ART PROF Intern: Olivia Hunter

A gigantic part of ART PROF is the extraordinary team of current students and emerging artists who make up our group of 6 Teaching Assistants and 10 Interns. They’ve done everything from brainstorming their eyes out in long discussion threads, replied to panicked text messages from me at 7am, told me when I was doing some stupid, (which happens pretty often) talked me out of some really bad ideas, explained to me how to use Snap chat (you know you’re old when someone younger than you has to explain technology to you) and in some cases, prevented what could have been seriously disastrous situations by thinking quickly on their feet. They’ve even had the audacity to give me my own advice. 🙂

ART PROF would not be what it is today without this phenomenal team. Starting today, I’d like you to meet these incredible artists and their contributions to ART PROF. In the coming weeks, they’ll share with you art tips and advice that can only come from a seasoned artist, anecdotes about their art school experience, tell you some hysterical stories about me, and even make some artworks specifically for ART PROF.

When I met Olivia, I knew immediately within about 5 minutes of talking with her how thoughtful, intelligent, and hardworking she was. Sometimes when I meet people my first impression is totally off, but in this case, I just knew. It’s extremely rare that a student would begin my class with so much self-discipline and willingness to work. The vast majority of students in my classes take at least 2- 4 weeks to figure out how to manage their time and adapt to the rigor of the course. Not Olivia, she invested monumental hours of labor into her pieces, was incredibly tenacious, and was so willing and receptive to try anything.

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I’ve been teaching for a decade now, and let’s just say it’s getting harder and harder for me to remember specific students and project. However, Olivia’s final project has been burned into my head since I saw it for the first time. (see above) Olivia and I both agree that the critique she received in this class wasn’t her strongest of the semester, and that it had some composition issues. Fundamentally though, I found the concept behind the piece to be very moving and absolutely riveting. Even the four words in the piece by themselves were so powerful and emotional. You can see all of the pieces Olivia did in my class here.

When Olivia helped out with our shoot a few days ago, she and I had a brief conversation about maybe doing some future pieces that might develop the idea further. Now I want you to hear from her!

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“Hi! My name is Olivia, and I’m from Boston, Massachusetts. I just graduated from high school and I am super excited to go to the Parsons School of Design in the fall of 2016. I’m planning to major in Communications Design.

All of my life I have loved making art in almost every form, especially photography, painting, and drawing. Fun fact: a small section of my bedroom is dedicated to my growing collection of vintage film cameras! The art program at my high school really allowed me to explore the different areas in art, through focused and attentive art educators and syllabi that pushed me to think creatively.

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With this being said, I still felt like I was missing something or someone to push me even further. After attending the RISD Pre-College progam and being in Proofessor Lieu’s Design Fundamentals course, I learned so much about myself as an art student. RISD Pre-College was what ultimately what made me want to go to an art school!

It saddens me when I hear about many school art programs being almost non-existent. I love being a part of ART PROF since this platform will help those without access to art classes, so they can practice art more and to learn to think creatively.”

ART PROF is a free, online educational platform for visual arts for people of all ages and means. artprof.org features video courses, art critiques, an encyclopedia of art supplies, and more.