2023 Merit Scholarship Recipient: Morgan Wendel

Describe the work you submitted for merits.

The requirement for the Foundation Merit Scholarship was to submit pieces from the foundational classes, so I decided to choose several different pieces from the different foundation classes I took, ranging from charcoal still lifes from Drawing I to photography from Media 1.

Why did you decide to come to MCAD?

Honestly, there's too many factors to pin down. Everything from the studios, the classes, the environment, the community, all of which were given high praise by a few of my high school art teachers. But what really drove me to attend MCAD was the resources. I'm here to learn where my path is in my artistic career, and I know that MCAD has both the knowledge to pass on and the assistance in being able to help me down that path and help my confidence into diving into a career in art.

What's next for your practice? Anything you're really excited to make?

I'm incredibly excited because I'm going to be majoring in Comic Art! Coming into my first year here, I was still torn between majoring in Illustration or Comic Art, but after taking the introduction courses for both majors, I've absolutely fallen in love with comics! I'm absolutely ecstatic to make more comics, while also working on some of the other things I love, such as illustration and creative writing, through my other studio classes.

Favorite thing about college life (so far)?

The community! I've met so many amazing people, and this environment has been the place I've felt most welcome in my life. I feel like I fit right in, and as the weird art kid in K-12, that's saying a lot!

Do you have a favorite piece you've made? Describe it!

My favorite piece I've made at MCAD has to be my piece titled Decompose. The assignment was to take a piece of art from the Minneapolis Institute of Art and make a recreation/reinterpretation of the piece in a new medium. I found a statue bust that looked as though it has been broken off at the bottom, and I got the idea to redraw it as a decomposing figure, interwoven and overgrown with branches and other foliage. Decompose is one of the most time-consuming pieces I've made at MCAD so far, being an 18 x 14 inch illustration made entirely in pen, but it has a special place in my heart and I would like to explore similar concepts in the future!

Anything you're obsessed with at the moment?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!