410 Forum — Arts
Entrance To The Art Major
By Dan Mauro
The sky is overcast and a brand-new oversized earth-brown folder waves in the wind alongside another folder that contains artwork. Both folders sit underneath senior Derek Capo’s arm, and later today the new folder will become an art portfolio. Today, March 2, is an important day for beginning art majors. Today is the day that their art portfolios are due. The portfolio review will determine whether or not they meet the standards presented by the School of Art and Design.
Capo has been a student at UNC for seven years and is now focused on getting an art degree so that he can leave. During his time at UNC, Capo has changed his major three times. He has been a history and a theater major and is now in the process of switching to the art major. Gaining entrance into the art program requires students to complete an entrance portfolio. This portfolio includes work from their Foundation arts classes, which provide the art majors with knowledge on the elements of design and other techniques that aid in improving their art.
9:27 a.m.
The day starts with several pieces of paper in a computer lab, pieces of paper that will describe the elements of the art included in the portfolio. Inside of Gunter Hall’s computer lab, six other students are well into their days. Some are hard at work, assignments littering the computer screen, while others are whittling away their time on facebook. Capo puts some finishing touches on his element sheets and his brows furrow when he gets to work on the cover sheet. “Somebody stole my sheet that explains these things,” he says.
The content on the sheets is simple and straightforward. The element of design the piece focuses on sits underlined in the very center of the paper, while under that there’s a brief description of what the artist is trying to accomplish with the work. The cover sheet acts as a table of contents for the portfolio and gives the instructors grading the portfolio an idea of the work inside. Capo prints out his work and will have his Art 184 teacher check over it before class.
10:30 a.m.
The students of Art II surround the instructor, Tom Stephens, inside of room 105 in the Arts Annex building. They attempt to get last-minute advice about their portfolios, which is quickly followed by the same announcement that has been dominant in this classroom for weeks. “The reason you guys aren’t getting any of this information is because you aren’t listening,” Stephens said.
Stephens has spent the last 20 minutes of class describing the layout of the cover sheet to the students. The same mistake keeps appearing on their cover sheets. Students aren’t making the items on the sheet a continuous list. “He’s like a dance coordinator over there, ‘It’s not one, one, one, one, it’s one, two, three, four,’” junior Jenny Wilson said.
The students weren’t supposed to start a new sequence of numbers under each new element of design. The sequence of numbers should have kept going. At this announcement Capo runs to use Stephens’ computer to reprint his content sheet.
11:10 a.m.
The frustration in the room increases with each overheard announcement from Stephens. Finally Capo breaks the frustration by cracking a few jokes about covering his pieces of art with tracing paper.
“He’s got a little overhang here. He’s no good,” Capo says as he picks up the tracing paper that had been a half-centimeter over his matte board, chucks it at the trashcan and remarks that if not for his sense of humor, he would no longer be sane.
11:45 a.m.
Capo stuffs each of his tracing-paper covered works into his portfolio and sets it in front of Stephens for a check to see if he did everything right. Stephens calls Michael Lemke, ceramics instructor, into the room and they ooh and aah about Capo’s work. Stephens sets the works back inside the folder and gives Capo a nod of approval. The portfolio is picked up and transported to Crabbe Hall, where it will sit in a big stack with other portfolios until the Foundation instructors look over them.
12:10 p.m.
With the portfolio turned in, the weight placed on Capo’s shoulders has been taken off and in its place was set another weight: anxiety. Now that he submitted his entrance portfolio, the next step would be to find out if he had been accepted into the art major or not. “If I don’t get in, I’ll probably drop out,” Capo said, “I’ve been here too long.”
Update
A week later, March 9, Capo was accepted into the art major, scoring an average of 3.25 out of four points on his portfolio review.
Derek Capo's Career at UNC
• has been at UNC for seven years total;
• took a year off after being placed on academic probation;
• placed on academic probation after failing his foundation art classes;
• joined the Disney College program and quit after two months.
Capo’s areas of proficiency on the portfolio review
• Conceptual: Three of Four;
• Presentation: Three of Four;
• Technical: Four of Four;
• Formal: Three of Four.
