About Me (Mitchell McCorkle)
My name is Mitchell McCorkle
I am a 22-year-old recent graduate from The Citadel Military College of South Carolina and a part time artist. I was born in a small town outside of Indianapolis IN then shortly after moved to Charleston SC. It was when I was young that I found my love for Art. I remember in elementary school always finding myself in the art section of the library with the books titled “learn to draw”. Instead of grabbing a book to enhance my reading aptitude I always came back to the classroom with a book on Art. My teachers were always frustrated with me, but I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. In middle school I applied to attend The School of the Arts better known as SOA where I started to build by portfolio. The application required that I have 3 main pieces: a self-portrait, a drawing of a shoe, and a painting. The best piece out of my portfolio was the painting but looking back on it now I see there was a lack of skill to my work. I did not get into SOA, but this did not deter me from continuing to create art, instead it motivated me to do better. I got into another art school for middle school which was not as premier league as SOA but was still an art school. I learned a lot about art and the different mediums and had an amazing art teacher.
Many of the pieces that I completed in middle school were lost, but that doesn’t bother me all too much. It wasn’t until I got to high school that I really felt that art was my true talent. All 4 years I selected Art class as my elective, I helped with making props and painting backdrops for the school plays, along with completing the assignments that my art teacher had given us for the course. After my freshman year my art teacher had taken a liking to me and focused on helping me hone in on my talents. During my sophomore year she helped my sell my first piece, it was a painting of a cherry pie, and I sold it for $50. I was very proud of this sell, but everyone told me that I sold it very cheap and basically gave it away because it was one of my best pieces at the time. This same piece that I sold also went to the Charleston Arts festival where it won 1st place in the contest for my age group. By the end of my junior year My Art teacher asked me if I wanted to take the AP Art course. I was questioning it for a while but eventually agreed, and I am very thankful that I did. It was during my senior year that I truly felt that I earned the title as a good artist. Still, I don’t feel that I am great, but I know that I am constantly improving. Over the course of my senior year, I built my portfolio creating pieces that focused on “human made mechanics in the world”. I chose this as my focus because of my love for old cars which roots from the time I spent with my father restoring a 1977 Ford Bronco. When my portfolio was complete it was time to send our works to the judges of the AP classes to get graded. I was stressing on what grade I would receive as I did not feel I had enough time to complete all of the projects I had worked on. Even to this day I still see errors in my work where I wish I had done better. To my surprise I received a grade of a 4 out of 5 on my portfolio which is equivalent to an A-, B+, or B. I was happy with that outcome, but I knew if I had more time to work on my art then I could have gotten a 5 out of 5. Since completing high school, I hadn’t focused on my art as I was more worried about my degree in college and trying to become an engineer/architect. Every now and then I come up with ideas for a piece and write it down, so that maybe someday I can make that piece come to life. It is my dream to share my art with the world, and it has been since I was a young boy. I believe that as a culture we have lost much of our creativity, and people are not dreaming as much as they used to. It is easy to get caught up in this life we live, but it is also important for us to listen to that inner child inside us all that is telling us to live. Continue to dream and believe your dreams to be true and they are set to be made true. I hope to see a world where I am surrounded by dreamers like me where we can build our paradise and be in peace knowing we have done the best that we can. Share your talents with the world, it would be wrong to keep them to yourself because this life was not meant to be shared alone.
Mitchell McCorkle’s Art 