user profile avatar

Carmen Keen

1,255

Bold Points

1x

Finalist

Bio

Hello there! I'm Carmen. My passion lies in Management of the Arts; guiding budding artists and pioneering visuals to the forefront of the art world and into the mainstream industries. My passion lies in creating and leadership, but also as improving myself as an artist as well. There are amazing things coming for individuals in the visual and performing arts, and I'm excited to be a part of it. I've proven myself as both a great artist and a resourceful businesswoman. My work as an artist has earned me merit scholarships from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Ringling College of Art and Design. In 2020, my portfolio earned a 5 on the AP 2-D Art and Design Studio Exam. That same portfolio earned me a gold key in Scholastic' Art and Writing Awards. I'm pursuing scholarships and donors who are as eager as change as I am; to help me continue to achieve my lifelong dream of pioneering tomorrow's art, and bringing it to the frontier of today.

Education

Lone Star College System

Bachelor's degree program
2024 - 2023

Franklin High School

High School
2018 - 2022

Miscellaneous

  • Desired degree level:

    Master's degree program

  • Graduate schools of interest:

  • Transfer schools of interest:

  • Majors of interest:

    • Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other
    • Visual and Performing Arts, General
    • Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management
    • Graphic Communications
  • Not planning to go to medical school
  • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Arts

    • Dream career goals:

      Arts Administration & Management

      Arts

      • Visual Arts Classic

        Visual Arts
        2020 – 2022

      Public services

      • Volunteering

        Franklin Public Schools — Volunteer
        2017 – Present

      Future Interests

      Entrepreneurship

      Ward Green Scholarship for the Arts & Sciences
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the sour crunch of crayons, the watery taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, there’s a certain indescribable feeling in holding a mark-making tool in your hand and feeling the possibilities seethe up your arm, and suddenly, the scope of what you could create feels infinite. Creation is a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of indecipherable Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. In the same rooms where executives pour themselves into projects and documents, they will ask themselves in an awestruck manner, “How can we establish a product with a lasting impact?” Searching through the different fields of profession and study, I was as astonished by the variety as much as I felt like I had reached a dead end– when I realized that all this time, the group of people I had been looking for had been hiding in plain sight: the creative industries. In the scope of such a massive consumerist economy, it’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. Where said industries will ask how they will establish a lasting impact on society, the creative industry responds, “How will you create something that makes people want it to last?” The creative industry’s success, in part, is due to their exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have pioneered groundbreaking visual movements, yet most are unable to conceptualize the individual behind the creation. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. The passion I have for art aids in the development of my passion to create a lasting impact. I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools. I am eager to insert myself into a space in which indelibility is both a question and an answer, achieving such types of solutions through recognition and impact. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is one of many steps forward towards my future in a creative setting; pursuing the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new perception of the lasting impact that art has on our modern world.
      Kim Moon Bae Underrepresented Students Scholarship
      My identity as a Mexican-American woman is also an illustrative library of my personal inner conflict regarding contrasting cultural and racial roles in a postmodern society. I use illustration and extensive self portraiture, both metaphorical and conceptual, to tell my story. My work is am amplification of Mexican voices, as well as my own, someone who is biracial and not necessarily belonging to either race in a completely polarized manner, someone who is learning to fluidly transition between; and accept, both cultural and racial identities. I intend to demonstrate a rejection of self-colonization, while still demonstrating the inner shame and guilt that comes with living in an American postmodern society where culture is performatively celebrated far more than it is executed. These subtle visual distinctions between races in each of the portfolios exist to demonstrate both sides of my identity, but slowly integrate them throughout the portfolio until they are completely synthesized. I use illustration to make myself feel indelible, one person who is neither one nor the other, but rather, an expression in herself. I want to combine my identity with my goal, the goal to conceptualize art as a voice-- a medium in itself. In both the real world and the world of art, people are always looking for something new and revolutionary. Art does not need a more efficient method, of course, the complexities of art and design are its beauties. The passion I have for art aids in the development of my passion to create a lasting impact. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. I am eager to insert myself into a space in which indelibility is both a question and an answer, achieving such types of solutions through recognition and impact. I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      Our Destiny Our Future Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the crunch of crayons, the taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, creation, a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. The creative industry has an exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. It’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      Simon Strong Scholarship
      I doubled over, clutching my eyes. What was meant to be an idyllic summer day suddenly clouded with white dots and swirling lines, a pain searing through my cornea. Finding me slumped over on my patio, my parents rushed me inside and immediately phoned the doctor. Even though I was convinced that I had gone blind, at that moment, my eyes were not my priority. Laying in the car with a towel across my eyes, a sobering thought clouded my mind: would I, an artist, still be able to create, even if I could no longer see? We arrived at the optometrist, my hands still over my sore eyes. Led into an examination room, about an hour’s worth of tests, eye drops, and prodding around my sclera led to a few tense moments in the doctor’s office as my doctor silently looked over the various scans of my eyeballs. My eye had undergone strain as a cause of myopia, a benign genetic condition that had been festering in my skull, only deciding to rear its ugly head now. Usually diagnosed at an early age, it means an entire life of extreme, incurable nearsightedness, a predisposal to retinal tears, and in some cases, blindness. “Since you’re myopic,” he said, turning to me, “Instead of spheres, your eyeballs are ovals, like grapes.” He made the shape of an oval with his hands and laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood. My scowl stayed glued onto my face. I arrived home that day disappointed, yet not defeated. I had already been wearing glasses to correct my vision my entire life. But being told that I would never see unaided? That same scowl still on my face, I decided that I would not let the things that I could not control control me. If I couldn’t see with my eyes, I’d do it with my hands. Since the diagnosis, the unlikely condition forced me to adapt. The same innate human need to see manifested itself as my innate human need to create. My glasses are my way of looking at things, but truly, as I work, my hands are my way of seeing them. Although I refused to lose my passion for art, it was not easy to retain at first. Art became painful, literally and figuratively. Now, each time I pick up a paintbrush or a pencil, each stroke is marked with defiance and pride. I had always been an artist, but now, I needed to be a creative - someone who looks at the world a little differently. And as blurriness permeated my vision, I was doing just that. Overnight, I’d transformed. When I created, I had no myopia, I had no genetic conditions. I was stripped of my shortcomings and left with what I had all along - a paintbrush and a vision. And that, in itself, was my new frontier. Despite what the doctor had told me, I could see all along. Now, all I had to do was prove it. It was as if everything came into focus at once. A brush met with canvas as my scowl was replaced with a triumphant grin. Now, my work is filled with vivid, crisp images of a world I cannot see. But although my eyesight is still far from perfect, my newfound artistic vision was 20/20. Even if my own eyes are working against me, I would not let a couple of measly grapes in my skull dictate my life. The world needs more artists who see with their hands. The world needs more people with grapes for eyes.
      Kayla Nicole Monk Memorial Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the crunch of crayons, the taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, creation, a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. The creative industry has an exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. It’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      Connie Konatsotis Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the crunch of crayons, the taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, creation, a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. The creative industry has an exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. It’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      Dwight "The Professor" Baldwin Scholarship
      I doubled over, clutching my eyes. What was meant to be an idyllic summer day suddenly clouded with white dots and swirling lines, a pain searing through my cornea. Finding me slumped over on my patio, my parents rushed me inside and immediately phoned the doctor. Even though I was convinced that I had gone blind, at that moment, my eyes were not my priority. Laying in the car with a towel across my eyes, a sobering thought clouded my mind: would I, an artist, still be able to create, even if I could no longer see? We arrived at the optometrist, my hands still over my sore eyes. Led into an examination room, about an hour’s worth of tests, eye drops, and prodding around my sclera led to a few tense moments in the doctor’s office as my doctor silently looked over the various scans of my eyeballs. My eye had undergone strain as a cause of myopia, a benign genetic condition that had been festering in my skull, only deciding to rear its ugly head now. Usually diagnosed at an early age, it means an entire life of extreme, incurable nearsightedness, a predisposal to retinal tears, and in some cases, blindness. “Since you’re myopic,” he said, turning to me, “Instead of spheres, your eyeballs are ovals, like grapes.” He made the shape of an oval with his hands and laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood. My scowl stayed glued onto my face. I arrived home that day disappointed, yet not defeated. I had already been wearing glasses to correct my vision my entire life. But being told that I would never see unaided? That same scowl still on my face, I decided that I would not let the things that I could not control control me. If I couldn’t see with my eyes, I’d do it with my hands. Since the diagnosis, the unlikely condition forced me to adapt. The same innate human need to see manifested itself as my innate human need to create. My glasses are my way of looking at things, but truly, as I work, my hands are my way of seeing them. Although I refused to lose my passion for art, it was not easy to retain at first. Art became painful, literally and figuratively. Now, each time I pick up a paintbrush or a pencil, each stroke is marked with defiance and pride. I had always been an artist, but now, I needed to be a creative - someone who looks at the world a little differently. And as blurriness permeated my vision, I was doing just that. Overnight, I’d transformed. When I created, I had no myopia, I had no genetic conditions. I was stripped of my shortcomings and left with what I had all along - a paintbrush and a vision. And that, in itself, was my new frontier. Despite what the doctor had told me, I could see all along. Now, all I had to do was prove it. It was as if everything came into focus at once. A brush met with canvas as my scowl was replaced with a triumphant grin. Now, my work is filled with vivid, crisp images of a world I cannot see. But although my eyesight is still far from perfect, my newfound artistic vision was 20/20. Even if my own eyes are working against me, I would not let a couple of measly grapes in my skull dictate my life. The world needs more artists who see with their hands. The world needs more people with grapes for eyes.
      Hines Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the crunch of crayons, the taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, creation, a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. The creative industry has an exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. It’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      John Young 'Pursue Your Passion' Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the crunch of crayons, the taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, creation, a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. The creative industry has an exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. It’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      Redefining Victory Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the sour crunch of crayons, the watery taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, there’s a certain indescribable feeling in holding a mark-making tool in your hand and feeling the possibilities seethe up your arm, and suddenly, the scope of what you could create feels infinite. Creation is a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of indecipherable Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. In the same rooms where executives pour themselves into projects and documents, they will ask themselves in an awestruck manner, “How can we establish a product with a lasting impact?” Searching through the different fields of profession and study, I was as astonished by the variety as much as I felt like I had reached a dead end– when I realized that all this time, the group of people I had been looking for had been hiding in plain sight: the creative industries. In the scope of such a massive consumerist economy, it’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. Where said industries will ask how they will establish a lasting impact on society, the creative industry responds, “How will you create something that makes people want it to last?” The creative industry’s success, in part, is due to their exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have pioneered new art movements and groundbreaking visual technologies, yet despite their extensive contributions, most of those who consume their work are unable to conceptualize the individual behind the creation. Despite this, the things that they have produced have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. I ache to be a part of it– a part of something bigger than myself. In both the real world and the world of art, people are always looking for something new and revolutionary. Art does not need a more efficient method, of course, the complexities of art and design are its beauties. The passion I have for art aids in the development of my passion to create a lasting impact. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. I am eager to insert myself into a space in which indelibility is both a question and an answer, achieving such types of solutions through recognition and impact. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      Live Music Lover Scholarship
      My first concert was TWICE, a K-Pop act performing at the Houston Toyota Center in June 2023. I'd bought the tickets months earlier, and the date of the concert was a few days after me and my family were scheduled to move to Texas. We spent two sweltering days in the car driving from Wisconsin to Texas, and then two weeks sleeping on air mattresses as we waited for our furniture to arrive-- which made the concert all the more worth it when I arrived. Standing outside the venue really felt as if I was at the gates of heaven! I had only packed three pieces of clothing for the move, and the t-shirt I bought at the concert was my first new piece of clothing; a fresh start in a new state. My sister, who wasn't a TWICE fan, was with me, as cool as a cucumber. I, on the other hand, was so jittery I almost started crying out of nervousness. What could I expect? I'd never been to a concert before...that's when the lights finally dimmed and the first few notes of the song "SET ME FREE" blared across the stadium. I lost my mind! I'd been listening to twice since I was in middle school, and now, here they were, walking out in front of me IN REAL LIFE. They were like GODS to me! Immediately, all of my concert jitters melted away. I danced and screamed like I had never danced and screamed in my life. I even got on the jumbotron and danced for the audience! At one point, I looked over to my sister, and noticed she was singing along to some of the music!! I left the concert lightheaded, sweaty, and on cloud nine. It was the best concert experience of my life. (Attached is a photo of me at TWICE "READY TO BE" in Houston, June 24, 2023.) My favorite concert memory was when Mexican performer Luis Miguel came to the Toyota Center in November of that same year. I had gotten into his music during a really tough time in my life, and he'd been a staple in Mexican pop culture since the 80's-90's; something my Mexican immigrant mother had experienced as it happened while she was the same age at me. We went to the concert together, and when "El Sol" rose on stage with the background of the sun, me and her were connected. We sang and swayed to the music, but most importantly, Luis Miguel had closed a generation gap between us-- we were both adolescent girls in troubled times when we had discovered his music, and here we were then, early 20's and late 40's, singing the same lyrics with the same ache in our hearts. In truth, a woman will grow up, but there will always be a teenage girl inside of her heart. I really understood this belief then. He sang "La Incondicional", and my mom put her arm around me and hugged me tightly. We swayed to the music, connected, both crying. He touched our hearts. We cried in each other's arms. Even in the sold-out arena, it was the most intimate moment. My mom and I had never been that close. I love her deeply and it was so humbling to understand how she felt at my age, years and years apart from each other. I love her with all of my heart.
      Mad Grad Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the sour crunch of crayons, the watery taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, there’s a certain indescribable feeling in holding a mark-making tool in your hand and feeling the possibilities seethe up your arm, and suddenly, the scope of what you could create feels infinite. Creation is a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of indecipherable Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. In the same rooms where executives pour themselves into projects and documents, they will ask themselves in an awestruck manner, “How can we establish a product with a lasting impact?” Searching through the different fields of profession and study, I was as astonished by the variety as much as I felt like I had reached a dead end– when I realized that all this time, the group of people I had been looking for had been hiding in plain sight: the creative industries. In the scope of such a massive consumerist economy, it’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. Where said industries will ask how they will establish a lasting impact on society, the creative industry responds, “How will you create something that makes people want it to last?” The creative industry’s success, in part, is due to their exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have pioneered new art movements and groundbreaking visual technologies, yet despite their extensive contributions, most of those who consume their work are unable to conceptualize the individual behind the creation. Despite this, the things that they have produced have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. I ache to be a part of it– a part of something bigger than myself. In both the real world and the world of art, people are always looking for something new and revolutionary. Art does not need a more efficient method, of course, the complexities of art and design are its beauties. The passion I have for art aids in the development of my passion to create a lasting impact. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. I am eager to insert myself into a space in which indelibility is both a question and an answer, achieving such types of solutions through recognition and impact. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      Christian ‘Myles’ Pratt Foundation Fine Arts Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the crunch of crayons, the taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, creation, a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. The creative industry has an exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. It’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. In turn, I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools, forging new figures and landscapes through the power of ingenuity and the shared desire to be indelible. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design is only one of many steps forward toward my future immersed in a creative setting, an environment that amplifies my identity as an artist. It’s an environment whose future lies in a revolutionized approach to the exploration of visual media in immediate culture, and the significance it will have on the people long after us– creating a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.
      Natalie Jude Women in the Arts Scholarship
      My portfolio is an illustrative library of my personal inner conflict regarding contrasting cultural and racial roles in a postmodern society. I used illustration and extensive self portraiture, both metaphorical and conceptual, to tell my story. I intended the portfolio to amplify Mexican voices, but also amplify my own voice as someone who is biracial and not necessarily belonging to either race in a completely polarized manner. I chose to demonstrate myself here as who I am racially, someone who is learning to fluidly transition between; and accept, both cultural and racial identities. My favorite piece, "La Paz", close the exploration with closure and acceptance of both cultural identities as a whole identity of one single entity - myself, being able to come to peace with the fact of ethnicity and belonging as I find acceptance within both religion and expression of self. The visual theme of the portfolio takes inspiration from several Mexican art movements, such as Mexican muralism, traditional craft making, and Magic Realism. Keeping in theme with the vivid nature and lifestyle of Mexico, I intended to keep my color palette vibrant and expressive to reflect the lifestyle and the nation as a whole These subtle visual distinctions between races in each of the the works slowly integrate them throughout the portfolio until they are completely synthesized.
      WCEJ Thornton Foundation Music & Art Scholarship
      Thanks to molecules called semaphorins, just by looking at things, your brain will know exactly how the texture will feel on your tongue. Being a frustratingly hands-on child, I took it to the next level: I put things in my mouth. The early years of my life were marked by the crunch of crayons, the taste of markers, and a nasty paper-eating habit– even from a young age, I had art inside of me. Poor diet aside, the taste of art has been one of many things that encapsulate my interest in it. Most notably, creation, a delectably human quality– the necessity to leave a mark on something as if to tell everyone before and after “Hello, I exist”. If you scrubbed all the paint off of the walls of my childhood home, you would find hundreds of Sharpie-drawn images of epic battles between toys and what I thought ponies looked like, the kind to mirror the same types of drawings children drew on the walls of caves eons ago. Although we’ll never meet, we were doing the same thing: expressing something to be seen and remembered by. This fascinated me; the power to use art as a marker to show who we were and who we’ll be among such a vast difference of time and humanity. As the centuries have shifted us into a more consumerist state of focus, the indelibility of art and design is a force that worryingly few people choose to utilize. The creative industry has an exceptional understanding of the idea of permanency. They have effectively revolutionized visual media for their generation and the generations to come. It’s amazing how unsung the creative industries are in the mainstream, instead operating like pipework– efficiently, essentially, and behind the scenes. This selfless devotion; the simple humanity of wanting to communicate with others, inspires me. I aspire to create an unprecedented artistic medium where the industries I lead are my creative tools. My pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts is one step forwards in my intention to create a new, global perception of the lasting impact that art and creativity have on our modern world, both as a leader and as a medium.