By Jake SpringThe Daily Northwestern

Standing motionless, Curt Bozif is creating art.

“I stand on the carpet for 24 hours, and it creates this impression,” Bozif said, showing off a rug marked with two light gray shoe prints. “I’ll stand on it an hour one day, then do an hour the next day.”

The first-year master’s in fine arts graduate student in art theory and practice spends an extraordinary chunk of time on projects like “Someday” but produces work infrequently. There aren’t many pressures, such as a gallery showing or a sale, to make him work faster.

“Sometimes the most productive year for an art student is when they make nothing, but they learn new ways of thinking,” Bozif said.

Chicago might be the perfect setting to do just that. In today’s art world, young artists are picked straight out of New York master’s programs to receive gallery shows and huge paychecks.

The Northwestern graduate program and Chicago art scene offer an alternative experience to the extreme commercialism of the New York scene, said Jeanne Dunning, associate professor and department chair of the art theory and practice department.

“The art scene in Chicago has most of (New York’s) elements … but it’s nowhere near as big,” she said. “It’s a lot less fraught. You’re a lot less likely to become a phenom in grad school.”

The program has only nine students and is small compared to many other art schools, Dunning said. The art scene is also significantly smaller because Chicago is only the third-largest art market in the nation; Los Angeles is a distant second to New York City.

NU’s program is not focused on commercial success, Dunning said. But she said she is not discouraged about NU and Chicago’s lack of young art stars, because premature success can come with pitfalls.

“If your success and how well-known you are happens gradually … it’s easier to deal with,” Dunning said.

Though NU’s program lacks an elite reputation among art schools, the department attracts about 90 applicants a year, she said.

In his search for a Midwestern art school, Bozif said he felt like NU was “underground” because it did not appear on any top-50 art school list. He heard about NU’s program as an undergraduate at the Kansas City Art Institute through an alumnus who graduated from the program.

Northwestern’s facilities left something to be desired, Bozif said. Apart from the studios shared with the undergraduate program in Kresge Centennial Hall, there is a graduate studio at 629 Colfax St.

The old Tudor house that serves as the studio in some way evokes a squatter’s house. An old bed sheet covers the front window, and the interior has stark white walls and gray wooden floors. Art supplies are haphazardly strewn about the ground floor.

But the school’s close proximity to Chicago and comparatively low tuition gave him enough of a reason to enroll.

“When coming out of a BFA program with student loans up to $100,000, it’s always a bonus to get your MFA for free,” Bozif said.

Julie Rudder, a second-year student in the program, only discovered how well-suited Chicago would be to her work after she arrived.

“I wanted to be near a major city,” Rudder said. “I don’t think the type of work I do lends itself well to the market. I think it lends itself towards alternative space.”

She soon discovered that Chicago has “a big alternative space scene” for a wide range of art not necessarily designed to be bought, she said.

Both Rudder and Bozif knew about the New York art scene, but neither felt pressured to go to school there. They also said supporting themselves through their art probably was not a realistic short-term possibility.

“It’s almost for sure (that) none of us are going to be represented by a gallery,” Bozif said.

Bozif said he hopes to teach in the future or possibly intern in a gallery or museum.

Rudder said she will pursue grants to support her work.

“Commercial success isn’t the most important measure of whether someone is doing important work and having an impact in their field,” Dunning said. “If you start thinking about that, you lose sight about why you became an artist to begin with.”

Reach Jake Spring at [email protected].