Gage Seber

About Gage

Why did you choose this program?

I had been an undergrad at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. This was a private art school and was incredibly expensive. My father lost his job during the 2008 crash and I was forced to start paying for my education purely out of pocket. I would have either had to take out enough loans to kill a small rhino, or drop out of school. I decided on the latter. After a stint as an Electro DJ in SF and some soul searching during a 5-month backpacking trip through Central America, I somehow found myself in New York City. There I opened a small coffee shop with a colleague and had some success at it. Eventually though I found that I was painting myself into a corner, barely making enough to live a decent life in the city, and working 60+ hours a week. After getting married to the love of my life, we decided it was time to get out of the city and also for me to go back to finish college. She suggested that I go somewhere that wasn't a huge metropolis with all of its trappings and that we be somewhere I could focus solely on completing my education.

I had gone to High School here in Arcata. It had been about 10 years since I'd lived here and, though I was trepidatious about returning to my hometown, the idea made sense. I went through the process of getting back into the California school system and after a semester at College of the Redwoods to catch up on a few necessary gen ed credits, I was able to apply and attend HSU as a Studio Art Major.

There is no graphic design major at HSU. This would have been my first choice as it is what my first two years of schooling had been in. However I was pleased to find that there was an emphasis or focus path through the Studio Art program that was a design/media arts path.

I knew I could make this my own and further my education in the field. I was correct! So, after a long odyssey, I found myself back amongst the old growth, finishing what I'd started all those years ago.

How did this program prepare you for your job?

There's a large variety of photography courses featured within the studio art department. While I'd used photography as a tool in my design practice, it hadn't really occurred to me that I could take that and turn it into a major facet of my practice. Having done a large amount of freelance design work, I thought my focus would be solely on design. I'm so glad I expanded my boundaries and moved into photography simultaneously. The studio lighting knowledge of Nicole Jean Hill's courses was invaluable and prepared me for the rigorous lighting troubleshooting that comes with shooting jewelry on models and on white background. Also, just getting time in Lightroom in Dave Woody's courses helped me feel as though I could walk into a professional position with the confidence that I knew the tools well enough to produce competent work.

What did you enjoy most about the program?

The studio art department is small. This could be seen as a negative for some, but I found it to be a huge benefit. I was able to be in direct contact with my professors and developed close personal ties with many of them. I've worked on projects outside of the university with the department's Stephen Nachtigall, which has been hugely beneficial from a community and career standpoint. In my previous school (AAU), my professors were all working professionals. This meant that they often didn't have a permanent place on campus to visit them when they weren't in classes. Most of the contact was done via email, and I was just a drop in the bucket of their huge student body that attended their many courses. I felt like a small fish in a big pond and it was hard to be noticed. At HSU, I knew all my professors and where they would be on campus, I could talk to them about assignments or projects in other classes. I could discuss scheduling issues in real time and make arrangements. It was amazing. This also meant the resources weren't strained by a large student body. I was able to rent camera and lighting equipment with ease, use tech lab computers and printers without issue, and hang in the maker's space in the Library with fellow design students and collaborate on projects.

What would you say to prospective students who are thinking about applying to this program?

This program will give you what you put into it. I was successful with it because I was devout in my goals. Don't go into this as a means of exploration. Know that you want to gain certain skills and explore certain elements of your artistic or design process and utilize the professors' knowledge as well as the university's tools to acquisition those gains. Being a self-starter is an essential element of being an artist/creative. We create the content that drives our careers and it is no different in our creative endeavors in University. The instructors will only shepherd you so far. It is your job to know what you want and their job to help you get there. The students who struggled the most were the ones that didn't know why they were making art or why they wanted to use the tools they were being taught. Move with purpose.