Statement of Intent: Academy of Art University

Consider the word 'passion': it's given plenty of lip service, but because of its ubiquity, the word reads and sounds bereft -- rapaciously over-repeated, passion's become a platitude.  So I can't speak to 'passion,' per se, insofar as why I'm asking to earn my M.F.A. at the Academy.  Alternatively, let me offer that it is the experience of being someone whose faculties have, all my life, been pointed in this direction, but whose education and experiences have not.  Here I sit, with a highly lucrative family business opportunity at my fingertips and years' worth of sputtering career opportunities (coupled with disoriented interludes) in my wake, ready to begin what feels natural -- becoming fluent in interior design -- and the challenge of managing that fluency into satisfying, thrilling, work.  Here is what I know: that I have, for years, been the ‘go-to’ person for various aesthetic matters, from decorating to shopping; that I have been disenchanted with the lack of creative energy in various workplaces; and, lastly, that I love playing with color, with objects and design, and that I need to work in an arena that will give me a more flexible framework to integrate fun – design and my sociability – with professionalism.

Notwithstanding my humiliating lack of artistic diversity, I know that I must meet this challenge.   The last time I took an art class was in primary school, so please forgive the lack of attention to my artistic development and allow me to speak to the irresistibility of being an interior designer and why I want to attend the Academy.  My primary goal is to prepare myself for the three-year schema in February 2010 with a semester of undergraduate courses in the IAD program, such as both Surveys of Traditional and Contemporary Interior Architecture, Materials, Conceptual Design, and Sketching and Perspective for Interior Environments, if advisable.  Per the graduate committee's endorsement, I would like to work closely with a graduate level IAD adviser from the outset.  I've made financial arrangements for the duration of my studies, as I understand that due to the newness and expansiveness of the subjects, it will demand my foremost energies and attention.

I plan to work in accordance with the M.F.A. curriculum, ultimately demonstrating an extensive ability to navigate the process of professional networking, creative drafting, presentation, and collaboration, combined with an efficient command of building techniques and codes.  Wherein presentation is concerned, I hope to skillfully display my sketches as well as utilize CAD; regarding the undertaking of comprehensive design, I will work to understand color theory, materials, and will search to establish my personal approach to blending the historical, architectural and decorative elements with the constantly reconstituting 'new'.  I will be supplementing my studies in the graduate department with independent research in ways that designers are redeveloping the industry and are contributing to their communities in a constantly shifting socioeconomic climate.

As an admitted design neophyte, I cannot yet predict how I will approach my thesis project.  I am committed to the LEED/sustainable design movement, and hope that whatever shape that project takes, it will reflect those values.  Whether I will ultimately work for a design firm, use my M.F.A. to open a retail space independently, or, perhaps, try to supplement my career with design writing, the opportunities seem endless and invigorating.  Cross-cultural design, duly noted as an integral part of the Academy's M.F.A. program, is a treasured aspect of my own life, as I have surveyed Scandinavian design by immersion and have made repeated trips to France and Italy to do the same.  As I am partnered with a Frenchman in my private life, the necessity of being able to practice my profession in France, and to do so with a well-seasoned contextual reference, is a high priority. 

Two years ago, when I decided to pursue a career in interior design, I consulted with a few designers and professors to ascertain how I might determine the credibility of various programs.  They directed me to the American Society of Interior Designers Foundation's alliance with the Council for Interior Design Accreditation, where I found a number of viable opportunities and began an exhaustive, 6-month review of said programs and tried to envision the kind of industrial and geographical influence that each school might wield.  At last, I made the Academy my exclusive choice because of its history, the relationship it enjoys with the city of San Francisco, and the professional scope of its faculty and staff -- no doubt a strong-handed help to its students' careers. At this point, if I may speak frankly, the final trajectory of my career isn't as exciting as the prospect of being a student in a creative environment and of actualizing - quickening - the creative energy I have.   It is my hope, then, that my work at the Academy will generate the kinds of relationships and creative confidence I need, so that I might bring new, dynamic depth and breadth to my life and the life of the design community at large.