WSU grad student gives insight into her experience as an artist and teacher
June Sanders discovered a passion for art while attending Western Washington University—a fair leap from advertising, her intended major.
Sanders, now a first-year Master of Fine Arts student at Washington State University, said it was her friends in undergrad who introduced her to what it’s like to be an artist.
“I was just so blessed in befriending, right when I came to college, all these wonderful, artistic people,” she said, “that just got to expose me to a lot and mold me in these ways, even if they didn’t realize they were doing it and if I didn’t realize.”
In the WSU MFA program, Sanders’ main focus is photography, but she said all MFA students are encouraged to experiment with other media while in the program. Through this experimentation, the students may end up leaving with a different emphasis than they originally came to the program with.
Sanders currently teaches Fine Arts 102, which is an introduction to two-dimensional design. The course is a UCORE class, meaning students from all different majors may take it to fulfill a graduation requirement. As a result, a section may only have a few fine art majors, or possibly none.
“I was really anxious about that at first, but I’ve grown to love it,” she said.