TA Student portfolios

Ty is a good example of the students that come to Talent Agency. Ty is an aspiring photographer that started with a solid eye for drawing. I worked him extensively during the Summer of '16 Intensive for 8 weeks, 3 hours of drawing in the morning and then 3-4 hours in the afternoon with Rachel Fein Smolinski working on photography.

A great story about Ty is the self portrait with the grid lines. Ty is a young African American teen who also happens to be gay, he is confident in his identity but faces many challenges because of it. When discussing this portrait with Ty we got to talking about how he visualized himself outside of the typical representations of masculinity or his culture. He settled on the grid lines when I encouraged him to think about other graphic elements that may visually evoke a system he was escaping. It is a simple solution but an important one for Ty, I think it was pivotal in his decision to push himself and pursue his art because we worked with him this way. His voice was important, his decisions were important, and we provided him with opportunities to make those decisions in ways he had never had before.

Ty came back for the Fall of 2016 and worked with us on drawing, photo, and a variety of other skills. He is currently attending a community college before pursuing his 4 year degree in art. Ty shows a lot of potential and is just one of the many stories from working in Talent Agency.