Seniors create art portfolios for college

Then freshman Laura Chaland, with paintbrush in hand, sat in her Art 2 class — staring intensely at a picture of a model. Fascinated with the girl’s unique facial expression, Chaland picked up a canvas and watched as her hands started diligently sketching a portrait. Little did she know, this portrait would turn into her first “photo-realistic” piece and would mark the start of her ambitious pursuit of art as a possible career.

Now a senior, Chaland is planning to apply to a multitude of art institutes. This means her experience applying to colleges has been drastically different from those of most classmates.

Rather than focusing on essays and other standard application procedures, Chaland has been working on on her portfolio — a collection of works that display her talents.  

“It’s definitely important to showcase your technical skill in your portfolio, but it’s equally important to display your creativity and imagination [in these portraits],” Chaland said. “A lot of schools that did portfolio reviews for me, such as the Rhode Island School of Design, noted how important it is to have the right mixture of the two in your portfolio.”

Throughout these last couple months, Chaland said that it was not a matter of completing her art portfolio, but rather framing it in a positive light.

“Since I realized I would want to pursue an art-career relatively early-on, I worked on my portfolio accordingly,” Chaland said. “So now, I find myself taking advice and making small tweaks to my collection rather than racing to actually add new works to my portfolio.”

Although Chaland said that photo-realistic art has always been her favorite, it is by no means the only type of art in her portfolio. Her collection also features abstract and impressionistic work, some of which she displays on social media.

Having been interested in art since childhood, Chaland said that she realized she had a real aptitude for the subject in high school. It was also around this time when she started looking at an art major in a more serious light.

One of the benefits of going to an art institute, she said, is that students are not restricted to one type of art. The wide range of careers that they can pursue after completion of an art institute include but are not limited to graphic and tattoo art, traditional painting and even interior design.

Senior Kelly Long, also an artist, has had a similar experience to Chaland.

Long said that one of the major advantages of applying to an art-based university is the diminished emphasis of essays and the increase in weight of the art portfolio.

“I would say the process has been less stressful than it could have been had I applied to a regular university, as I enjoy art much more than I enjoy academic subjects,” Long said.

Long has also been working on her portfolio rather than spending time on essay prompts that are unrelated to her goals.

Both girls are not sure of what specific career they will pursue after college, but they are both sure that their careers will contain art in some way, shape or form.