Isabelle Morales (Class of 2028)
Blogger Role: Off Campus Art News
Major: Illustration
Clubs: Esports
I chose Marywood because it has offered me a chance to achieve my dream of being a professional artist. I come from a disadvantaged background and Marywood helped alleviate a lot of stress through financial aid. For example, a lot of schools I considered attending offered me little to nothing despite the outrageous costs. They also have a lot of on-campus services for students such as counseling, career services, and health services. The environment around Marywood also made me choose it. Far too many schools are concrete jungles and leave little room for joy or inspiration. The campus is beautiful, quiet, and overall quite pleasant. Most importantly, the faculty here are so passionate and knowledgeable in their fields. Campus staff and professors are so friendly and offer to help so often. Every day I am so thankful for my professors as they give bits and pieces of their wisdom down to us. Plus, Marywood has a great art program despite not being an art school! Insalaco, the studio arts building, is breathtaking and wonderfully designed. There are so many resources inside and the moment I saw it, I knew I would find my place here.
I am majoring in Art because it has been a life-long passion of mine. Growing up, I used it to pass the time. But soon I realized that it was something I wanted to pursue as a career. So from the age of 8, I began training and studying art to become a professional artist. There is nothing more that satiates my craving for creativity than art does. I’ve been preparing for the past decade to begin this major. Even though I’m not sure what road it will take me down, nor what I will specifically do yet, I know what my heart wants. All I want to do is help people through my art. I want to create a safe space and an escape for the weak. I want to teach others valuable lessons to become better people. To inspire the masses. To give to others what I got from art: an escape.
When I’m not in class, you can find me working away at my desk! I’m a real workaholic so I tend to spend a lot of time in my room doing homework, studying, and drawing. When I don’t have any class assignments, I tend to make up my own. I give myself little projects and study sessions for my own artistic development. Alongside that, I spend a chunk of time working out. For the past few months, I’ve been training for the Rocky Balboa run. This meant testing my endurance and leg muscles to run a 5k (I’m not a runner, by the way). But now that it’s over, my next goal is to lift around 160 pounds. Besides all that training and boring stuff, I spend time playing video games, watching shows, and most importantly, calling my friends, family, and my boyfriend. I’m planning on doing volunteer work for NativityMiguel school and participating in the Marywood Esports club more frequently soon.
So far, my favorite art class at Marywood (bearing in mind that I just got here and haven’t taken all that many art classes yet) was probably art history. Seeing the evolution of art over thousands of years is breathtaking. Those who came before us as artists and the strides they made so we could be here today. I’m quite fond of Greek and Roman art/sculptures alongside all types of architecture. However, admittedly… My favorite class is psychology!!!!! I freakin’ love psychology!!! I know I’m majoring in art but the complexities of the human mind is something that I enjoy exploring within my work. I am fascinated by humans, why they do the things they do, why we’re like this. I’m also considering changing my major to art therapy so, in a sense, I guess it kind of makes sense.
The coolest thing I’ve done at Marywood so far was create a Coraline door! Now, it sounds kinda lame, but it took forever. For Halloween, I decorated my door with a painting of Coraline. It’s from the scene of her crawling into the “other-world” for the first time. I took a bunch of pieces of black paper, stuck them to the door as a background, sketched her onto the door, traced that, made cut-outs of her features and clothing, painted it, stuck it onto the door, and boom! Coraline! It was extremely taxing but that was the biggest project I’ve ever done. I was so so so proud of myself and it was so cool!
When I graduate I plan on trying to find work immediately. There’s no time to waste! I want to get a stable job so I can afford to move out with my boyfriend. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be working yet, what I’ll be working as, or if I’ll even be living in Pennsylvania. I’m in the mindset where I wanna get ANY artistic job. It doesn’t matter what. I just want to step into the field. Specifically, with a company. Working freelance is way too risky for me and I don’t see it as a consistent source of income. My goal is to get a job at a studio. Most likely as a storyboard artist or concept artist IF I continue to pursue this major. Once I’m settled for a couple of years, I want to get married and start a family.
I’d recommend the Art program at Marywood because the professors here care. No matter what school you go to, no matter the prestige or fancy equipment, it’s the professors that count (second to your attitude, of course). You can ask any of them for help and they’re more than happy to go above and beyond to assist you. For example, I had some questions about sequential art. I asked and was pointed in the direction of a professional in the field who was a teacher here. He was more than happy to give me answers to all of my questions. That felt really special to me. There are so many options for art majors, minors, classes, professors, anything. There’s such a wide range of professionals to seek advice on different jobs and majors. It is simply a matter of seeking out that help. The art program takes you through a wide range of classes to ensure you’re ready to be a professional artist through in-depth training. It’s rigorous enough to prepare you, but not enough to ever drain your love for art. Enough to challenge you, not to knock you down. That’s another thing. The art program, professors, and students are very supportive. The art program here at Marywood is something very special to behold, and I highly recommend it.