B.F.A/B.A. English 2009
I entered Cornell as an English major in Arts and Sciences, then applied to the Dual Degree program and matriculated as an art student. Although it's five years of school, I have the wonderful priviledge of being part of both a large and a small school and studying exactly what interests me the most.
Three years ago, I thought I wanted to concentrate in painting, but thanks to curriculum requirements, I spent a languorous summer in Ithaca studying photography with a professor who inspired me to embrace a medium I hadn't expected to enjoy. Photography frustrated me in a way that made me want to try more - I couldn't wrap my head around it, conceptually. I began to think of the camera as a framework for thought and a tool to document performance or catalog experience. Now, two years later, I spend a lot of time in the darkroom, both as a student and an employee. My job there has increased my knowledge of the technical and chemical process of photography and my involvement in the photo community at Cornell.
Even more recently, I was challenged by another professor to "get over myself" and deal with computer software as a means to produce art. Despite my previous analog loyalty, I became fascinated by video, its immateriality, and my generation's ingrained techno-media literacy. To view some of my work for ART 171, follow the link listed below.
My studies as an English major are very much integrated into my practice as an Art student, digesting theory and creating images both fueling an acute and productive frustration with the ways in which we attempt to record and communicate experience. I'm lucky to be surrounded by professors in both colleges who don't let me off easy and require that think hard.
