Student Spotlight: Danielle Morgan, Arts '16

Student Spotlight: Danielle Morgan, plans to apply for a B.F.A. at UAA Hometown: Valdez, AK Fun Fact: Listens to "Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees when she walks across campus.

How do you choose a major?

That could be one of life's tougher questions, since the assumption is: Whatever you study, you will be. But what if there's no guaranteed occupation on the other side of that equation? How many undergraduates are sitting at that precipice right now, weighing their academic study commitment?

Today, we'll meet sophomore Danielle Morgan, who is knee-deep in defending her answer. California-born and Valdez-raised, she's back in college after a five-year break from school. In that window away, she spent lots of time on her artwork and found nothing satisfied or engaged her quite like it did.

When she decided to come back to school, it was for art. She's on her fourth class with art professor Garry Mealor, three drawing classes and one in watercolor. It might not have occurred to her to worry so much about her choice of art, except so many significant adults in her life were asking her to rethink it.

We had our first conversation on a People Mover bus bound for campus one morning. She opened an iPad and showed me a few images of her work, soft abstracts with mythical eyes, curves and lovely pastel shades. Another morning, she carried a big black portfolio. She pulled out her current assignment, a large symmetrical black and white drawing of repeated delicate faces and soft dove-gray shadings.

Eventually, she and I got into a conversation with student Rylyn Hughes, a senior finishing up as an art major with a psychology minor. Rylyn is on her way to becoming an art therapist. Every hospital in this town hires them, she told us. You could practically see Danielle's eyes light up: that's one thing you can do with an art degree.

Ask the professor

I thought I'd ask her professor, Garry Mealor, how he handles this kind of career question when it comes up from an art student. He turned out to be the perfect person to ask. As an undergraduate, he'd listened to all those other voices. Instead of the art degree he wanted, he majored in journalism. "I didn't want to starve," he says, laughing.

But, as he got older, he realized journalism wasn't it for him. He took a few art classes at the University of Georgia, and just started producing. He won attention and entry into plenty of exhibitions, and eventually Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL invited him to teach. As a private school, they could overlook his lack of an art degree. He was essentially self-taught, and they liked his work. He liked teaching, a lot.

When he arrived in Alaska, he realized he still needed an art degree to teach, so he earned an M.F.A. from the Art Institute of Boston. His own life has given him perspective on the path taken, and the path not taken.

"I always tell students, 'You don't choose art. It chooses you.' If you have this purpose, how can you not do it? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life doing something you don't love, just for money?"

Mealor says now that he flat out rejects the notion that you'll starve if you major in art.

"There are lots of disciplines on this campus that have that same issue-what am I going to do with this? Well, one thing majoring in art does is it makes you versatile. There's problem solving that you have to do; you have to be able to handle the critiques you go through; know how to carry yourself and think on your feet. All those skills transfer to a lot of other areas."

What about talent, I asked? What if you love something, but you're just no good at it?

This is another question he hears frequently from anxious art students, wondering if they're making the right choice.

"I tell them, No. 1, if you want to be an artist, the first decision you have to make is. Are you really committed? No dipping your toe in the water to see if it's warm. You have to be able to keep doing it, even if it's not going your way. Will you keep producing?

"No. 2-you have to get lucky, really get a break. But if you're sincere about No. 1, the longer you do it, the better your odds of getting lucky become, because you're always just getting better and better.

"Then, when it does happen, you have the talent. Talent is No. 3."

Sticking with it

I met Danielle one morning before an art class, over in the Fireside Café. We drank coffee, ate bagels and cream cheese. I asked her what she'd learned in art; could she point to growth, improvement?

"The thing that helped the most from taking classes is learning the basic shapes and how to shade them," she said. "That is the catalyst. You start to think about things in shapes. An arm is a cylinder, the head is a sphere. Once you see it, you just start to put them all together.  Even if your drawing isn't photo realistic, this helps a lot."

She laughed. "So many people say to me, 'I can't draw to save my life.'  I say anyone can draw. If you can't draw a circle, you can draw a line."

Something Mealor had said the day before popped back in to my mind. He's been an artist-in-residence in elementary school settings. He's noticed when things change for children.

"You ask someone in kindergarten, first, second, third grade to draw, it's no problem. They all consider themselves to be an artist," he said.

"You get to fourth, fifth, sixth grade? It all changes. You ask them to draw, and suddenly it's, 'I can't draw.' By now, just a few in the class still draw. They're the class artists. Nobody else thinks they can. It's sad."

Resolve

By now, Danielle has settled into her decision. She says she plans to apply for a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), but she says it with caution. As a working mom, that likely will extend her undergraduate years.

Going for a B.F.A., Mealor says, is not a decision to be taken lightly. B.F.A. students must apply and be accepted. They must have a project or question they want to explore and express in their art. They need to write a thesis that every single faculty member must approve.

"Serious stuff. It's a real academic paper, Chicago-style."

The good news? He's glad to hear Danielle is considering applying. "She's serious about her work. She plans out her critiques. She's articulate.

"I think she'd be a great candidate."