Meet Carrie
Founder, The Gesso
Carrie Patterson, a Professor of Art at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, is an exceptional and substantial advocate for the arts and education. With over two decades of teaching experience at the college level, she engages diverse audiences with an outpouring of insight and energy. In addition to being a professional working artist and professor, she founded the Gesso, a college art consulting company, and resource for creative teens in 2020, and theyellowline.co, an art company that provides quality K-12 art education material to individuals and educators in 2018. She is author to the course How to See produced by The Great Courses, a recipient of an Individual Artist Award from Maryland State Arts Council, and currently serves as the Steven Muller Distinguished Professor of the Arts at St. Marys College of Maryland where she has been a professor for many years.
In her arts training, career choices, and professional development, Carrie has developed a broad understanding of the academic art system and approaches the art world and creative fields from a comprehensive perspective. Carrie’s guidance for all of her students is rooted in inclusivity. As a mentor to high school and college students, Carrie’s approach is non-judgmental, future-focused, and prioritizes a personalized experience for each individual that helps them identify and achieve their goals. She is devoted to advancing the lives and careers of her students.
Stuart Nabors is a veteran of 33 years teaching in Richmond, Virginia’s Chesterfield County Public Schools. Twice National Board Certified, Stuart has taught AP English Literature and Composition for more than 20 years, and has worked with English speakers from nations representing five continents. A dedicated advocate of high school seniors, he has extensive experience in helping students navigate the college admissions process, especially in coaching them to compose college essays in which they can take great pride. His students have secured admission to colleges and universities considered to be among the very best: from Princeton to Columbia, Duke to UNC, Berkeley to Notre Dame, William and Mary to the University of Virginia. Whatever their destination, Stuart strives to help students refine their understanding of their essential qualities and to facilitate compelling illustrations of their unique perspectives.
Dr. Jennifer Cognard-Black, Professor of English at St. Mary's College of Maryland, is the author of a textbook on writing, Advancing Rhetoric, and three distinct lecture series on storytelling, essay writing, and food literature with The Great Courses and Audible. A college-level English teacher for twenty-five years, Cognard-Black is also the author or editor of six books, numerous short stories, scholarly articles, and public intellectual essays, and she has served as both a Table Leader and a Question Leader for Advanced Placement essay scoring. In 2020, Cognard-Black won the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, considered the "American version of the Nobel prize" for teaching. Learn more about her at: www.jennifercognard-black.com
“Carrie’s insight and direction as I constructed my portfolio made me feel reassured in my vision, confident in my process, and relieved in my results. I felt like I had not only a friend to encourage me and back me up, but a mentor to build on my experience and improve my work. With Carrie’s guidance, I learned different techniques to build a portfolio with a professional presentation, and felt proud and deserving of getting into my dream school.”
Imagine that you have the answer when your teen asks, “What colleges should I consider?”
Imagine feeling relief and calm knowing you have a creative mentor to guide your teen through the college application process. You understand the landscape of creative degrees to support your student as they choose the best program for their interests and specific individual talents.
Imagine your teen has the necessary knowledge to create an outstanding application that rises above the others, giving them opportunities to combine their interest in art with other academic disciplines at the best intellectual communities in America.
Imagine your teen has a concrete plan in place to produce high quality supplemental material that they need for a college art application. Imagine your teen has identified a short list of colleges and potential programs of interest.
Imagine your teen has a beautifully and professionally photographed body of work ready to submit to SlideRoom for each school on the list. Imagine their portfolio contains work that highlights their professional skills in a variety of media, shows their ability to express thoughts in visual form, and shows their unique observations of the world.
Imagine that your student is in dialogue with a creative mentor as they navigate their way through the specific assignments that some art schools require.
Most importantly, imagine the excitement you will feel for your teen as they meet all the deadlines, and embark on their unique, creative, intellectual goals.
Right now, you may not have the necessary information to make this a reality. You may feel overwhelmed or even scared about the viability of your teen’s future.
I can help.
My name is Carrie Patterson and I am an artist and Professor of Art with over twenty-five years of experience working with students in art and higher education.
My expertise guides creative teens into college art programs, paving the way towards a happy, fulfilled, and fiscally sound creative professional.
Building on my 25 years of art and education experience, I help families navigate through college art programs and the application process. They walk away feeling empowered and confident because they are ready to pursue a personal path for art education. Each teen creates a customized plan for a successful transition from high school to college.
Picture your student in college, making art and pursuing their dreams.
You and your teen have invested so much time and money in their academic career. And now they have dedicated themselves to working on their creative practice, highlighting how they are different than the competition. They are working hard to identify their artistic strengths and show their power to an admissions team of experts. Their confidence and excitement are bound to increase and as they walk the creative line towards college. And soon they will be enjoying the benefits of all the hard work.