Laguna College of Art and Design’s (LCAD) Post-Baccalaureate program gives artists a bridge in pursuit of a professional career or an MFA degree.
Laguna Beach architect and resident Donna Ballard always wanted to major in art, but she took a more practical approach to marrying her love of drawing, painting, and math to forge a successful career as an architect.
Today, as Principal Architect of BB Architects, Inc., a nationally and internationally recognized firm, Ballard decided it was time to pursue her lifelong dream and was accepted to the LCAD Drawing and Painting BFA program.
However, after closer inspection, Ballard found a perfect fit in LCAD’s Post-Baccalaureate in Drawing and Painting, a one-year, 30-unit program that focuses on representational drawing and painting skills.
“My work has improved in leaps and bounds,” she said. “By learning best practices in how to apply the paint and important technical skills, my paintings are at a whole new level.”
Not surprisingly, Ballard’s work focuses on buildings, especially their geometry and light and shadows. In 2017, she graduated with her fellow classmate and architect Brad Neal. She is eagerly working on a collection she hopes to display at the Festival of Arts.
“The hardest part of the program was coming home after a long day at work to do my homework,” Ballard said. “I was working in my dining room while my home was being remodeled. But it was worth it. I would do it over again.”
Betty Shelton, who heads the program, said that this program gives serious artists a first step to pursuing a professional career or pursuing a terminal degree in their field. Approximately one-third of students continue into LCAD’s MFA program in Painting, while two-thirds pursue a professional career.
“In the absence of these programs, a number of people who would be great artists would give up because they may not want to go through a second bachelor’s degree or have the skill for an MFA program,” Shelton said. “Our curriculum helps students develop conceptual and narrative skills to use their unique voice in their work.”
LCAD Post-Baccalaureate is attractive to students who earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art or a related major and are ready for a serious course of study. Just as with its other majors, LCAD screens applicants through a rigorous portfolio review.
Lisa Mansour regularly studied with professional artists as she focused on raising her three daughters in Laguna Beach. Like Ballard, she was also accepted to LCAD’s BFA program in Drawing & Painting but transferred to its Post-Baccalaureate program.
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Local artist Lisa Mansour
“I wanted to get better,” she said. “I could paint but I was missing the fundamentals. The most important thing LCAD teaches is to learn what you have to say in your art.”
Mansour started LCAD’s Post-Baccalaureate the same year her oldest daughter started university and then matriculated the same year her youngest daughter graduated from Laguna Beach High School. Throughout the program, Mansour rigorously painted a series of works until she found her voice as an artist and realized a 20-year dream that she shared with her three daughters.
“Every year we went to the Sawdust, my girls would ask, ‘when are you going to do apply, mom,’” she said. This past summer, Mansour participated in her first Sawdust Festival and is already at work preparing her next body of work for summer 2019. Her work was also exhibited at LCAD Gallery as part of the 2017 Study Aboard program.
Both Mansour and Ballard enjoy the perks as LCAD Post-Baccalaureate alumni who can audit one course per semester at LCAD. As current and former members of the Laguna Beach Arts Commission, they inspired current Laguna Beach arts commissioner and friend Suzanne Mellor to apply to the program. The three now share a studio space in South Laguna Beach.
For more information about LCAD’s Post-Baccalaureate program in Drawing and Painting, contact Betty Shelton, chair, at [email protected] or Renee Johansson at [email protected].
For more information about LCAD admissions, news, events and the college’s Annual Fund, visit www.lcad.edu.
Laguna College of Art and Design is located at 2222 Laguna Canyon Rd.
