Yearlong Audition: Brooke Marsh | Photography and Film

Brooke Marsh came to VCU as a self-declared optimist. She is the first of her family to attend college and applied only to VCU from her home in Maryland during her senior year.

“I thought I was going to go to (College of Southern Maryland) and get a degree in mass communications and just transfer to Towson or (University of Maryland) or something like that, but I’m so glad I didn’t do that,” Marsh said.

Marsh came to the AFO program with less art experience than her peers because her high school did not offer Advanced Placement art classes. Although she expected the program to be rigorous, Marsh said she was not expecting much out of her freshman year.

“I expected it to be extremely hard. It was still difficult, but not as difficult as I thought it was going to be,” she said. “I was so afraid when I first came here. I remember when I came here and I wish I would have done so much better last semester, but I was so afraid to mess up.”

During AFO, Marsh strived for “the impossible A.” For projects in AFO, such as sculptures and other works of art, a C is considered average, while an A is above and beyond the call of the assignment. Earlier this semester, Marsh achieved her goal of getting an A on an assignment, which she attributes to letting herself have more freedom with the project prompts and guidelines.

“I feel like I don’t have a life; I do but I work so hard on my stuff because I’m just trying so hard to get As on everything. I think I’ve learned to take more risks especially with work,” Marsh said. “I love (AFO), I really do. I just take it as a time to learn really and figure out what I’m doing, that’s what I’ve taken out of it.”

For Marsh, paying out-of-state tuition has been difficult since last semester. She has taken loans and financial aid, but is afraid of the new proposals which would make students pay their tuition by the credit hour.

“I love VCU. … I love Richmond,” Marsh said. “I know I’m coming back, but I’m just hoping I can stay coming back; the only thing is tuition. I love it here.”

Should tuition rise, Marsh would not be able to take as many credits each semester, but she also cannot go beyond four years at VCU because her financial aid would end after the fourth year.

Even though Marsh does not believe that her art aesthetic has changed much this year, she has learned how to create things in a different manner, including painting and using the woodshop.

“My art has kind of changed, but I don’t really know if that is a big change though because I’ve just kind of learned how to do things,” Marsh said. “I’ve learned a little bit better how to paint. I’ve learned how to come up with ideas better.”

When Marsh came to VCU, she intended on majoring in photography, but changed her mind as the year progressed to a major in graphic design. When applying for her major, Marsh put graphic design as her first choice and photography and film as her third choice. Marsh was placed into photography and film, but has decided that she is happy with her original major, despite it being her third choice.

“I’m so happy about it,” Marsh said. “I wish I would have made it my first choice now that I’m thinking about it because I probably don’t belong in either of those two places, graphic design, maybe, but definitely not communication arts.”

Despite her previous interest in photography, Marsh has not done much photography in AFO. During high school, she took the same photography class twice, but has yet to use a dark room or develop her own film. In AFO, students get a taste of their future major, with sculpture, drawing and painting which is done during the four classes core to the AFO program.

“I didn’t really do any photography my freshman year, while a lot of people going into sculpture did a bunch of sculptures … so they’ve already gotten that experience,” Marsh said.  “I’m really excited because I get to go on adventures. I’m really going to try hard to separate myself from everyone. … I’m hoping to go outside of Richmond to find stuff to photograph.”

Marsh said she wants to become a jack-of-all-trades with her photography, ultimately being an art director for a magazine or other publication. Although she will return home for the summer, she plans to find an internship next year and take photos for local publications.

“I just want to make myself this utility knife,” she said. “I want to be able to do everything, like weddings, newspapers, commercial, fashion — everything.”

-Samantha Foster