Three Bass Arts Students
Gain Acceptance To Top Art Schools
2020 has been a pretty abysmal year for most, but not for Tatiana Switzer, Tai Mair and Emma Rice. They were all accepted early action to their dream schools and I am so thrilled for them.
Tatiana Switzer, RISD, 2025
Tatiana Switzer began working with me this summer, in classes and private portfolio sessions. She was looking to generate portfolio pieces and did so with great drive, commitment and passion. She recently got accepted into RISD.
Having 2 creative parents, Tatiana was surrounded by art and the creative process in utero. She started making art at the age of 6 and decided to pursue art school late in her sophomore year. Tatiana’s work is energetic and bold with a well-developed graphic sensibility. She is interested in graphic design, illustration and wishes to experiment with all that RISD has to offer.
She would like to use the skills she acquires to have a career in graphic design and work on projects promoting social justice. Tatiana, a bi-racial woman of color, became sensitive to social issues when she began Montclair High. She plans on using the graphic design and illustration skills she acquires in art school to tell other peoples stories and raise awareness of racism and this ‘ widespread social injustice.
Emma Rice, SVA 2025
Emma has been working with me for the past 3 years and was excited to find out that she was accepted into SVA two weeks ago. She plans to study cartooning.
Emma has always loved comics and in her words is a “religious watcher of cartoons”. Before she knew how to write, Emma and her mom would collaborate, Emma drawing the pictures and her mom writing the captions. As she got older, she would pore over her dad’s comic book collection and draw superheroes. She spent many nights reading and laughing at his collection of Far Side comics. It is not surprising that Emma brings a lot of humor and irony to her work. She started seriously drawing characters and fan art at 12 and began taking life drawing classes at Bass Arts Studio at age 14.
In addition to her love of comics and cartoons, Emma is interested in the self-expressive aspect of art making and is motivated by the desire to be “seen” and is eager to share the contents of her head with others. In her 4th grade yearbook, she stated that she aspired to become an engineer like her parents, but in middle school realized that she “thought she should do something serious and fancy but really didn’t care about that at all”. That is when she knew she would pursue art.
Tai Mair, Pratt 2025
When I got the text from Tai that he was accepted into Pratt, I was thrilled. I had been working with him since the spring and was so impressed by his single-minded focus and how much he accomplished in a short amount of time. He plans on majoring in graphic design.
Tai always loved art and started taking it seriously in his sophomore year, drawing from observation and studying Anime. His teacher at the time weaned him off Anime and encouraged him to draw from life. He decided to pursue career in art when he began to get good feedback on his art-work and “actually felt proud of my work myself, like wow I might actually be talented”. Then Tai got an Ipad for his birthday, and he was hooked on Pro-Create. Although the majority of his work now is digital, he feels like learning how to draw “old style” helped with his digital work and vice versa.
Tai, like so many artistic kids suffered from anxiety and depression in the summer between his sophomore and junior year. He spent many hours a day drawing to help him cope. With his moms support and encouragement he created a clothing brand and began to sell his clothes, donating a percentage of the proceeds to suicide prevention. He is doing so much better now. Art making has been a big part of his healing process. Tai plans to continue developing his brand and I am excited to see his progress.