The collection of works for pure art majors applied to Rhode Island Design Institute for studying abroad and won offers from many schools. Obviously, it applied for pure art majors, but the collection of works included photography, devices, books, space, images, graphic design, and clothing design? Such a "disorderly" combination also won the grand slam of offers from Parsons Design Institute, RISD Rhode Island Design Institute, Pratt Pratt Art Institute, SAIC Chicago Art Institute? She said, "I don't see it as a specific portfolio project, but as an interesting experiment.". In her collection of works, she added the oldest photo production skills, integrated clothing design fabrics to express the concept of painting, and used images and interactive devices to build interactive space. Her ideas are not only plane, but she is the object of our interview today, Tiantong classmate.

Tiantong, a graduate student, applied for a pure art major with zero foundation, and received offers from Parsons, RISD, Pratt, SAIC and other universities.

　　 Q: Could you give us a brief account of this application?

I applied for studying in Fine Arts as a pure art major, and now I have received offers from Parsons, RISD, SAIC and Pratt. Because I have zero foundation, I have taken basic courses for about 3 months, and my portfolio has been completed for about 10 months. Because I usually go to school abroad, 80% of my courses are finished in class with teachers, and the few face-to-face lectures are returned to China during the holidays.

Finally, in these schools, I'm going to RISD Rhode Island School of Design Because before I went to study in natural light, my first wish was Rhode Island.

Collected works of Tiantong students

　　 Q： How do you think about school choice? Why RISD?

Rhode Island has always been a shrine I yearn for, so when I first came to natural light, my first wish was Rhode Island. In fact, before I decided to go to Rhode Island, I had already been to most of the better art schools in the United States. For example, Parsons, SAIC, Pratt, and RISD, which I applied for this time, I have been to schools.

Because I went to high school in the United States, it was very convenient to go to these schools. I took advantage of my spare time to have a look and feel for myself. I have my own experience of the geographical location, surrounding environment, overall urban atmosphere and campus atmosphere of these schools.

In fact, I chose to go to RISD Rhode Island because I participated in its Summer School summer program, so I have a certain understanding of the lifestyle, teaching style and teaching mode there. It fits my own style and ideas, so I like RISD very much.

When applying, RISD must be chosen. In addition to RISD, the teacher also communicated with me and selected several. Finally, I got the offer from RISD, and I will definitely choose it. There is no suspense.

Tiantong in natural light

Tiantong's situation should be a special category among art students abroad. Because high schools in the United States usually have to go to school, almost all courses are completed online.

Many students prefer face-to-face teaching when looking for art study abroad institutions. It is undeniable that face-to-face teaching is more convenient for communication between teachers and students, especially in the scheme design stage. However, online teaching is by no means a completely negative option. For example, in the case of Tiantong, 80% of the courses were completed online, but she finally got good grades in multiple offers.

Another example is a former student of Natural Light, who won the offer of film majors from SVA, CalArts, Emerson, UBC and other schools through three months of online teaching, and discussed with the teacher about the separation of scenes, selection of scenes, and plot, and finally shot a work integration film.

Secondly, in the school selection stage, because of the convenience of geographical factors, Tiantong did its own preliminary research in the school selection stage. It not only searched for information on the Internet, but also went to the campus, made field visits and participated in the RISD summer project.

However, many domestic students do not have such advantages. Therefore, I want to say something more about the summer program mentioned by Tiantong. Many students feel "wasted money" when they see such programs as summer programs or school visits in winter vacation, that is, they go out to play and do not learn any practical knowledge.

But you should know that the purpose of short-term study tours is not only to learn knowledge, but also to learn about the teaching mode, teaching style and living environment of art schools. At the school selection stage, if you have the opportunity to experience your own Dream School personally, it is better for you to determine whether you want to choose this school and whether you can adapt to the overseas life and teaching style than to confirm that this school is my Dream School through the Internet or the teacher's introduction.

　 Q: Can you share your collection of works with us?

OK, I have done three major projects in my portfolio. What impressed me most was my first project. This project was done in the summer vacation of this year (2018) under the comprehensive guidance of teacher Jiaxin.

Because I usually go to school abroad, I seldom have the opportunity to return to China. I only participated in a natural light admissions officer workshop before. In a very short time, we made some installation works, using various materials, including plastic, straw, cotton, and using these things to make devices. At that time, I always thought it was quite fun.

For these reasons, my courses are basically online teaching, and this project is one of my few projects during face-to-face teaching. In the early online classes, I have been discussing with teacher Jiaxin how to do this project. In fact, it is more like chatting with friends. I talked about interesting ideas and interesting materials, and then discussed some artists and their interesting works.

My several project ideas, many inspirations and highlights are also obtained from the exchange with teachers. Finally, the project I did was a relatively large device, but I also combined many concepts of "painting".

I first painted two large oil paintings, and then put a thin layer of sulfuric acid paper on it. After that, I burned the sulfuric acid paper to further visual transformation through the size of the holes in the sulfuric acid paper.

When the viewer sees this work, he can see the contents of the painting through these holes of different sizes and shapes.

　 Q: Where did the inspiration for this project come from? As the first project at the beginning, did you encounter "resistance"?

There are some. Because it's a project I started at the beginning, I had a lot of troubles in the early stage. Because I will have many ideas in my head, I will feel very troubled.

The theme of this work is to discuss a social problem. My inspiration comes from two sources, one is living in a humble house, the other is different people's cognition and understanding of the world.

At the beginning, my plans were very grand. In fact, they were not very practical. They were all illusory. So Teacher Jiaxin asked me to list a planning table, and then we discussed according to the planning table to see which points I listed are more feasible; What needs to take some trouble to achieve; Which are completely unable to land.

After that, we reorganized the table, rearranged it according to the feasibility, and compared the creativity and interest of these schemes. Finally, the teacher gave me the choice to consider whether I could complete each project.

After our constant consultation, we have finalized the current expression form that is highly feasible, consistent with the theme, interesting, and thoughtful. This is the first project.

Finally, I decided to finish the project by "burning pictures". I invited different friends and teachers to complete the burning process together. Everyone has a unique understanding of this work, so the shape and duration of their burning are different.

So finally you will see large and small holes, some of which are even rectangular or square. The final effect of this work is also very interesting.

The first project of Tiantong's portfolio

Generally speaking, the first project of the portfolio will be difficult, especially for students who have adapted to domestic teaching, the first step is to determine the theme of the project.

When everyone is used to the routine of "the teacher gives a theme and creates according to the established theme", it will be difficult to determine a theme freely.

Like in natural light, many students will reflect that they do not know what kind of content can be used as the theme of the portfolio project. In natural light, teachers usually have some simple and relaxed communication with students. First, they understand the scope of students' interests, get familiar with their personality and emotions, and then let students find out what they want to express most through guided communication.

As Tiantong said, in the process of creating her overseas works collection, the teacher of Natural Light did not start teaching directly and told her what kind of works could be offered. Instead, she will act as a collaborator and artist, communicate with her on an equal basis, list all the plans together, and discuss the feasibility of the plans together.

Based on the solid training of basic courses in the previous three months, Tiantong has gained a good accumulation of basic expression skills. But how to sort out the confused inspiration and jump out of the fixed framework. We need to make breakthroughs in thinking logic and cognition.

What the teacher has done is to stimulate and help Tiantong to sort out his own ideas and plan his own portfolio projects in an orderly way by means of the completely overseas teaching mode, through the guidance of communication and communication rather than the compulsory interference and restriction.

　　 Q： Which other portfolio project do you think is more interesting?

I have done a professional photography project in the collection of pure art works, but it should not be considered as a photography work of contemporary concepts. Because I use a very traditional photographic process called "blue sun".

This process can be regarded as Professional photography At that time, there was no common film or digital camera. If you want to take photos and see photos, you still need to work together to make them.

The reason why I wanted to do this project was that my teacher asked me, "Apart from the first volunteer Rhode Island, what else are you interested in or like?"

Because I had a photography class in high school, I was always interested in photography. But I don't want to express my ideas directly in the most common way of photography, so I chose the "blue sun" photography process after many communications with natural light teachers and local teachers in the United States.

I always regard it as a very interesting experiment, rather than a specific project of professional works of pure art. I have never seen anyone put this into a collection of works, probably because it is not a very common way of expression.

　　 Q： We see that you have applied for Parsons and RISD at the same time. How did you complete Parsons Challenge and RISD Assignment?

Parsons challenge and RISD assignment are the same topic, which is the latest exam questions of RISD this year. I chose the topic of "ERROR".

When I attended RISD summer school before, and also when I was in class in natural light, my teacher said that the self imposed questions of RISD and Parsons paid more attention to the creative direction, and the admissions officer wanted to see your most special ideas.

So when I do it, I don't need to consider whether I will be too bold or too innovative. Whether it is Parsons Challenge or RISD Assignment, it can make you feel "let go", which is very experimental.

Finally, I made a totally enclosed space, and made the room into a 100% completely black space with a blackout cloth. After entering, no one can see it. On one side of the room is a silent image, which is used to record the way people communicate; On the other side, at the corresponding position of the plane, I hung three curtains, which were made of non-woven fabric. I painted nose, mouth and eyes on each one.

The screen and curtain are in contrast with each other. Silent images are reflected on the mouth of the canvas; The eye contact in the image corresponds to the eyes on the screen.

I use this design to express the communication between people, and slowly lose the true meaning of the original language. Obviously, it is something you can see and touch, but in fact, you do not understand what it is talking about. This is my understanding of "ERROR".

When it comes to ERROR, many people think of mistakes, but I think of "correctness no longer exists".

Tiantong is a student who has her own ideas. But as she said, the teacher also found that although she always has creativity and inspiration in her creation, she will be in trouble when it comes to expression. Which expression form is better? How to make the best effect?

Faced with such a state of jumping and nowhere to play, the teacher decided to take her to conduct a calm project review and rigorous secondary review. By reflecting on the works and creation process, we can sort out our ideas, and focus on spreading our ideas and creativity through "listing", so as to select the final best scheme.

At the same time, because of the advantageous background of Tiantong Meigao, the teacher soon started with this completely overseas teaching model, guided her to find her own interests, started from "self", to learn, create, and gain her own unique views on artistic expression.

　　 Q: What inspiration did the teacher give you when completing the Parsons Challenge and RISD Assignment? Or do you have any insights?

Do whatever comes to mind or you think you should do. But the prerequisite is that you should first think about what others will not do.

The teacher suggested me to do the art form that is missing in all your projects. There are oil paintings, sketches, graphic design, and even clothing design in my portfolio.

At this time, when we looked at my collection of pure art works, we found that I still lacked the expression of image direction. Maybe I lacked something more concrete, or I needed something to do with multimedia or new media.

I think it is a very interesting process. I keep communicating with my teacher, discuss many ideas, and then realize these ideas. I don't think you should be too nervous about these "requirements", because the more open you are, the more innovative you are, the more the admissions officer will feel that you are an aggressive artist, and such talents will be liked by the art school.

Parsons Challenge and RISD Assignment are problems that almost every student who applies to these two universities will encounter. Obviously, I have submitted a collection of works to prove my ability. Why should I submit additional works.

This is about the role of Parsons Challenge and RISD Assignment. First, Parsons Challenge requires students to express the project in another artistic way based on an existing work in their own works collection; RISD Assignment will change its own proposition from time to time. For example, this year's proposition is "error", "verify" or "force".

Whether Parsons Parsons School of Design In addition to the above contents, RISD has hardly added any other restrictions on this additional submitted work. There are no restrictions on the form of expression, content and theme.

This almost unlimited expression has actually become the biggest challenge to students' creativity. Because the school hopes to see the potential and development space of each student in this way. Such abstract propositions, in fact, mean that they attach great importance to the experimental and conceptual nature of students in the creation process. Compared with works that can show complete and proficient results, the school hopes that students can submit works with experimental thinking and bold creativity.

With the encouragement and guidance of many teachers, Tiantong has given full play to its advantages of "full inspiration" in Parsons Challenge and RISD Assignment. What others will not do, I just want to do what others will not do to achieve real challenges.

　　 Q: We all know that RISD needs to submit observational paintings. Have you made innovations in your observational paintings?

Yes, in the part of observational painting, I used acrylic oil painting, pen and pencil painting.

I mainly drew some concrete documentary content. The concrete is basically the concrete line drawing, and there are works similar to the sketch, but with some color added.

The other thing is to draw something that is of great significance to me, because the teacher suggested that I start from myself to create, to focus on expressing my own feelings, or to make some creative changes.

So I drew a very concrete but interesting work. In fact, I still use a common form of painting in terms of picture expression techniques, but I found a very interesting angle to draw a person's legs.

In this work, I draw from the toe to the thigh root. This angle is very interesting. The teacher showed me a lot of ordinary works for comparison before, and the people in these works are all sitting in front of each other, or with side faces, similar to each other. That's why I choose this special angle.

There is also a painting that is related to myself, that is, it combines a lot of my emotional content, portrait and landscape. I was very careful when dealing with this work, and I was very satisfied with the final effect.

Self interest is the best guide, and unique ideas and professional cognition are the energy to promote the improvement of the collection. Each student has his own unique ideas and advantages. Just like today's lead student Tiantong, although she has almost never been exposed to art design before, her "full of inspiration" and "dare to express" personality has become the biggest driving force for her application and collection creation.

The teacher, as the support behind, sees and maximizes her characteristics, guides Tiantong to sort out his own ideas through planned and mutually promoting teaching, and integrates diversified professional elements and inspiration in each work.

The collection of professional works of pure art is never just an expression, as in Tiantong's opinion: "I want to do what I want to do, and I want to do what others can't think of". In the eyes of natural light, what we should do is to take care of the "special circumstances" of each student, so that they can become independent "unexpected".

This article belongs to the original article of Natural Light International Art Education Team. Without permission, it cannot be reproduced commercially in any form. If it is found, it must be investigated for legal responsibility.