Written by Kay Heino
One of the staff here at the promo team, Amanda Rose, had the great opportunity to meet with Alondra Garza , who herself is also a ’21 alum of the MFA Program. I’m unsure if it is just me, but no matter how many times I go and have a studio visit, I’m always nervous. And one way I cope with things like this is I look up others experiences, or ask others how their time went doing the same thing I am. So, I reached out to Amanda and asked her how her visit with Alondra Garza went, and asked for some advice.
Kay:
I know this may come off as a generic question to ask, but how did the visit go?
Amanda:
I think the visit went really well, and it was so interesting to learn more about Alondra’s experiences while she was a student in the MFA program. I really enjoyed hearing about Alondra’s Tex-Mex background and the themes that she focuses on in her work.
Kay:
I know you more than likely talked about a lot of stuff, but did you find anything she may have recommended to you to be helpful (for example: tips, tricks, advice, ect.) ?
Amanda:
Both Alondra and I have had the experience of being pushed by our mentor to grow and explore new forms of art without worrying about making things perfect. This feedback was difficult for me to handle at first, because I’m used to working in a specific way. However, this has also pushed me to experiment and try new things this semester. It was reassuring to hear that Alondra had a similar experience as an MFA student, and that it was ultimately beneficial for her to break out of her old way of working.
One of the most useful pieces of advice that I received from Alondra was related to taking photos of models or of myself. I often take photos to use as reference images for my paintings. She advised me that the first few photos tend to be not as interesting, and that the model’s poses will gradually become more unique and interesting as the photoshoot progresses. This has encouraged me to loosen up and take a larger amount of photos during a shoot, rather than going with the first good one.
Kay:
Sometimes finding things that you enjoy about an uncomfortable situation makes it easier for the next time. Do you find anything about this studio visit specifically that you may want to do again in a future studio visit ?
Amanda:
I sometimes find it difficult to talk about myself and to identify the specific themes in my work. This part of the studio visit was somewhat challenging for me. Even so, I want to continue sharing information about myself in future studio visits, and I believe that this will prepare me for giving artist talks in the future.
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Alondra Garza – alondramg.com
Amanda Rose – Amandaroseartist.com
