Foundation Students Dive Into Departmental Electives!

Every spring semester, PCA foundation students enroll in studio and liberal studies electives. This allows them to have a better understanding of the departments they’ll go into after their core year.

Foundation students are also encouraged to step out of their comfort zones and seek electives in a field they could be slightly apprehensive about, in order for them to push themselves artistically, creatively, and technically.

We interviewed students to give us an insight on how they picked their electives!

Ellen Yiu
Photography elective – Contemporary Portraiture
Fine Arts elective – Sophomore Drawing

I picked this elective to challenge myself. I mainly use photography for documenting my own work, I’ve never used it as a form of art before, which is why I’d like to try it. The elective is not a technically heavy course which has its advantages – I’m hoping to add a fine arts element to the class.
I like working with a lot of different mediums: I work with ceramics a lot, I paint, and draw. I did some metal work lately too. I think photography will be different because with hands on mediums, you create over a certain period of time and my perception of photography is that you capture thoughts and ideas in a couple of shots which is very compact. I also hope to explore the idea of what makes an image “good”? How can I differentiate between a “good” image and a “bad” one. I would like to learn the language of photography.
I’m also taking sophomore drawing and French.

Claudia Murillo
Communication Design elective – My Food: Book Series
Liberal Studies elective – Pop and Around

I chose it because I want to go into Communication Design so I thought it would be best to take courses that would relate to my major and it would give me an insight into how I would be working in the future.
I think I will be able to get a lot of skills such as layout, communication in terms of linguistic language, as well as be able to find my visual voice or signature and develop it before starting sophomore year.
Last semester, I really enjoyed drawing because I learned A LOT: perspective, photo realism, experimentation… I like both drawing and painting. Thank god scanning is possible now! I hope to incorporate my drawing and paintings into digital media.

I chose ‘Pop and Around’ out of curiosity. I really enjoy the art history and liberal studies courses. I think it’s important to learn as much as you can about art history and to know your references.