2025/26 Merit Scholarship Recipient: Ross Baumgard

How/why did you choose your major?

I chose the art + technology tract in the media major to enjoy the best of both worlds of the two things I love working with the most. My practice is largely centered around media, but much of it flows through a fine art lens.

Describe the work you submitted for merits.

The work I submitted for merits I created during the fall semester of my sophomore year. It is a collection of work titled Oh! We're Going Starboard, comprising a four-song EP, each track paired with an animation or visualizer that I created through stop motion. Then I created three large-scale cyanotype tapestry prints on linen that are paired with a projection of the tracks and their animations for installation. I exhibited the work during a class show for Interdisciplinary Studio, Under New Management. The story of the project revolves around Genealogy, the ties that connect us, and the butterfly effect of events that had to take place in a precise order for you to exist; the journey you take into this life, and conversely the one that takes you out. The first track, Genealogy, begins with fate, and how we ended up where we are. The second track, It's Just People, where the womb and process of coming into this world is explored. The third track, Captain, goes over the journey of life itself, adrift on a boat in the sea. The last track, Hail Mary, goes through the death process, featuring sounds sampled from medical machines such as MRIs, and vocals created to mirror them. The cyanotypes tie in with my connection to the story, in which they feature repurposed imagery from family photo/video archives, the animation videos also feature this material. In the first track for Genealogy, a video from the day I was born at the hospital is used. Throughout the cyanotypes, each is representative of a different story. The first cyanotype, Oh! It’s A Boy! is the album cover for the EP, each panel is loaded with symbolism that relates to my connection with my mother, my late father, and my past self. The second cyanotype, Out Of (Water)Body Experience, features faded family photos of my grandparents, specifically my grandmother- to show how the memories, like the prints, will fade over time. The third cyanotype, There’s Two Of Everything And I’m Split Down The Middle, is made to resemble a film strip in the center, but can also be read as a film strip in the sense that each panel is a slide. Overall the project was an intense experimentation with audiovisual pairs where I took time to explore my family's history, especially my grandmother's textile practices.

Why did you decide to come to MCAD?

I decided to come to MCAD simply because there was no choice for me except to pursue art. Originally, I was accepted to numerous state schools- no knowledge that I could attend a school completely dedicated to the arts. I was deeply dissatisfied with where I was at and where I was going, none of the schools that I had been accepted to had programs that would provide me with the skills needed to start my career as an artist or creative in general. I knew that there was no way I could go throughout life working a 40-hour job somewhere that wasn't doing what I love. I found out about MCAD about a week before the final application deadlines, had my tour at the first opening the next day, and within 24 hours from then I was accepted. At that moment I knew MCAD was where I needed to go.

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

As far as what's next for my practice I truly have no idea, everything I create is a new adventure- This summer I plan to finish a lot of projects that have been a long time in the making, a large collection of paintings to be able to add to my portfolio, an album of music I've been producing for a little less than a year, a series of text-based video project's exploring visual sensory triggering cognitive dissonance, a smaller collection of music created as live performed songs, a project with a senior living center community, and lastly I plan to prepare lots of work for sale. There are many many other things I will explore very soon in congruency with these projects I have yet to finish- I want to experiment with my practice and find new ways to engage with medium, but overall the next phase I'm going to go through is going to be centered around career-building; updating my portfolio, publishing projects, setting up streaming for the music I've created, contacting galleries to show work, and collaborating with other artists.

Favorite thing about college life (so far)?

I think my favorite thing about college life so far is that I'm completely free to pursue all the things I've wished so long for the ability to create art daily as my main responsibility, has been quite literally the dream on every level. I was so dissatisfied before college, going to high school learning about things I had no interest in, and going to my part-time job where I wasn't doing anything I cared about. Being in college and pursuing internships has led me to a perfect point where I'm learning about things I love, and doing things I love for work.

What inspires you?

I think the thing that inspires me the most is my goal to not work a traditional 9-5 office job- I have a very set goal to pay off loans as fast as possible, buy land, move out of the cities, build a home and art studio surrounded by nature- that's the dream. I've decided that no matter what, I have to reach that goal. The idea of living my life doing something I'm intensely unhappy with, working for someone else, til I'm old sounds horrifying, and I have to do everything in my power in order to reach the place I want to get to.

Anything you're obsessed with at the moment?

Currently, I'm obsessed with an album of music I've found this past weekend, that brought me the inspiration to work on music again after not having the motivation or creativity to. The album was Miley Cyrus and her Dead Petzzz, I had never heard any of the songs before, so I gave the album a straight-through listen- and since then I havn't stopped listening to it. After listening to it for the first time I was able to write a new song for the first time in over a month. The album is intensely unique and was co-produced by The Flaming Lips- it gave me a new perspective on how music should be made.

What's the best thing you've found on the Free Shelf?

I think the best thing I've found on the free shelf is a super intense neon-soaked painting of a decomposing man on a huge canvas, I would say It's at least 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide- my mom absolutely hates it when I bring it home at the end of the school year.