Rewind. Almost exactly one year ago, five of my peers and I received an email stating that the whole six of us made it into BFA Thesis. This was a huge relief for me, as I had entered the program late (like a week before kind of late) and had undergone a great deal of stress getting my portfolio, artist statement, and overall pitch together. After that, I had a summer to relax, though I probably should have relaxed less and prepared more.

A few months later, we get an email from our BFA coordinator, Nick Sevigney, who had just returned from sabbatical. He informed us that the BFA house, once located between Hyde Hall and Geneva Smith Hall, had been relocated to the Bagely House, once home of PSU’s Career Services and Global Services offices. Soon after, we had our very first look into the Bagely House. It was stark, maybe a little small, but the 6 of us all saw a space of our very own for making art. On the first day of classes we began installing homasote on the walls and before long it felt like an artist’s space.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about my first semester of thesis, because to be honest it wasn’t all that great. Aside from external challenges like managing to get work done without ventilation or wifi, and trying to solidify a workspace, I was struggling to find motivation. I had just finished a fairly productive semester the spring before, but in the few first weeks of the fall semester all I had made was some bad pour paintings and some sketchy watercolors. I was having trouble adapting to a new place and a new work flow, and my artistic output reflected that. Very soon into the semester, I lost a close family member, my Grandfather. It was very damaging for my work ethic, though I did respond to the event with some strong emotionally tied pieces of artwork.

End of the semester review didn’t go so well. I didn’t have enough work, and the work was so sentimentally and personally driven that I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. I got lots of feedback from faculty, which was helpful in that they gave a lot of direction, but not really one cohesive direction. I spent my winter break doing some searching through old artwork to try to find a thesis that I felt driven to work with and capable of talking about.

I found a lot of ties to cats, who play a significant role in art and art history as well as my personal life. I have a great love for them and their enigmatic personalities. I began painting them digitally on my Wacom tablet, and gave a new life to my own cats through color, texture, and space. I painted my Kenny and Luna as larger than life cats in agricultural settings, whose massive presence elevated their position in the painting and with the viewer. I painted them in context of my personal life, too, and told visual stories about our bonds together.

In April, I hung six of these paintings in the Museum of the White Mountains for our BFA Senior Show, my capstone experience. With them, I projected a time lapse video of my digital process onto a stretched canvas. The juxtaposition was supposed to emphasize the similarities and differences between digital and traditional workflows. People at the show were fascinated by the nature of my work, both in their feline subject matter and in their ambiguous medium. My printed digital paintings once mounted had a very traditional look, and entered the “fine art” realm that I wanted them to. I was complimented for my artist statement even, which was sort of avant garde in its narrative nature. The gallery experience was really wonderful, and I won’t forget it.

I won’t forget the people I worked with either. Nick, Felicia, Rob, Caity, Julia, Ian and I became good friends and mutual supporters. Our bond grew strong over the last year, and I can say that I will remember them as family. The arts environment has always felt welcoming and accepting since I was young, but this sort of experience was different. I think that despite our moving out of a shared studio space, we will continue to provide support for each other in our futures.

We talked about said futures a lot over the past months. For me, a lot of career paths have come up. As a group we’ve talked about children’s books, animation, Youtube, commercial work, and more as possible dreams for me to follow. I’ve also found a new love for ceramics outside of the BFA program. With today being only a few days after graduation, I feel a little nervous about the big world that lay ahead of me. My immediate plans include continuing to work at my front desk job at a cozy inn in Waterville Valley. The place next door, which is managed by a former boss and friend of mine, has commissioned me to make decorative prints for its hotel rooms. I also have been making plans to build a kerokuro style kick wheel so that I can continue my interests in ceramics. And of course, I’d like to keep developing my website with a strong blog, a gallery of works, and a store to buy originals and prints of my artwork.

For anyone reading this who is thinking about pursuing BFA, just go for it! I can say for certain that it won’t be easy, and that it won’t always be fun, but in my own experience it was worth it. To be able to work in a non-classroom studio environment, like a “real” artist, and to showcase my work in an actual museum was just unbelievable. I really hope that the rewards haven’t ended for me yet, and that these wonderful experiences will open new doors in the future.