Interview with Eleanor Lee

Eleanor Lee

Student at Ashcan

Studying Illustration at SVA Spring 2014

Awarded SVA’s Silas H. Rhodes scholarship

1.Tell us a little bit about your personal portfolio.

I have always been fascinated in grotesque artworks and I believe that something can be so eerie that it can be executed beautifully. Therefore most of my inspiration comes from the nightmares I’ve had or the places I’ve seen because it touched my mind in ways which strikes me as original and mind boggling.

2.Why would you recommend going to Ashcan?

I highly recommend ashcan because seldom do I come across teachers that are actually focused on each individuals type of skills. Beside the fact that they are all very easy to get along with the faculties here are not biased on the base of style and they fully commit to helping you every step of the way one artwork at a time. They also input opinions for inspirations and even the head director of the academy steps in and helps which I feel shows true dedication.

3.Can you tell us a good story which happened during your time at Ashcan?

There was this one time when a handful of students and I were talking and one of the teachers, Do, here looked like a character I had seen from an old 90’s nickelodeon show called rocket power. The character’s name was Tito and I pulled up the picture from my phone and held it up next to him and it was so funny that it looked exactly like him that he even admitted that it was scary how close the resemblance was. It was so hilarious that I almost fell backwards and crushed my artwork but luckily I was able to contain myself.

4.On which occasion experienced with other students/instructors are you especially proud of?

I am mostly proud of the open critiques we get to have to not only have the opinions and inspiration from the faculties but also from the other creative minds of the students here. I felt the most proud during the days we get to take pictures of the finalized portfolio because you get that sense of pride when you see your final product. Despite the sense of pride that I feel, I feel mostly proud to see the effort that the director had put in to take time to take the pictures and to see his reaction is the most rewarding feeling I have ever felt in a while.

5.What did you learn at Ashcan for your future life?

Physically, I have learned to work faster on my work and still do a beautiful job and also to work in bulk to help the mind to keep shifting from one work to another. Emotionally, they gave me hope for my future endeavors and that there are people like them here at ashcan out there in the world. The experience here all together gave me the perfect drive I needed to pursue what I love to do for life.