Liana Jegers
Clay: We met, because we were both in the print department. We would see each other in the print shop all of the time. We both just spent a lot of our time in the print shop.
What was your experience like moving to Chicago to go to art school? How did you both decide to go to SAIC (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)?
Liana: I took a year off after high school because I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I didn’t want to waste my parents time or money being like, “Here’s where I’m going to go!” and then switch schools three times. So I took a year off and worked in a restaurant full time, which was super fun. I encourage every 19 year old to do that. My mom jokes that I chose SAIC because it didn’t have a sports team, which is like half true. I had seen all of my friends joining sororities and I was like, I don’t want to do that shit. That looks terrible. SAIC was sort of the first school that matched my criteria I guess. Clay: I also took a year off and didn’t really know what I wanted to do. My mom actually suggested going there because she had gone there in the ‘70s to study art therapy. I wasn’t really even totally sold on art school. At the time I was super into photography, and that’s kind of what I was looking into studying. That was actually what my portfolio was to get into school.
152 APRIL•INTIMACY
Liana: I totally had photographs in mine too, haha. I took them with that camera up there. That Minolta was my dad’s when he graduated from high school. Then he gave it to me my sophomore year. A lot of terrible pictures were taken on that. Clay: But yeah, my mom suggested it, so we went there and checked it out. I think I mostly just wanted to get out of town and go somewhere new and far away from home, and Chicago seemed cool. And it was… I really loved it. Liana: Yeah, me too. I feel like it’s closeness to my home was part of the reason why I went there too. It was like a 45 minute flight to Minneapolis, so it was pretty great to know that I could go there at any moment. But yeah, Chicago rules. How did the two of you meet in Chicago? Did you meet early on during school, or towards the end of your time at school? Clay: It was later. Liana: For me it was early, haha.
