Sei-kashe M鈥檖funya 鈥21
When I attempt to remember the moment, I knew I would be art major it鈥檚 quite fitting to my character that it didn鈥檛 happen the day I declared.
I remember declaring first semester on a normal day as if I was picking up mail, a simple day-today routine. I didn鈥檛 tell anyone or post three very candid sun-kissed photos on Instagram. I actually only remember being asked by a friend as the moment when I declared myself as an art major. I would say the moment that could be a realization of why I love art was when I was sitting on Marston Quad doing watercolor improvisations for a drawing class. I was sun-kissed then, too.
In that moment I remember feeling so happy and content because I was painting in and of itself. I didn鈥檛 have an objective or a plan. My entire consciousness was speaking to me from echoes, patterns and instances of myself in the world at different times. I understood that I am never going to reach a point where I will know what kind of artist or person I will be.
Art lets me realize and visualize the complexities and the nature of what it means to be a human being in a non-linear timeline.
A quote that truly has been humbling to me about being an artist or an intellectual in this world was one I found at the MOMA in New York said by Max Ernst, a German artist of the surrealist and Dada era. He said 鈥淲hen the artist finds himself, he is lost. The fact that he has succeeded in never finding himself is regarded as his only lasting achievement.鈥
Alex Dean 鈥22
I started at Pomona with plans to be an art history major, but in my sophomore year, I took Mercedes Teixido's sketchbook class. I was not as experienced as most of the other students, and it was one of the more challenging courses I've taken in college. It was so enjoyable, though, that it made me decide to major in art as well as art history. The faculty, staff and students in the art department are some of the most delightful people I've met at Pomona, and I feel so lucky to be part of this world.