{"id":13185,"date":"2021-08-26T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/?p=13185"},"modified":"2021-08-26T13:32:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T17:32:00","slug":"sean-johnson-04-on-building-universal-skills-in-fine-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/news\/sean-johnson-04-on-building-universal-skills-in-fine-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Johnson \u201904 on Building Universal Skills in Fine Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

How did Sean Johnson\u2019s studies at URI land him in the tech industry after graduation? More specifically, Johnson works for Cash App as Customer Success Operations Manager. No, it wasn\u2019t with a business degree. And no, it wasn\u2019t a major in computer science or another STEM field. Sean Johnson \u201904 graduated from URI\u2019s College of Arts and Sciences with a B.F.A. in Studio Art<\/a>. Many may find Johnson\u2019s academic background surprising considering he now finds himself in tech. For Johnson, however, it isn\u2019t much of a surprise at all. He that his B.F.A. gave him the emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills crucial to his success. \u201cCritical thinking is so important as we are trying to progress as a society, and it allows us to dismantle different perspectives and take different approaches,” he says, adding that the study of art encourages one to \u201csit within yourself, observe what\u2019s around you, analyze it and piece together the information that\u2019s around you. It\u2019s helped me excel in any job I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s path to art sheds light on the importance of exploration as an undergraduate. Originally a computer science major, Johnson dabbled in photography courses and, with the encouragement of Professor Annu Palakunnathu Matthew<\/a>, worked at the campus photo lab. Because of those experiences, Johnson not only graduated with a B.F.A, but also completed a graduate program in the same field and was a professor for ten years. Moving into tech he realized how familiar the job felt. \u201cSetting people up with success, providing information, delivering it properly, it\u2019s all the same stuff. Developing presentations because you have the eye of understanding,” he says. The message behind Johnson\u2019s journey is reflective of the foundational nature of A&S. Postgraduate success is less about what you study, and more about how you can grow with your education and use what you study. \u201cThink about how you can apply the skills and knowledge to other kinds of work, not even in the same field, just thinking about how stuff can overlap,” Johnson says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>

Study Art at URI<\/h2>

We offer an experiential and integrative visual arts program where you can develop your creative instincts.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Explore<\/div><\/a><\/div>\n

\nIt would be a mistake, however, to paint the picture that Johnson does not use his degree for artistic pursuits as well. Although art is not his main gig, Johnson is still quite active in the field. He says of his time in URI\u2019s Studio Art program: \u201cIt gave me a really good foundation to understanding art, art history, and understanding the practice of being an artist.\u201d Johnson\u2019s art uses religious iconography to help people enter his work, which focuses largely on challenging conventions around gender. He says, \u201cA lot of my work focuses on queer theory, gender identity, and looking at the intersection of those things.\u201d More recently, his art explores death as a form of reincarnation. He currently has his work on display in the Newport Art Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Sean Johnson and see some of his work here. <\/a><\/p>\n

~Written by Sabrinna Fogarty, double major in political science and philosophy <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Johnson ’04, a studio art major, has used his degree to flourish as an artist and in the tech industry. Though these two fields may seem unrelated at first, Sean credits his liberal arts background with developing universal skills that have helped him succeed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":13186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[220,279,55],"class_list":["post-13185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-art","tag-art-studio","tag-fine-arts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13185"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13189,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185\/revisions\/13189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}