My name
is
Deanna
Deley
and
I
am
an
Illustration
Major,
soon
to
begin
my
junior
year at MICA.
In the spring, I went to the office of Career Development trying to figure out
what I was going to do with my
summer. I knew that I needed some real-‐ world
experience, and doing small commissions alone wouldn’t cut it. As much as I
love working from home, I needed to get into something on a higher level than
doing little drawings for friends. I knew that I needed more experience in the
fine arts on a professional level, and that at some point I needed to spend
some time in a big city like New York. My Peer
Career advisor recommended I apply to an internship for Lesley Dill, a reputable
contemporary artist from Brooklyn. She’s worked with man college students and has a setup for potential interns so they can enter with
ease.
I sent Lesley
an
e-‐mail and she responded right away,
asking
for
an
interview. Getting there took some planning: finding
a bus available during the week while avoiding schedule conflicts was a bit of
an obstacle. I spoke to a teacher of mine who was kind enough to let me take a
day off without it damaging my grade. I was interviewed in April and was
accepted on the spot. My bus back to Baltimore didn’t leave until
late that evening,
so I had the opportunity to explore the city in the
meantime.
I moved
to
Red
Hook
in
May,
approximately
a
week
after
the
semester
ended
at
school. I wasn’t
lucky enough to receive a scholarship, but was fortunate to have family in the area, an aunt and uncle who allowed me to stay with them. I had four days to get unpacked and settle in
before the intern work began.
Lesley’s studio
is
open
to
interns
three
days
a
week,
from
Wednesday
through
Friday. On these
days, we are responsible for building and assembling the materials that go into
each piece. The body of work in progress that I was involved with was a
collection of freestanding, life-‐sized dresses,
constructed from a variety of mediums
from metal to painting. Everything Lesley does is based on a song or poem, and
language is the heart of her creations. Each sculpture was either made up of or
covered in words that match the literary
passages. The piece I was mainly assigned to was made of layers upon layers
of cutout metal layers, and then sewn together. This piece
was just recently
completed, and in my remaining
time I was
given various jobs, including painting letters
on
another
dress,
and
silver
leafing
a
chandelier.
I don’t know that my main focus in the future will be sculptural, but I am becoming familiar with all the people
involved in making art, both inside and outside the handiwork. I feel this will benefit
me in my future endeavors
as an artist as well as a businesswoman. 