Samantha Foster
Spectrum Editor
Since arriving at VCU and starting classes, Brooke Marsh said she has gotten used to being by herself.
While she has gone to the James River and visited First Fridays with some friends, Marsh enjoys spending her free time on quieter activities. “I’m kind of laid back when it comes to doing things,” Marsh said. “I like going to concerts and things like that, but I’d rather go to a museum or go chill on the beach.”
Marsh has started volunteer work for her Focused Inquiry class, which is a basic English class all freshman are required to take. She will be volunteering with Quirk Gallery and helping children make paper lanterns for the InLight Festival on Nov. 2.
Filling her time with volunteer work, and now her job, helps her manage her time better which for Marsh, has translated into a relatively easy transition into her studio classes and the workload that accompanies them.
After some scheduling confusion, Marsh finally started her job in the photography office in the Pollak building.
“I love having a job because when I was at home and I had a job, I’d have homework and want to hang out with my friends on top of school and everything else, so I knew I had to get things done in order to do other things,” Marsh said. “Now that I have a job here, I do work there and I get more done there and I still have free time.”
Despite being nervous about her studio classes at the beginning of the year, Marsh is managing the stress of finishing projects under a tight deadline well. “Normally, I’ll just work on (assignments) throughout the week. Sometimes I’ll wait until the last minute and I’ll regret it,” Marsh said.
Before starting classes, Marsh was intimidated by the experience that other students were bringing to the AFO program. Before she came to VCU, she admitted it was overwhelming to be coming to the No. 1 public arts school without a lot of prior art education.
“It’s intimidating, … but if I can get into the art school I must have some kind of talent that they’re looking for, I must have something that they want here. I feel like if I can get accepted, I obviously belong here.”
Now that she has turned in a few projects and gone through the critique process, she said most of her doubts have fallen away, but she isn’t discounting the difficulty that may come later in the semester.
For Marsh, it might not always be the external pressure of finishing a project — it might be herself. In high school, Marsh said she spent a lot of time comparing her work to others and not only was it unproductive in her ability to finish work, but it undermined her talent.
“I’m trying not to compare myself while I’m here because I knew I was going to do that,” she said. “I just sat in my room before I came here and told myself over and over again that I wasn’t going to do that because I did that in high school, but I haven’t done it here, so far.”
Marsh has put all her efforts into her studio classes and for right now, has put making new friends on the back burner.
“I’ve kind of gotten over it,” Marsh said. “I’ll meet them when I meet them.”