In retrospect, I don’t think I would have had the determination if it weren’t for my mentor constantly supporting and challenging me. MCAD was the only school I researched into that had that unique learning experience attached to the curriculum. The school has it so that every graduate is partnered up with practicing artist in the area (and it’s a very artistic city, so lots of good choices).
Instead of going for a printmaking or even illustration mentor, I chose to be partnered up with Laura Stack, a painting and drawing mentor. She works with mixed media and although her type of work is fairly unrelated to my own (which is a good thing for me), it still has a graphic sensibility that I found in my own work. She’ll often bring ideas or critiques to meetings that often does not get brought up in my group critiques or with other teachers/visiting artists. Laura also helps me try to cope and with the school’s need to categorize myself into either fine arts or illustration, an issue she had to deal with in her own graduate school.
Some of my faves from her work:
Organic! Go!
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Comments ( 2 )
Leiah added these pithy words on Aug 11 09 at 7:35 pmI’ve also looked into MCAD for their grad program, and it seems like a good one! Do you have pretty good financial support there? How hard was it to apply for financial support? How many professors did you meet with before you chose your mentor?
Megan added these pithy words on Aug 11 09 at 10:19 pmYes, the financial support is very good for the graduates. During applications, you fill out a FAFSA and whatnot. You usually get scholarships on merits and then grants based on financial info. There’s still a lot of loans, but your financial aid will take care of them during the course of your education, so you don’t have to pay for anything while you’re at school. I had my education half paid for from MCAD and the rest are paid with loans. Which isn’t bad when you compare to out of state tuition at state universities.
I looked through a profile list of all the available mentors when I came to MCAD, picked about 4-5 to interview. The mentor list has their profiles, teaching philosophy and art slides to look through so you can get an intuitive grasp of the person when you select a group. Interviewing will narrowing it down to the last 1-2 and then you have to make a decision. You can also change it semester to semester, but it’s easier if you have the same mentor throughout your education, but I know that several grads are changing theirs up this second year.
