Written By: Renuka Adhav, Painting

My first quarter at SCAD has been such an amazing experience. It is hard to explain in words my feelings thus far, but there is no doubt in my mind do I feel that I am in the right place at the right time.  I have always been an artist, but somehow I ended up in the medical field, becoming a Nuclear Medicine Technologist, due to the fact that family looked down upon art.  It only took me two years after working in the Industry that I fell back into my true passion of painting and that is what led me to SCAD. It was an emotional journey for me but I honestly cannot be happier.

I love that SCAD Atlanta has such bright colors, as soon as you enter the building, instantly you are drawn in.  When I first started classes, I was a little apprehensive. Everyone seemed much younger than me and I knew that there wasn’t any turning back. I hoped that I had made the right decision from turning away from the health field and going back to into the field of art.

The class that gave me the feeling that everything was going to be all right was Professor Clifford’s Draw 101 class. I have to say, he is an amazing professor. Already thinking that I was pretty decent at drawing, he pushed my limits and it allowed me to see that I am capable of much more. He broke our drawings down and made us understand the objects by studying linear drawing and observing form as opposed to flat one dimensional surface. Everything I did before was from looking at a photograph and re-creating it to look almost exactly the same way. I was always proud of my work, but now in reality, I see that it is immature, almost as if you are cheating your way to the top. I wasn’t learning correctly prior to this class and I appreciated learning sighting and measuring from Professor Clifford. I don’t think he has any idea of how much of an impact his teaching has had on me in just those ten weeks, but he really made me feel like I can accomplish something by understanding the everyday objects in front of me.  He was a tough grader, but ultimately I strove to achieve that A and pushed myself to get close to perfection. I am forever grateful for what he has taught me.