- October 19, 2022
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The giant cube at the corner of North Tamiami Trail and Martin Luther King Jr. Way is more than just a piece of art welcoming visitors to the Ringling College of Art and Design. A sort of Rubik’s cube of more than 24 faces, it’s also a visual representation of the school’s diverse and growing student body.
Every August, the renowned arts school welcomes about 300 incoming students from across the state, country and increasingly, abroad.
According to President Larry Thompson, this year’s class came from the largest pool of applicants in the school’s history, and 20% of the students were international.
On a sweltering day last week, a group of incoming freshmen met beneath the cube, each ready to make his or her mark on Sarasota.
Growing up in Port Charlotte, Rebecca Morrello says she always felt most at home indoors, expressing herself through drawing, painting and crafting. And after attending a photography camp at the local high school, she says she found her true passion.
“It’s in my nature,” she says. “I’ve always been interested in capturing people’s realities.”
Morello says she hopes to one day work in a big city, like Los Angeles or New York, but she was drawn to Ringling’s strong reputation and intimate environment.
“It felt like home,” she says. “The classes are one-on-one. I don’t want to be at a school where the professor doesn’t know my name; where I’m a number.”
Armed with her Nikon camera, Morrello is ready to absorb what she learns at Ringling and take her skills to the pages of glossy magazines like “Vanity Fair,” “Vogue” or “Elle” in her dream city — New York.
Leandra Pearson left her hometown of Queens, N.Y. for Sarasota in hopes of finding her dream job in graphic design.
Pearson’s love for art and graphic design began at age 12, when her mother signed her up for a local art class, but it wasn’t until high school that a teacher introduced her to graphic design.
“I like the way it speaks to people on every level,” she says. “You can combine graphic art with anything, including traditional drawing. You can explore every possible detail, and it’s so technical and precise. I can explore my artistic side again.”
Pearson’s portfolio includes photo-realistic renderings of people and places, and she says she’s excited to expand her skill set in a field that’s more far-reaching than people might realize. When asked what graphic designers do, Pearson’s answer is simple.
“I tell them to look at their iPhone, their clothes — everything around us,” she says.
Born and raised in Singapore, Mark Lim was always intrigued by computers. While studying computer science in high school, he realized he wanted to use the technology for something more creative than math and coding. He wanted to create new worlds with computer animation.
After graduating and completing Singapore’s two-year mandatory military service, the 21-year-old stumbled upon a short film by a student from Ringling College, and he decided to make the move.
“I wanted to find a school that would give me an actual audience and viewers,” he says.
Working in computer labs decked out with posters from successful animated films that Ringling alumni have worked on, Lim says he’s inspired to start his own career in computer animation.
“You have so much freedom,” he says. “It’s a blank page, and you can do whatever you want.”
Right next to Lim and the students and faculty in the computer animation department will be Lucas Riquenes tinkering and creating in the game art department. A native of Miami, Fla., Riquenes made the journey to the west coast of the state for two things: family and characters.
“I stayed in Florida for art college because I wantto stay closer to family, the weather and the people,” says Riquenes. “The closer I am to the water the more comfortable I feel. My dream is to create characters in video games that people play, have fun and recognize.”
Riquenes road into the art world started when he was just in kindergarten when he began to draw on school desks. His parents started just giving him scratch pieces of paper wherever they went to entertain him. “As a child my imagination was pretty wild and the best way for me to express it was on paper,” says Riquenes. “I’d run around my room and yell out characters and scenes and I sued the paper to record it. Not expressing myself artistically would just roil me up.”
Riquenes grew up and graduated from pencil and paper to portable video games like the Nintendo Game Boy and DS. Starting out with popular games like Pokemon for kids and then console games like Gears of War and Halo franchises, Riquenes found a whole new world to explore and express himself.
Looking toward the future, Riquenes hopes to be a part of a generation that has grown up in a world where video game design and the final product are treated as serious art and not just kid’s stuff. “Sometimes I think the younger generation understands the seriousness and the significance of video games and designers,” says Riquenes. “The older generations don’t take it seriously. Video games are a powerful product that creates memories and bonding between family and friends. It’s a hobby shared by half of the nation.”
Jack McCaffrey always knew that a traditional college wasn’t for him. Spending his childhood making stop-motion films in his basement, the McLean Virginia native says filmmaking has always been his goal.
And at Ringling, he says he found a major that perfectly suits his brand of storytelling: motion design. Only in its sixth graduating class, the blossoming field blends design, animation and graphics to produce unorthodox short films, title sequences for movies, commercials and other animated graphics.
With more than 100 short film already under his belt, including “Magic Marker,” which won the grand prize in its division last year at the Virginia Film Festival, McCaffrey says his early taste of success has him excited to see what else he can accomplish.
“That was really surreal, but it was a great experience seeing my film being played on the big screen and seeing everyone’s reaction,” he says. “It was a great feeling."
