Art Grad Profiles

Heijin (Esther) Kim, class of 2006
The Gordon Art Department has a wonderful student-mentor relationship. The professors make themselves available as professional artists for students to ask questions about the professional art world. Personally, the professors helped me extensively with my graduate school application and I appreciated all their input.

Esther was accepted to the New York Academy of Art; the two year program is the only graduate school in the United States devoted exclusively to the study of the human figure. She has chosen not to attend NYAA this fall, but will be returning to Korea to be with her family and continue making art.

Amber Primm, Class of 2004

The Art Department at Gordon College has done so much for me in so many ways. My freshman year of college, I was a terrified, uncertain mess, lacking any confidence in my art.  By graduation, I felt assured in my talents, my calling as an artist and of the plethora of ways to make a living doing what I love. Almost all of my post-graduate work experience is indebted to the personable Art faculty at Gordon College.  They are my mentors, my friends and now my colleagues!  

Amber received her BA in Art at Gordon with a concentration in sculpture.  Immediately following graduation, she was a sculptor's assistant for former Gordon Professor, Shelly Bradbury; they created the bronze sculptures for the "Fountain at Water's Edge" at Endicott College.  She is currently the Building Manager of Barrington Center for the Arts and Gallery Assistant at Gordon College, freelancing as a scenic artist whenever she can.

Julie (Burns) Smiley, class of 1999
At Gordon College I learned that my life was art. Not a passing phase, not merely my major, not something to mess around with until I got a real job, art would be created by a vigilance and involvement in my whole being. By seeing how my professors lived their art I learned this lesson. When Bruce Herman invited his students into his home we saw, from the rafters to the paintings, he was constantly building art with his breath and blood. Herman challenged us to think of art as our spiritual practice, an act of communion. John Skillen, who accompanied our first class through the Orvieto program, led us into a culture that is soaked in art from its cobblestones to its cathedral spires. My time spent in the Italian culture and my daily work making art there in an ancient courtyard, served to more thoroughly steep art into my life. Being involved in the lives of these professors and my fellow students made me realize that my work, my life as an artist is maintained in the personal connections and rich traditions of a community.

Nearly eight years after graduating from Gordon, art is still my life. This continuity has been a conscious choice however, one I've made despite stretches of living in very small apartments, with hectic work and graduate school schedules, and producing very ugly artworks. Sometimes it has been uncomfortable and humbling but I've continued to pursue making art. Happily, at this present time I've reached a balance between my professions and passions: teaching art and making art. The balance is sustained and inspired by my students, friends, and family, the lives in which I am involved. My choices for sustenance and inspiration are informed by my first lessons at Gordon; art is my life, and so I've continued to live.

Julie Smiley is an artist and teacher in San Francisco, California. Since graduating in 1999, Julie has exhibited locally and statewide in CA and has work in many private art collections. She teaches at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco. Julie will receive her Masters in Art Education through Ohio State University in 2008.

Truitt Seitz, class of 1998
During my junior year as a philosophy major at Gordon I did something rather rash. With little formal training in the visual arts or its history, I decided that a valuable and sensible (although not necessarily logical) next step in my education would be to spend a semester abroad through Gordon's program at Orvieto, Italy. Perhaps due to the nature of intercultural experience, my time in Italy proved to be as much of a challenge philosophically as artistically, although while enrolled in the program I pursued a rigorous independent study course in drawing.  

Fueled by the first-hand cultural and intellectual challenges of the semester in Orvieto, my senior year as a philosophy student was especially rewarding. I composed my senior thesis on a topic in aesthetics, thus continuing the process of integrating philosophical reflection with my burgeoning interest in the arts. Unfortunately, I proceeded to make yet another rash decision. I determined to apply to an MFA program at the New York Academy of Art, and, to my own astonishment, found an acceptance letter loitering in my mailbox.  
When I matriculated to the New York Academy of Art, I rapidly discovered that I was now a smaller fry than ever before. I had significantly less experience as a painter and draftsman than nearly all of my peers. While attempting to overcome this technical disparity, I found consolation in the company of old friends, writings by favorite philosophers and a book of Psalms that has now traveled hundreds of miles on the MTA.  

In hind sight this deliberate maintenance of my liberal arts education at Gordon proved to be the quality that gave me a unique edge. Over time as the technical gap lessened, I discovered that the approbation I received from faculty and peers often corresponded more to my commitment to discerning sources of meaning in imagery than my developing technical skill. It wasn't until later that I learned that the academy specifically encouraged students applying from liberal arts backgrounds precisely for this reason.
      
It would be nice to say that my rash choices stopped here. Recently I responded favorably to an invitation to teach a drawing course to college students who are not art majors but students of the humanities. Believing that this apparent handicap was in fact an asset in my own education, I decided to rush in where even the wiser and more well equipped might fear to tread.   

Truitt Seitz is a painter who currently lives in New York State. He has shown work in New York and the greater Boston area.

Anthony Falcetta, class of 1992
Anthony Falcetta is a painter living and working on the north shore of Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Gordon in 1992 and went on to study at Massachusetts College of Art where he graduated with distinction in 2001. He has since had several solo art exhibitions in Boston and the New England region, and has had his work reviewed by the Boston Phoenix and Boston Globe and other journals.