What students, faculty, and recent graduates say about Studio Art at Principia.

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Exploring all mediums

"The more art classes I took, the more I wanted to take," says a senior studio art and English double major. "There's so much to learn, so many mediums to explore."

"I took mostly watercolor classes," says a graduate who minored in computer science and is a computer graphics artist/animator with Walt Disney Imagineering's Concept/Show Design department. "But figure drawing, composition, color, and all sorts of things were well integrated into the program, so that when I got out I had a really solid fine-art background."

Sculpting self-discipline

"Some artists create only when the inspiration hits them, but you can't make a living that way," says a junior. "Here, they teach you to work at it and create even during the low periods when you're not inspired. I think that's very valuable. Prin helps artists work through 'blocks' and break out of stereotypes often ascribed to artists." Another studio art major says, "Maintaining your focus during the two- and three-hour classes is fairly demanding if your attention span is not yet that long, but you grow into that ability. The fact is, you have to be actively involved at every moment of the class."

"This is about thinking, about analyzing concepts, and about just plain hard work. It's about being self-driven, finding out what's important," says a senior of the rigors of the studio art major. "We demand that our deadlines are met, as in business," adds a ceramics professor.

Pulling ideas from within

"As I got more involved with my studio art major, I began to see that I was actually pulling ideas from within myself, as opposed to learning from books," says a senior from New Zealand. "To me this is an integral part of my learning experience, because it follows through to all areas of my life." He adds, "It is all coming from within yourself, and it means working and reworking things, redesigning, resketching. It's always a constant effort coming internally. You can't just sit down and flip through a book to gain the knowledge."

"It forces you to come out of yourself and analyze yourself when you create something and have it critiqued by the other studio art majors, having to discuss what you were feeling and what you were thinking while doing it," says a senior. "There's such a personal sense of growth, and that's probably the best reason to choose the studio art major."

In the studio

"The professors are artists," points out another senior, "so they have experience to back up what they say. To see the working artist and the teacher coupled together is amazing. And they are always available for consultation." A senior also majoring in English adds, "There's a real diversity among the faculty, and each has a different style of teaching. Every class is interesting and new, so you have different approaches to creative expression." A junior studio art major says, "The professors allow you to develop your own style. They'll talk about different styles and help you evaluate your own style, but they don't say 'You should be doing this style or that style.' It's important to be able to evaluate art intellectually this way, as well as to develop your own style. I feel Principia is providing me with a broad base to go into my master's program."

A recent graduate, who moved on to graduate work at a prestigious West Coast school of design, noted some differences between studio space and accessibility at his two schools: "At Prin you had your own table and could set up your supplies for an entire quarter. And you had your space that you could have access to at any time of the night or day. When I got to graduate school, the studio closed at 11:30 p.m."

Among fellow artists overseas

"Before the Scotland Studio Art Abroad, I didn't know that I was capable, or even desirous, of being an artist all day," says one studio art alum, who also majored in art history. "Working alongside other artists, critiquing our work together, we developed lasting friendships. I am still painting from that experience; there's subject matter I haven't even touched. It's very fresh in my mind because I was able to experience it in such depth." A senior studio art major, who learned to love the medium of gouache while painting outdoors on the moors, highlands, and in the fishing villages of Scotland, says, "My focus came out of the abroad. My goal now is deeper, more philosophical — to try to translate the feelings behind what I see in nature." On the Studio Art Abroad, students study masterpieces in some of the world's great museums, then paint on location overseas for several weeks. The most recent abroad took students and a professor to France.

An artistic liberal arts foundation

"After I had taken about three classes in watercolor," says a recent graduate, "I was able to set up an independent course with a professor and do what I wanted to do. It was really nice to have that kind of freedom." An alum who is currently in a graduate program studying architecture at Washington University says he chose Principia knowing that he wanted a studio art major, but "mostly because I wanted to have the broad kind of liberal arts education involved." While at Principia he specialized in watercolor, but he was able to focus on his architecture interest by "mostly painting buildings and things like that, because that was what I was most interested in."

"I wouldn't trade my experience at Prin for going to a specialized art school," says a recent graduate who works for an animation company in Colorado and does freelance art direction in the film business. A studio art alum who also had a fine arts major with a minor in computer science — and now is "doing 3-D animation for television commercials and game programming for a toy company" — says he enjoyed that "the professors have time to sit down and actually help with the stuff you're doing. And I have found out that my art preparation is comparable to or better than what some colleagues had at well-known art schools. You know, art is art. It doesn't matter how fancy you get. It's the creativity and the love that you put into your work."