When I hear “do you want to go back to school?” Would you ever consider getting a Masters in Fine Arts?” My mind just melts at the thought of it. I mean it took me seven years to get a Bachelor in Fine Arts in Acting (I liked to party and I changed my major about three times, call me indecisive!) At last; I finished and received my degree. I was full of excitement, pride and I followed it with many celebrations! Now everything has changed due to Covid-19. The abrupt shut down left everyone questioning, what do we do now? All these future graduates from BFA and MFA programs that count on showcases and thesis projects to catapult them into the limelight, cancelled. These were the end of the year projects that would either land them an agent, manager, or just get them seen to land a job! And in a blink of an eye, all their hard work, and the endless hours of studying/rehearsing/painting, and all the money spent on tuition went poof, up in smoke. Can you imagine?
The real question is what happens when your degree gets cut short? Graduates and future graduates from these arts programs are now entering into a career path that has become virtual or has completely gone dark as we say in the theater world. There is an abundance of questions and what ifs with no answers. The uncertainty feels immobilizing. When it comes to spending four or more years on your education that leads you into a field that doesn’t have a come-back date from this pandemic, its real scary. So with that fear I thought, hmmm. Who are these students and how are they dealing with this situation? Which mode are they in, flight or fight?
My friend Luján Pérez Hernández a native Spaniard, is a badass artist who presently lives in Brooklyn, NY. She is a future Masters in Fine Arts graduate from the New York Academy of Art in Tribeca, NY. During my conversation with Lujan she commented: “this virus has completely changed everything!” Pérez is a real fighter when it comes to her in this situation. For example; she lives alone without family around to support her, yet she fought and healed alone from Covid-19. This didn’t stop her from continuing her school program assignments necessary to complete her art thesis that is required for her to graduate from her MFA program. No, she is accomplishing it all and alone. Her school closure occurred March 22ND, cutting the program short by almost 2 months. With the closure that meant “NO” access to the workshop or major tools needed to complete her work. This affected all students in this program. Especially international students who needed to complete the program in the next two months (especially for international students on student visas) yet had no access to the necessary tools at school. That did not stop the cohort nor did it stop Ms. Peréz! I had so many questions, so we did a face time interview so I could wrap my head around what she and many other MFA students are having to do just to receive their degree in pandemic times.
During my interview with Lujan, I had a beautiful visual of her art haging along her wall behind her. The black and white drawings and woodcuts (“woodcut is a relief process in which knives and other tools are used to carve a design into the surface of a wooden block, the oldest form of printmaking.”) of vases filled with lush foliage were lined up in a row, she was set for her own gallery. In aww I initially wanted to start with my questions, but I took a moment to just admire her brilliance. Lujan Pérez Hernández is working diligently to receive her Masters in Fine Arts with a concentration in drawing. Not only does she draw, but she has focused on other forms of art work, for example; woodcuts and print making. She contributes her gravitation to the art of woodcutting and printmaking is tied to her growing up and being bilingual. For Pérez it was difficult to have both languages live in the same space. To think in one language and to have to speak in another is a challenge many immigrants face, but for Pérez it became her inspiration to find a form of art that isn’t commonly used. Pérez was born in Madrid, Spain and came back and forth multiple times to the United States while growing up. With this constant back and forth in her life it has beautifully inspired and impacted her art work. Pérez states that “my work through personal experience being a third culture kid you’re always trying to find meaning, a reason to be, where do you come from, and I find that through nature. I try to convey my own relationship with nature and help others who feel like they don’t come from anywhere.” Lujan admits that receiving a degree in Art rather than in realms such as acting, dance, or music has its advantages. With the virtual world as high tech as it’s become, artists can have virtual galleries and still gain that presence of an admirable audience.
This is a multi-block woodcut Pérez created in the start of her final year of her MFA program in September 2019. This was the description she posted about how it feels to be in graduate school. “I guess graduate school means pushing yourself to the edge of a mountain on a very windy day, looking down, almost falling, and taking a big deep breath while shedding silent happy tears because you didn’t fall today.”
As inspiring as Lujan’s fight to the finish line is, just so she can be awarded that hard earned Master’s degree is not what she signed up for, nor did anyone who was an expected 2020 graduate. To be in a program that suddenly has to shut its doors, fire staff that students relied on, and then extend due dates due to unexpected circumstances and not offer any reimbursement of tuition is unforgivable. These are the unfortunate facts and as Ms. Pérez has commented its being taught in a state of “Toxic Positivity.” Within the program Ms. Pérez informed me that there is an option for a third year “fellowship.” Third year? I honestly didn’t understand why anyone would want to enter into a third year if it wasn’t necessary, but what she told me made me fully understand why any up and coming MFA recipient would continue. Lujan informed me that; “ You can apply for a $10,000 stipend fellowship that allots you a third year and a studio space. You are a teacher assistant for two classes for free, you critic students and receive additional education through the process.” So the school basically owns you for a year, but you make $10,000 and you get a studio to show case your work. Which is huge for an up and coming artist, it’s also a wonderful opportunity to sell your work and make mula to pay off those student loans. Now due to the shutdown and the impending doom that the coronavirus has cast on the world the option to apply for the fellowship is still available, but now completely virtual. That connection to art isn’t the same virtually especially when you are working to still acquire knowledge. Oh, and this fellowship and what it offers is all contingent on if the school re-opens. Yet again another situation that holds many questions with little to no answers. That is exactly what I was talking about when I started, this virus has impacted so harshly the arts education system. Deviated artist from future plans that could’ve set them up for major success, but that is now an illusion of what could’ve been.
“If This Virus were a Flower”
6x8in. Woodcut 2020 By. Luján Pérez Hernández
With all the “toxic positivity” Luján Pérez Hernández has truly flourished just like her artwork. She does admit when I asked how has this virus affected her work flow her response was this: “I assume as everyone else I’ve been living in a state of panic. And it affects all the work I have created and my mental space. It all definitely affected work flow too. So much going on with Covid and social justice issues it affects your creativity and makes you question if it really matters?” I may be biased as her friend, but her work does matter. She honestly inspired me to continue moving forward within this period of time. Ms. Perez is set to complete and be critiqued on August 11TH by her professors in person which is how it should be, but that decision is still uncertain. Another unjust caveat within this education system during this pandemic. Perez’s tenacity and ingenuity to complete her thesis and create her own form of woodcuts and print making (without major printmaking tools/machines offered at her school) just proves the fight she has and the kind of artist she will become. Ms. Peréz has already been displayed in a virtual art gallery called “Biophelia.” Biophelia was an exhibit to celebrate the natural world. That virtual gallery highlighted 40 artist that capture how the world is changing and the true beauty and story nature can tell. Pérez’s work was inspired by not having the ability to hug someone, how human touch is so important and missed. I was sad, but her two pieces were incredibly touching and relatable. Peréz has also auctioned a multi block wood cut of Charles Spurgeon Johnson (U.S. sociologist, authority on race relations, and the first black president (1946–56) of Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.”) The auction raised $450, and then sold by the buyer for an additional $200 and all ($650) proceeds were donated to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Pérez managed to do all of this while still working on completing her written thesis answering “13 Questions based on her own Adventure” as well as drawings and woodcut prints. So when asking the question to herself, does my work even matter? I am answering yes, yes it does and she is most definitely not falling off any mountains edge.
Here's to a Future Embrace (IlI), 2020
Multiblock woodcut using handmade oil based inks on Stonehenge
40" x 26"
Description: This is part of a series of prints that begun in early February and sadly have been put on pause without access to a press during quarantine. This collection can be purchased at sugarlift.com/lujanperez
Charles S. Johnson Double Woodcut-Block 2016 By. Luján Pérez Hernández
Closing out this very enlightening article I’d like to say to all the graduates of BFA and MFA programs who missed out on the opportunity to have your showcase, final performances, and to simply just graduate with your cohort my heart goes out to you. With Luján Pérez Hernández shedding light on the facts that many students in these specified programs aren’t receiving refunds, are having to work to accomplish these arts degrees without many of the appropriate tools and spaces to do so, having teachers that are being fired, and the opportunities that were once offered to strengthen their future career are a possibility rather than a certainty. These facts I hope make you fight for your career as artist and hope that this pandemic and the grueling affects it has had on the closing chapter of your education does not deter your path. The world now more than ever needs the arts and artist like Ms. Pérez to inspire and lift other’s up while still living in some very dark times. To the graduates of 2020 Congrats! I look forward to what you will bring to the world.
“Distych of a nonsensical one” 30x42in 2019
By. Luján Pérez Hernández
Oil, acrylic, multi-block woodcuts, jigsawed 1/8inch birch plywood,
kitakata paper, mylar, wintergreen oil transfer, rubber based inks.
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