clay into it and you let it sit for a little while and you pour the excess clay out in what you’re left with is a hardened shell of clay which you can then allow it to dry and pop it out and you have your piece and you can continue to use that mold to make more and more pieces and this is how most commercial ceramics are made like when you go and you buy a mug that says I Love New York on it It’s Made in a mold that’s not a bad thing you know making it in a mold still requires a lot of work and this is why I’ve come to sort of like molds because you can sort of work on them from home you don’t really need a wheel you just need some plaster in some local clay. after I made the prototypes from both clay and resin plaster mold was made and then I filled it with stained porcelain liquid clay also known as the colors of the planters were preserved by using a clear acrylic spray and the first two pots pictured were layered with color spray paints and the second pot I actually stamped it with letterpress stamp and I printed it with the lyrics from Pocahontas colors of the wind I just wanted to convey my love for Earth man all of our earth and then the last two pieces were actually inspired by my favorite artist Meili dent and I had a favorite one in Sean Forest and I basically did like a marbling technique that I learned from their processes I was completely self-taught within this entire project and it was intense but very fascinating and very fun next I have my slip casting infographic this is actually my my Parsons project this infographic was my first graphic design project I basically created it to explore the process of making the planters I actually sketched everything out by hand and then scanned it into Adobe Illustrator and then from there I transformed each image into like a black and white logo and refined all the vectors and lines and then I placed the images in Photoshop and then I painted my signature pastel color palette onto the images and put everything into InDesign I basically created this very long infographic Pinterest style thing I was sort of intrigued to make it one continuous page because I wanted the viewer to be able to scroll through out it rather than having to turn it’s like a book this is my working with natural materials in ceramics sketchbook piece it was basically created to explore how natural materials can be used to creating pattern stamps for ceramic arts you can make reusable stamps. you can roll across your clay and then you can use that clay to make cups or pots or whatever you want to do and actually make anything with natural materials on it it’s. specifically just for like a sketchbook thing to show them like I can think creatively look at me using things in nature I was trying to show that dried flowers ferns rope other natural resources can be pressed into clay and fired to create these permanent pattern rollers for the left side I chose to pick and dry leaves and flowers from a neighborhood and I pasted them into a sketchbook I freehand replicated the dried plants with watercolor paints to explore to shape and value the right sides like a little step-by-step infographics tutorial type thing on how these plants can be used on slabs of clay this is hungry for color this was a very interesting piece because all our schools want to see that you know how to fake your draw they want to see that you understand the human form that can be sometimes hard for people they don’t just have a naked person they can go in draw now you can look up naked people in line that’s a way to do it or really creative way to do it is actually go to a museum and draw the statues that’s perfectly fine. that’s what I did which in Norton Simon museum Pasadena and I sketched be dancer at rest sculpture by Edward de Gaia and standing bather with raised arm sculpture by eros died in my walls I’m not sure how to pronounce the same file after sketching the sculptures at two different angles I just added my personal touch with some micron pen and then of course I went back in and added in watercolor because it makes everything fun I didn’t want them to be. serious I want there to be some emotion through color and of course to play it off like it had a whole story in here I wrote about how the left page explores rougher outlines and personalized faces and the right page explores line variation abstract patterns the colors were supposed to sort of convey emotion. yellow was supposed to mean knowledge Oh pink was supposed to mean thoughtfulness and blue is sincerity and orange is optimism and color can sort of provide this space for a story to be told I think to faith I tried to make a really big story for this one there’s not a whole lot of story I just had a really fun time with printmaking over the summer Rizzy and i just wanted to do more of it. i got these massive massive stamps and carved them out i said in printmaking and images reversed when it’s printed with these prints the women look to the right before the stamp is transferred and once it’s transferred they look to the left if the common belief that those who look to the right are lying while those who look to the left are honest which think this improvement to be wrong anyway I was saying they reflect about the virtue and deception it’s an interesting process of transformation to see how they go from one way to the other way basically all I did was I sketch the girls on the tracing paper I transferred the sketches on to nine by twelve synthetic carving blocks if there’s a speedball ones the pink ones I love the pink ones hate the blue ones don’t do the blue and don’t do the blue ones after I carved the stamps I just inked them up with block printing ink and I wiped away the ink from the cheeks and rolled on my selected color onto the cheeks and then transferred them on a paper of transcend again this was just something fun I wanted to do it was even before I was considering making a portfolio where plain art school I just wanted to try embroidery. bad boy has the back of a jacket pretty simple but again I had to sort of create a story to this just basically wanted to explore my love for geometric shapes and forms. I took a vintage Levi’s jacket rehan embroidered two triangles that’s about it I got this giant embroidery hoop and took some floss that I got from Michaels and just went to town it took over a hundred hours of embroidery and over six months to finish and I definitely learned a value of testing my own patience and sharpening my technique through repeated practice you know in a world where everything is mass-produced it’s really nice to make your own things and just feel oh Ron Swanson just going around making boats cold beer chicken fries I don’t know what I’m saying sorry next we have night and day this is actually for the van Kustom Kulture competition I did it two years in a row but I had done the second year at this point basically I got inspired by Mexican art known as huichol which is where they take beads and they cover an object in the special kind of wax and they just press the beads individually into the wax yeah these were night and day I just wanted to mimic a similar layout on both shoes while varying the symbols and the colors and I think I did a pretty decent job at that basically roughly sketched and planned the designs under the canvas areas i diluted some tacky glue and painted over the outlines I would just add a small handful beads at a time and take a threading needle and push each bead into its area. hot dude next we have the egg print all. did this at the RISD pre-college programs is one of the first prints I’d ever created I worked with only two small stamps and experimented with positive and negative space. I used my love for bright colors and I plan to roll a gradient pattern with text sample keeping solid color on the objects down. the positive space remained for the craft and the cooked egg stamp but the space was carved away for the egg text and. I had a solid roll on every object stamp that would transfer to a gradient roll in each text stamp and it was very time consuming to mix the colors and plan out how I was going to roll them okay now we get into the drawings I am not anywhere near a professional drawer but you know our schools got a few drawings right. this is what I did. I have my dripping fruit drawing it’s basically just like taking a conventional still-life and turning it into something that’s my own greeting self-explanatory I just did a kombucha bottle and some bananas and sketched them out and then I took neon pink acrylic paint and with six strokes I basically applied these little drift edges to the banana and then applied some pink accents all over the drawing I just wanted to add my own personal touch to something that I felt was. standard and then I have this kitchen still life actually did this at the RISD pre-college program and it looks like shit and a few months afterwards I was like you know I could put this in my portfolio if I fix it up and I had done it mostly in vine charcoal.
I went back with all kinds of like compressed charcoal and charcoal pencils I just added deeper richer values to the work I also took white compressed pastel and I added those little ice cubes in the mason jar I’m honestly really happy with how it turned out I wouldn’t have gotten it to where it is now if it wasn’t for Asia I heart our shout out to her she’s amazing she basically taught me how to draw I did very standard stuff for drawing which looking back it would’ve been fun to do creative stuff but when it comes to your portfolio it’s definitely always better to do something that involves perspectives and still life rather than something based off of memory or based off of the picture they always say they can tell – if you’ve done it based off of a photo versus based off perspective. apparently they know. something to think about there they just want to see that you have that skill they want to see that you can sit in front of something draw it and be like oh damn that looks like that looks loo this is dragon fruit vase I did this a long time ago I did this in my old school this is the first time I ever do coil building and I basically created a work based off of the properties of an object. I chose a dragon fruit which is pointy and pink I basically wanted to make a really gorgeous base that has rigid spikes throughout it I layered ton blonde blaze and carnations pink I layered them on top of one another and then I sprayed castile blue ways on all of the little points the project allowed me to take apart the form and create something new the spikes are actually hollow I poked holes in the piece and then I made these spikes by shaping and cutting the clay and then I attached them on there. they’re not solid they’re Hollow which allows the piece to be a little bit lighter and less likely to explode in the kiln this is a faceted teapot this is again a very old work. it was basically almost entirely wheel thrown and just began I love for faceted things when I was trimming the lid my turning tool skidded across the top that’s actually how we got that faceted pattern and that’s how I decided to make this an entirely faceted piece I used an extruder for the handle in the pot which i think is really cool because it gives it those two lines in the center it is a massive handle oh I wish I made it a little bit smaller making the red jewel on top was actually really interesting because I got introduced to wax resist which is and what it sounds like it’s wax that resists any glaze that’s put on top of it. it basically protects what you have under there I applied it to the top surface on the lid and then the glaze the jewel. the tool could say that red color and everything else would be that arch green my old school was very very into meticulously planning your work which definitely pays off I really enjoyed making this again this is an older work this is my stargazer mosaic it’s based off of a stargazer flower I basically sketch the design onto a wood board and then I rolled out really thin slabs of clay and we fired them like weights on top of them to help keep the clay down and not have it warp in the kiln I went and I glazed each slab according to the colors at the flower we fired the slabs once more and then we went and got these cutting tools and cut out the clay to create those mosaic pieces and we glued each and every piece down and commanded to take a while I did have an issue with the thickness of the slab thing inconsistent. that was kind of difficult yeah I filled in everything with this gray grout afterwards I’ve been fun to do this with a glass but whatever. I did this sapphire ring this is also old I had all my old work at the end there’s this clay it’s called pmc leh basically it’s clay that has a certain percentage of a material in it. over there be bronze gold silver it’s very difficult to work with. you have to put it into a mold in order to make something useful out of it it’s kind of a difficult process we actually molded polymer clay moto type first and then we had to keep the shrinkage in mind as well. then a rubber mold was made from the clay prototype and we pressed the pmc plus silver clay into the mold the clay I think it’s composed of around 90% silver buyers to like a dull sheen you can buy these jewelry kills that are really nice and small and they plug into like any wall outlet I place the final ring into a rotary tumbler for a few hours to polish the surface and then I glued a blue stone into the center of the ring don’t think it was actually. far I’m just going to go on a limb last but not least we have jelly filled peanut some like a plain painting on deep co-op I get into college cheese great you this was a stop-motion video that I made with almost 200 photos as a surrealist play on the words of America’s favorite snack PB&J my class at RISD we went to Whole Foods we could purchase $15 worth of items which of course I purchased some costly drawers of peanut butter and jelly God love that expensive PB&J I just designed a project that could combine my love or ceramic and video art with food what could be better than that I came up with. many different ideas the concept was supposed to playfully mimic the process of filling a doughnut with chilli obviously they don’t use like a real needle but I thought it would be fun i sculpted 24 hollow peanuts out of play and then each got progressively more plump in the last then after firing the peanuts and glazing them was at an under grade I took to creating the film the help of my friend Simone we we went to my dorm and sat there for like an hour in front of this little backdrop that I created and I photographed each frame basically to create each frame you just have to transform each shot slightly remember that episode of iCarly where Spencer’s trying to make the stop-motion and that’s like yeah that’s what I did and I love stop-motion animation I want to work for like a some day my god that’s it that’s my whole portfolio it’s not like a lot of the stuff you might have seen it’s interesting also to go look at student portfolios from the colleges that you’re looking at to see the kind of work that they make that’s also how I sort of came down in my decision but I looked at what are the students making it receive what are the students making it a safe seat I feel like I covered everything obviously if you have any questions whatsoever please leave them down below I definitely want to help you guys go check out cat creature on YouTube and oh shoot there’s another girl that creature goes to receive your videos are really fun they give you a feel of the RISD community obviously everybody has their own experience. yeah I hope you guys enjoyed this video very long I know that I really wanted to just explain everything all the main reason why I haven’t been creating videos is because I have really high expectations of what I want to be making I really look like crisp suit and Bertie Gilbert styles of filming it’s very creative and I think I get these high expectations and it just takes. long for me to film because I’m such a perfectionist and it takes me. long to edit I don’t even finish my project I have come up with. many ideas this past year just don’t really get around to them and like last year I did like to sponsor videos and I wasn’t even feeling this year my taste in YouTube videos also changed immensely I went from somebody who watched showy Graceffa in Tyler Oakley not that there’s anything wrong with them and I went from that to watching much more individual creators and watching lots of shit posting stuff I really like the stuff that I’ve been watching I have a new purpose I think in the YouTube community as a consumer and both as a creator hello it’s me and now I’m leaving adios