Woodland Hills Alum Heads to Prestigious Arts School

Tim McCool is ready to further his education after being one of 30 people chosen to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this fall.

After being selected out of more than 1,200 applicants, McCool said the interview process felt more natural than pressure-filled, as he simply discussed what he loves – art.

“It was nerve-wracking when I was at home but when I got up there it felt natural to be in a conversation about art,” McCool said. “A faculty member and two graduate students were in the interview so once I was there, it was just four people talking about art.”

A 2006 Woodland Hills High School graduate, McCool, 23, of Forest Hills attended Boston College where he received undergraduate degrees in art history and studio art.

SMFA is one of only three schools in the country associated with the Museum of Fine Arts. McCool leaves in September to join the two-year program.

“I had a ton of cartoon books when I was little so I was always drawing, but never took art until I got to high school,” he said. “I got into the school’s art department and it was really good – there are a lot of great teachers there.”

By the time senior year came at the high school, he had a first period art class. He discovered then that art was something he wanted to pursue in his life.

“It was interesting to get in that creative mindset with a bunch of people who were thinking the same way,” McCool said. “It was a great way to start the morning.”

McCool said he creates collages from magazines, animations based on collage and more recently, has started drawing and painting.

“It depends on what I have going through my head at the time,” he said. “I do a lot of stuff based on current things that are happening, whatever I am thinking about at the moment. It all depends on what I am exposing myself to.”

In one collage piece, which he used in his graduate presentation, McCool explored the issue of masculinity and male identity in society today.

“I sort of went off of what I felt is going on in the media, commercials and ideals of masculinity based on that kind of stuff,” McCool said.

While he is currently collaborating with other artists in the Pittsburgh region in an effort to create a gallery show this summer, McCool said he is looking forward to immersing himself in the art world at SMFA this fall.

“I’m looking forward to the different conversations that will happen from just being in the academic environment again,” he said. “That kind of generates ideas for everybody and that’s always exciting.”

Maria McCool, director of communications for the , also Tim's mother, said she is excited for her son's future in art.

"I am continually amazed by Tim's capacity for hard work, his fierce concentration and focus and his endless creativity," she said. "His art is always evolving and changing and always challenges me. His work reflects so many of his best traits. It's intellectual, conceptual, witty, funny, interesting and I love living with it."

While his own artwork has become more focused in its ideas over the last few years, McCool said he always makes an effort to provoke a thought in a viewer’s mind, rather than dictating the message.

“It’s more effective to show them because if you tell people a message they see it, hear it and agree or disagree -- that’s the end of the discussion,” McCool said. “If you show them, they can see what the message might be and have something to think about. They can form their ideas and opinions about it.”