SAIC Art Statement - My Reflections Off Art

Hello! I'm applying to SAIC this year and would like some insight on my essay/statement before I submit my application. Anything helps, thank you!

SAIC application essay

Prompt: Writing is a vital component of being an artist, and an extremely important part of being a student at SAIC. Tell us about you, your art-making practices, and why you are a strong candidate for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's (SAIC) undergraduate program.

Include information about what inspires you, what does your artistic process look like, share why you are interested in and utilize certain materials, exhibitions in which you have participated, or other activities that contribute to the making of your work. If you are applying to the BFA with an Emphasis in Writing, your statement needs also to address how you imagine a studio arts environment will impact your writing practice. (The application won't accept a response shorter than 250 words.)

When questioned about my motive behind art, my answer has always been ever-changing: to communicate, to innovate, to inspire. But digging through inexperienced scribbles and dusty sketchbooks, it's more prominent that the best way to describe my devotion for art is its ability to reflect. Not only does reflecting off of other artists' work expand my insight on the world, but my own also drives me to be more aware of myself. Looking back at myself through paper and canvas, through painted records of past experiences and emotions, I am better able to grow off my conflicts and flaws to determine my values. To me, discovery of my persons is just as important as discovery of the world - only after I have cleared the lenses of my perspective can I appropriately set my work out to induce change.

The natural world is the root of inspiration for most of my art. Besides enjoying studies of different species and biomes through art, environmental preservation is an important cause to me and I constantly connect it to my work as I develop new projects and skills. The range in which life presents itself - colors, textures, and form - is fascinating and I often look to it for reference while drawing. Although I'm shifting my path into concept design, I still look for ways to advocate through art, constantly keeping its importance in coming generations in mind.

My favorite mediums consist of graphite, oil paint, and an iPad Pro with pen. The range in textures and versatility permits me to cover both observational sketches and fully rendered projects. This traditional and digital mix grants me experimentation in different fields of drawing so I may not only cover necessary skills but also reach out to new forms of creation in the technological era.

After finally determining art as a future I want to pursue, I set out to expand my connections and put it into use in the world. I've participated in multiple art competitions such as the Texas State Fair art exhibition as well as Scholastic Art and Writing. I became more involved in volunteer work and received multiple opportunities to inspire children with collaborative chalk art sessions. I advanced from learning digital art off a small community to leading it, growing the forum to over ten thousand young creators. Although my art style continuously leaps between fine arts and concept work, I strive to develop both so I can master both traditional skills and attributes for my potential future career as a concept artist. I have high hopes that SAIC can assist me in this goal; as I continue to discover myself and open my subjects to more compelling territories, I hope to receive professional criticism in encouragement of expanding my abilities and more opportunities to transform people like how art has transformed me.

I would try to enhance the discussion about your participation in the Texas State Fair art exhibit and the Scholastic Art and Writing competition. By expanding those discussion points, you can further explain your art-making practices as a part of other activities that contribute to the making of your work. Maybe, you can also try and explain further regarding the different types of inspiration that you get when using physical art renditions using graphite, oil, and paint in comparison to the work that you complete using and iPad Pro. These differentiation can help you give a better idea of why you would use specific materials in some instances and why you prefer other materials when considering other presentations.

By the way, "discovery of my persons" is grammatically incorrect. Perhaps you were aiming for "discovery of my personalities" instead? Or perhaps, "discovery of my talents/skills/creativity"? You can work on the correction of that reference later on. Focus on the development of your response first. The grammar check and proofreading should come dead last in the development of your response essay.