{"id":57451,"date":"2017-09-22T08:30:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T12:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=57451"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:33:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:33:20","slug":"from-one-dream-school-to-another","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2017\/from-one-dream-school-to-another\/","title":{"rendered":"From One Dream School to Another"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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September 22, 2017<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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CFA alum Rebecca Ness discusses the foundations of painting, witnessing history as sketch artist for a high-profile Boston trial, and a future at Yale.<\/em><\/p>\n

Spark Volume 3, Issue 1<\/a> | by Mark Krone<\/em><\/p>\n

On the evening of March 10, 2017, Rebecca Ness (CFA \u201915) took an anxiety nap. \u201cWhen I\u2019m anxious, I go to sleep for a little while and I wake up feeling better.\u201d When she awoke, Rebecca checked her phone. There it was. The message she\u2019d been waiting for from Yale University: A decision was posted to your admissions account. \u201cWhen I saw that message, I got up and walked around my room thinking, \u2018this is it.\u2019 She clicked and read: We are pleased…<\/p>\n

After hugging her roommates and calling her mother, the news began to sink in that she\u2019d been accepted to the MFA-Painting program at Yale. It was a new beginning and to get this moment, Ness, 24, had worked hard at painting and drawing for most of her life, including four years in the BFA-Painting<\/a> program at CFA. \u201cBU was my dream school for undergraduate and Yale for graduate.\u201d For young artists, these goals are not unusual. Achieving them is a different story.<\/p>\n

\"Elonna,
Elonna, Gouache on panel, 12″x12″, 2017 by Rebecca Ness (CFA’15)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a child, Ness attended the Acorn Gallery School of Art in Marblehead, Massachusetts. \u201cIt was great, I started figure painting with oil at 10 years old. Jack Highberger ran it, and he had studied painting at CFA.\u201d Like BU, Acorn pushed a foundational approach to drawing and painting. Ness explains it this way: \u201cYou can\u2019t do calculus unless you\u2019ve done algebra. You can\u2019t make a really good painting unless you know why the object looks that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it came time for college, BU seemed like a natural progression. \u201cWe visited CFA every year. I felt comfortable there. If you were an Acorn kid, it made sense to go to BU.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kelley,
Kelley, Gouache on panel, 12″x12″, 2017 by Rebecca Ness (CFA’15)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her senior year, Ness was hired by the BU student newspaper, the Daily Free Press<\/a>, as a sketch artist at one of the biggest trials in Boston history, the marathon bombing. \u201cThe court did not allow photographers, so the Daily Free Press wanted a drawing student from CFA to attend the trial. I submitted a few drawings and they hired me and gave me press credentials.\u201d The trial hit close to home as one of her friends was injured. \u201cI actually saw my friend on the security footage they showed at the trial. She had gone to the Apple store that day and was a few feet away from one of the explosions. It was hard to see her on the video.\u201d (Her friend has since recovered.)<\/p>\n

Tension in the courtroom was already high, but when the accused bomber entered to take his seat, everything stopped. \u201cEveryone was talking and then when he entered, the room went silent. My adrenaline shot up when I saw him. He had injuries on his face and walked slowly. When he sat down, he mostly looked forward.\u201d Though the trial was at times, painful, Ness is grateful for the experience. \u201cIt was interesting being a witness to history.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, BU Professor Dana Clancy<\/a> chose Rebecca to show alongside her at the New York Studio School for an exhibition of teachers with students called Common Threads. \u201cI appreciate how Rebecca’s eye is on the political and social world, on the humorously-harrowing human, and the vulnerable self.\u201d Though Ness graduated a couple of years ago, Clancy continues to watch her work. \u201cI love following Rebecca’s work since graduation, both the paintings and the way that painting seems for her to be so embedded in relationship.\u201d Ness credits her former professor with changing how she feels about painting. \u201cI wasn\u2019t painting about anything, I was just painting things. \u201cOne day, Dana (Professor Clancy) said to me, \u2018You\u2019re not having enough fun!\u2019 She was right. I realized I could be myself and have fun with painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jack,
Jack, Gouache on panel, 9″x12″, 2017 by Rebecca Ness (CFA’15)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another mentor, BU Professor Richard Ryan<\/a>, also pushed Ness to allow her work to express all of her sides. Ryan notes wryly: \u201cRebecca is a very kind and warm human being but she also has a wicked wit. As a painter, this is a serious conflict. Her work really sings when she goes for the jugular and doesn\u2019t use the nice filter.\u201d Since last fall, Rebecca has worked full- time in the CFA dean\u2019s office working on ways to improve the student experience. \u201cI always wanted to be a teacher and BU helped me to realize I wanted to remain in higher education.\u201d When asked if she planned to stay connected to CFA after she leaves for Yale, Ness is emphatic. \u201cCFA is my family. Why would I not be active as an alum?\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CFA alum Rebecca Ness discusses the foundations of painting, witnessing history as sketch artist for a high-profile Boston trial, and a future at Yale. Spark Volume 3, Issue 1 | by Mark Krone On the evening of March 10, 2017, Rebecca Ness (CFA \u201915) took an anxiety nap. \u201cWhen I\u2019m anxious, I go to sleep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6270,"featured_media":57453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[192],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[309],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/57451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57451"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/57451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95472,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/57451\/revisions\/95472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=57451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}