accepted art portfolio - risd, harvard, stanford

hi hello people today i will be walking you through my college art portfolio that was accepted at the rhode island school of design aka risd harvard stanford and u.s amherst risd was the only actual art school i applied to and i submitted optional art supplements for the rest i also got into duke and vanderbilt but they didn't accept art supplements as part of their application process in case you're wondering i will be attending stanford hopefully pursuing a double major in art practice and maybe poli-sci or anthro or maybe soch or communication i don't know man anyway i thought this video might be helpful because i did not know what i was doing when i was assembling my college art portfolio and i couldn't find a lot of examples for portfolios from non-art school applicants also important i just wanted to say a lot of these videos on youtube will say this is the essay that got me into stanford or these are the stats and extracurriculars that got me into harvard but it could literally be in spite of and not because of correlation is not causation so in my case maybe the admissions people were like damn that's a shitty portfolio but she maybe has some other redeeming factor and objectively i don't think my portfolio was that great i mean that in the least pick me way possible please don't come for me i just think it's not very cohesive in structure not at all well-rounded in terms of style subject matter or medium and i think i've grown as an artist since i submitted my applications almost half a year ago and my portfolio also had zero figure drawings or observational drawings which the art people say you should definitely include so i guess just take this as an example of a mediocre portfolio that was just not bad enough to get me rejected so not something you should emulate per se but just an example of something that's marginally acceptable okay now just some of my art background for context i've never taken formal art classes i don't go to studio or anything i guess i've just been doing art from a young age because i liked it oh in my school which is a public high school it doesn't offer apr i technically took my school's studio art classes for all four years but my teacher was super chill and she kind of just let me do my own thing in the back corner of the room i did not do national portfolio day or anything like that because i didn't know it existed i got into art allstate my junior year i did submit to some competitions and stuff over the years i have quite a few gripes with the whole youth art competition industrial complex but that is a whole separate video in 2020 i won a 500 first prize at a massachusetts state art competition for scholastic throughout high school i've won two national silver medals four regional gold keys and nine regional silver keys and i was a 2021 young arts merit winner in visual arts i worked for two summers the summer after my freshman year and sophomore year at this place called artists for humanity which is a boston-based non-profit that employs teens in the creative arts i was employed in the paint studio so basically i got paid to make acrylic paintings all day for afh to later put in galleries or sell to rich people i absolutely loved it so if you live in the boston area i would highly recommend you check it out and finally as some of you probably know i've been able to establish a social media presence centered around my art on tech talk and instagram i'm so so grateful for everyone who has supported me because i would not be here without you yes you so today i'll be walking you through my risd portfolio because it's the most comprehensive and most recent and all of my other college supplements were just variations of it so funny story with rusty i was originally gonna not apply to any art schools and i thought the risdy deadline had long passed anyway because most applications were due in early january but i found out that risky's was actually february 1st so then my friend phillip peer pressured me into applying and i caved so here we are some advice i heard for deciding the order of your portfolio pieces is to do the sandwich method where you put your strongest pieces at the beginning and end in order to take advantage of the cereal position effect like cereal as in serial killer not as in front loops which is the psychological tendency to best recall the first and last items in a series so i guess the hope is that the admissions officers will forget about the mediocre in the middle but my problem is that i low-key have painting dysmorphia so i kind of hate them all i think i ended up kind of gripping them visually and thematically like not really but it made sense to me anyway let's get into it first up is a drawing called second grade classroom which was the only piece in my portfolio that was not a painting i mainly used colored pencil but also copic markers white gel pen and a purple posca marker for this part right here this was actually the first drawing i did in years and it reminded me why i don't draw anymore because paid it ended up taking me more than 60 hours so uh zero stars would not recommend to a friend it's the only piece i made specifically for my college portfolio because some schools require at least one drawing and i also wanted to show that i'm like somewhat capable of using mediums other than acrylic paint there is kind of an expectation to include some kind of figure or observational drawing in your portfolio but i was like i'd rather not so i kind of tried to subvert the traditional academic norm and still show technical ability but in a setting that's more modern and in my opinion more interesting on sideroom which is the platform you submit your portfolio through you're given a thousand characters to write an optional description for each piece i would highly recommend you write something it doesn't have to be long but just something to give the admissions people some insight into the process or meaning of your piece here is what i wrote for this one in the spring i was invited by my second grade teacher to visit her class virtually to talk about high school and some of the social justice work i was doing the experience was so chaotic but so full of life the kids were inquisitive effervescent and impressively resilient i wanted to capture their vitality and the hope and optimism they symbolize i think this image embodies our collective experience of the juxtaposition of the more abstract chaos of the pandemic with the quotidian realities of adjusting daily life to a new normal i also love how zoom provides glimpses into individual worlds with each panel i try to capture the idiosyncrasies in minutia of the environment that is literally so extra i want to throw up okay moving on slide two was a painting i did the summer after my sophomore year called emergence and i actually painted this while i was at artist for humanity in 2019 and i think it was a really pivotal piece in helping me find my painting style it's really not all that special though it's a pretty straightforward portrait i put the more vanilla and academic pieces at the beginning of the portfolio to establish my technical skill and then gradually transition to more conceptual and creative wish pieces here is the description i wrote this is a painting of my friend maddie with the interactions of the light and shadow regions i tried to contrast saturated and muted tones as well as tighter and looser brush strokes the title emergence refers to a physical emergence from dark to light and from the depths of nature to the bustle of society but it also encompasses an internal emergence of maddie herself she's very shy but given time and warmth departs from michelle i wanted to capture this personal intimacy in this piece slide three was a piece called limbo and i guess it's kind of like um hi i can do anatomy like literally this one was also from 2019 here is the description this piece was inspired by a visit to the body worlds exhibit at the boston museum of science an elaborate gallery of human anatomy preserved through the process of plastination in my painting i tried to capture a liminality between dynamism and inanimacy the body is skeletal yet animated glistening with blood and tissue suspended in an inextricable limbo between life and death it starkly displays human vulnerability in the face of mortality the fear of the unknown but it also portrays that undeniably human expression hope slide 4 was this painting called mortality i put it after limbo because death stuff and it also uses the wood panel as negative space here was the description in this piece i depict the inevitability of death and the human inclination toward denial the flesh hand reaches toward escape while the skeletal hand fetters it the wilted flowers are dahlias from my garden after this winter's first frost petrified in a state on the cusp of death but still clinging on to life i thought they were particularly fitting next is this painting called power struggle and it's the oldest piece in my portfolio i painted it back in june of 2019 so i was 15. i actually hate this one because i think it's terribly executed and i didn't know what i was doing and it just generally bothers me but i asked some other people for their opinions and they said i should include it so i did because i'm a sheep and i can't think for myself anyway the description i wrote for this one was very short this piece portrays my experience in an emotionally abusive relationship the bottom hand struggles to break free of the oppressor but the oppressor's supply of string is infinite inelectable this one is a pentaptic i did have to google that word which just means five individual pieces presented together as like one unified piece you might have heard of a diptych which is two or a triptych which is three i painted all of these within a week during february break of my junior year description time in this pentaptic i represent the five stages of grief from left to right denial anger bargaining depression and acceptance through my hands physicalizing the phenomenon of loss the title feel has a dual meaning both tactile and emotional wow more hands i included this one because i wanted to show that i can do detail work and also that i can paint different textures those glove wrinkles were literally the worst i was painting them and i was like is this masochism okay here's the description this piece is a quarantine spin on michelangelo's the creation of adam a modern take on a classic to signify unprecedented times i wanted to portray the unfulfilled longing for connection that has characterized this period of isolation i chose to create a diptych separating the hands into individual panels to physicalize the phenomenon of social distancing so the next slide is just a collage of process photos in risd's instructions it says we recommend that you include some developmental research and or preparatory work for one of your submissions it is helpful to show your process of thinking and investigation so we can see how you develop your ideas honestly i kind of included these process collages as a filler because my portfolio only has 13 actual pieces but i wanted to use up the 20 slides allotted but you don't have to use up both sides though like for harvard the max was 25 i believe but i submitted only 13 because i didn't include any of the process shots next up you guessed it even more hands here's the description this painting is a statement about beauty standards no botanical difference exists between flowers and weeds the distinction is arbitrary an unnamed unquantifiable but almost universally accepted metric of value dictated by society but i think weeds are beautiful who's to say a rose is prettier than a dandelion [Music] okay this one was actually two separate pieces that weren't intended to go together but i decided to combine them into a diptych because they're so similar visually and thematically the top one is called fox eyes and the bottom one is enemy here is what i wrote both individual pieces present a fragmented style of self-portraiture with hands as agents of distortion and insecurity and convey internalized hatred through the externalized vessel of the body fox eyes depicts a gesture i used to perform on my eyes every morning growing up in attempt to widen them a result of the racism i'd internalized for my mostly white peers in enemy i confront my struggle with body image i recognize my own irrationality yet feel powerless to reconcile it this piece which depicts an action i do almost reflexively is symbolic of how i've created an enemy out of myself so this is a painting of me taking a selfie in a glossier store i put this one in because i wanted to include some variety in my portfolio and i think this one's pretty different in terms of color palette composition and mood this description was a little bit of a thickie this quasi self portrait conveys the futility of materialism perfectionism and conformity in today's society the people in the background are roughly rendered and with their backs turned they are deliberately demarcated as non-subjects thereby instilling in the portrait an air of self-centeredness and shallowness i think makeup stores are the ultimate intersection of materialism consumerism perfectionism and self-absorption makeup a tool for reinvention and concealing insecurity is a perfect symbol of the increasingly commercialized nature of identity the over-saturation of magenta tones serves to amplify the aura of artificiality societal standards are idealistic and unattainable yet we collectively continue to propagate them trapping us in perpetual inadequacy and ceaseless driving at the end of the day someone turns a profit yup prime example of me doing the absolute most when it's really not that deep funny story um this feast was actually featured by glossier and when they reached out to me to ask for a statement for the painting i wasn't trying to tell them that it was about the internalization and externalization of capitalist consumer culture so i was just like i love glossier stores layout's so pretty architecture so cool i feel kind of bad though because i've never actually owned a single glossier product i literally went to the store to take photos with my friends and then dipped slide 12 is more processed photos i wanted to show the thing i tried with the orange underpainting because it's like kind of experimentation i guess okay so i have the storm kind of marks the transition in my portfolio to pieces with more abstract elements this is what i wrote the theme of this painting is finding inner peace amidst turbulence beyond in eastern cultures the lotus symbolizes rebirth and transcendence taking root in murky waters it ultimately emerges with beauty and grace koi fish with their fabled abilities to swim against waterfalls in pursuit of their destinations represent tenacity and perseverance thus the lotus situated in the storm's eye embodies a triumph over obstacles and the encircling fish represent the endeavor to attain it the controlled nature of the cyclone-like abstraction depicts a taming of chaos the radiating gold lines are symbolic of hope and strength rising above but also woven inextricably within the strokes of the storm the centered composition provides a radial consistency to evoke stability and calm here are some more process photos i included my sketchbook iterations just to show kind of the planning process behind it i actually never liked this one um right after finishing i hated it but eventually it turned into like apathy i guess but the folks on tiktok seem to like it also it definitely marked a shift in my artistic voice so i just put it in the portfolio here is the description in this piece i explore my long time struggle with control i conduct a highly recognized highly planned highly mechanized daily existence i fear unproductivity but alas i am not a machine and my humanity inevitably rears its ugly head through unbridled compulsivity and thus precedes the self-destructive cycle of maintaining control losing it and the ever intensifying struggle to recapture it the looser abstract elements represent the infinitely complex currents of life they ultimately elude the hand's grasp representing the impossibility of control i employ a monochromatic palette to convey the inextricability of subject and object more processed photos this is the piece that for some reason blew up on tick-tock i just checked and it's at like 53 million views which is so whack i can't even begin to conceptualize it it's what i also absolutely despised how this one came out i don't know why all the paintings i hate the most make it into the tik tok algorithms good graces but thanks anyway description time in this piece i wanted to explore the impact that the difficult relationship with my mom left on me the abstract element is intended to have a womb-like appearance it depicts the ultimate betrayal something supposedly nurturing and benign is instead parasitic and malicious i contrast the warm pinks of the exterior with the blue and gray skin tones to convey deoxygenation and lifelessness more process photos you know the drill for this one i dead ass copy pasted the script i wrote for my tick tock voice over and that's the description okay this painting encompasses the overwhelming sense of gratitude i feel toward life i take comfort in my impermanence revel in it i'm a speck in space and time insignificant and ephemeral the grand machinations of the cosmos don't care about me 13.8 billion years ago all the antimatter created by the big bang combined with and annihilated the matter leaving behind only one billionth of the original matter created that one billionth is everything we know then when our solar system formed the sun with its huge gravitational pull consumed more than 99 of all the available matter if the earth were just slightly closer to or further from the sun the conditions for life wouldn't be possible sometimes i wonder is basking in the absurdity of probability in an ineffable cosmic gratitude that different from believing in a higher power is being awed by wave particle duality and space-time relativity in dark matter that different from worshiping the divine hey we made it to the last slide so risd has something called the assignment which according to risd is a portion of your application where you're asked to display critical thinking problem solving and experimentation which i did not this year it was just one visual response and one 250 word written statement in response to the prompt identify something that is in need of repair use any material or approach to fix it like i said my risky application was super last minute super half-assed so i kind of just finessed and took an old painting that sorta kind of related to the promise and i just bullshitted the statement it was such a stretch oh my god here is my mess of a written response in identifying the thing to be repaired i turn to the domain where i have the most autonomy the internal throughout my life i struggled with trauma and turmoil beyond my control but actively working to alter my own beliefs attitudes and behaviors endows me with a sense of liberation what is in need of fixing therefore is myself i've never felt good enough smart enough pretty enough kind enough enough my perpetual striving toward an intangible zenith has too often led to self-destruction this painting newton's third law explores my long-time battle with control and perfectionism it depicts a culmination a breaking point i utilize looser and more spontaneous strokes than i normally employ in order to convey movement in chaos isaac newton's third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction in this painting i repurpose this principle in the abstract when you try too hard to bend life infinitely complex and unyielding to your own will as represented by the twisting action of the hands inevitably life will work you the disintegration of the hands is caused by the tension the tighter they grip the harder they twist the greater their destruction thus the remedy is self-evident letting go as the dalai lama expressed we can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves so there you have it i guess here are some takeaways there's really no right way to assemble in our portfolio there's no formula there's no hard and fast rules just try to trust yourself and your own judgment because at the end of the day you are the artist and this portfolio is a reflection of your own expression and that's part of the creative process so i should probably take my own advice use the description boxes try to show intention and thought behind your artistic choices even if it's an embellishment of the truth i feel like a lot of it is really just a test of your bullshitting abilities make it till you make it baby thank you so much for watching if you made it all the way to the end of this long ass video you a real one if you're applying to college soon you got this i believe in you like this video if you want comment if you want subscribe if you want etc i hope you have an amazing day

Channel: jackie liu

Views: 1,012,628

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Id: oOXXuwTPJYQ

Length: 22min 22sec (1342 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021