Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
Katie started working with us in the spring of her Junior year. She had the start of a strong portfolio as she had beautifully precise observational drawings but she needed to develop her conceptual drawing skills. She was also unsure of what type of school she wanted to attend, a college of art and design, a liberal arts college, or a university with a strong art program.
When we first met we discussed several colleges for her to research and visit, which she did that summer and early fall. Similar to many students we work with, she narrowed her list to a few of each type, not knowing when it came time to commit in May of her Senior year which she would prefer. We then began to focus on her common application, supplemental essays, and artistic portfolio so she would be prepared to respond to the variety of different applications. In the fall she also attended several virtual National Portfolio Day reviews to receive feedback on her work. This feedback helped her focus where she needed to develop her art more fully.
She worked 1:1 with our Art Coach, Laura McFaden, where she concentrated on simultaneously developing her college art portfolio as well as her AP Art 2D portfolio. Each school to which she applied required a different focus for her art portfolio, as she learned with the various portfolio reviews, and the pieces also had to related to her supplemental essay for that school. To be successful, she realized she couldn’t submit the same responses to each school and her written responses needed to support and relate to her artwork.
Katie applied early action to several schools and received only acceptances, including several generous merit scholarships, so she was quite pleased to know she had a choice of schools come the fall. She then committed to applying to RISD and worked hard to create her response to RISD’s infamous “assignment.” This year’s prompt required her to respond to a two word pairing and create a work where this pair of words is in “conversation with each other.” She decided to respond to the word pairing “Complexity / Contradiction” and her study and final artwork (an oil stick piece on unstretched canvas with black gesso) are below. These works, together with 12 other pieces showcasing her strong technical skills as well as conceptual designs gained her acceptance to RISD as a regular decision applicant. We are more than thrilled for her as we know she has the artistic rigor and intellectual curiosity to thrive at RISD, we can’t wait to see what the future brings.
