Introduction

Rumpelstiltskin illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

It was always a very special treat to cozy up next to my mom to listen to her read from an exquisitely illustrated edition of Rumpelstiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky.  The elegant use of color and the painstaking detail captivated me and caused me to return to my finger painting with renewed zeal. These books have the same inspirational qualities for me to this day.

I began to compose my own stories spending innumerable hours setting the foundations of sparkly purple castles resting on white clouds. These fantasies erupted from my imagination through a number two pencil onto a crisp white page in little gray scratches. These scribbles occasionally, to my parents’ dismay, found their way onto my bedroom walls.  As nature loathes a vacuum an artist loathes a blank space.

Visual art has been my passion for as long as I can remember although my zeal for it has grown          

Jack and the Beanstalk illustrated by Barry Moser

exponentially since my finger painting days. During my years as an aspiring artist I have mimicked the artists that I grew up idolizing such as Barry Moser and Maurice Sendak.  I have come to realize that illustrating books is the only thing that I could see myself doing as a career. Art is not just a vocation it is what I want to do all day everyday for the rest of my life. I believe that college would be the perfect springboard to launch myself into a full time career in art.

The difference between many other students and myself is that I do not want to go to college for the same reasons. Most students go through school with their eyes fixed upon a salary as insurance for their future. I need to go to college to hone my skill so that I can do what I have always hoped to do. For me success is measured in empty paint cans and pencil nubs rather than the number of zeros on a paycheck or letters behind my name.

I want to go to college because I want to be an artist. Art has the power to evoke intense emotion, engender creativity, and communicate. These are the properties of art and this is why I want to go to college: to create art that impacts others the way that it has so powerfully impacted me.