kafralal

Your portfolio looks good. I particularly like your two most recent sculptures, and appreciate the middle detail of "Graft." Your statement is a little hard to follow. I'm not sure I could give a summary of what you are tryig to say. Some words stand out but not any specific ideas. I think you need to back up some of your claims. For instance: "This framework allows for problems of language, meaning and value to be confronted through the symbolic system within which they are embedded." How? Also, your idea of schematic drawings is different from mine—for me schematics are usually pretty general...so maybe you should make it clearer. " Like a schematic drawing which superimposes detailed description onto a general description of the whole, the vast and the mundane are compressed onto one plane" This is a little fuzzy. "The work is about its owm making" How? You can obviously write well, but I think you need to make all these potentially great ideas clearer. "My hope for the work is to create opportunities for the viewer to process information gathered elsewhere." I would question this. Is this really what you want to say because it sounds like you are saying that you want to illustrate other people's ideas. It might be better to finish with your own words, rather than a quote. Hope this helps.

I just want to clarify my comment above...it isn't really what I meant to say... Because your website is part of your project and it is all, or seems to be, one big artwork, it is difficult to tell from that one work what you are thinking about outside and beyond it, and where you might go from here. I have no idea whether presenting it "as Is" would be a problem or not, but my suggestion, to alleviate your concerns about being a "one trick pony," would be to contextualize it. I hope that makes sense.

I agree with bannedinbc. Digital media has an advantage over other media because the portfolios are viewed digitally. You would loose that advantage if you followed that person's advice.

Hi Jenesis, If you can find a way to contextualize your work beyond what we see and read on your site, and show how you plan to extend it, then it shouldn't be a problem. If this is all there is...it could work against you.

I don't know enough about painting programs to be much help in that regard, but I'm curious about what your statement is focussing on and where you are going with this work.

I think you can include it if: 1. it flows and overall your portfolio looks good. And 2. you talk about it in your statement and it makes everything more interesting.

Really? secrets I get private...but secrets?

Not sure if the typical applicant doesn't have an interview...I would have thought it was the other way around. I think Jenste has a point. There is the faculty factor—what they're interested in. It has a bit of the feel of 7up, 14up, 56up etc documentary series—an experient in the nature vs nuture class debate. It's hard on the paricipants and you have to wonder if it would have value beyond a general curiosity and the chance to gawk at others' lives that would make it a socially/ artistcally valuable experiment.

Interesting article on alternate art education in the UK—the comments are worth reading. www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/21/alternative-art-schools-threaten-universities

Columbia, Calarts and SAIC are not inexpensive!

That's great, congratulations! How many schools did you end up applying to in the US? I'm guessing from your post on the Jerry Saltz thread that your list got significantly shorter. Slade and RCA both sound great. Tough call. I guess when I was looking at them, RCA looked more interesting, but as I recall it is significantly more expensive.

How's everyone doing? SOPs and artist statements, even portfolios etc. it is as if we're supposed to somehow magically know how to do all this. It would be great if there was some real info out there. I'm doing fine, it is all coming together, but it is a huge amount of work, in no small part because of the time spent trying to figure out the fundamentals of this kind of writing. Every school wants something a little different and you have to figure each one out, each time. Examples of successful SOP's from artists, and artist statements with critical comments (particularly ones done for MFA and PHD applications—both long ones and short) would be the best, and might even the playing field—in a good way. It could be a form of discourse in and of itself. I know we all have our strategies and get through it in the end, and feel stronger for it etc., but the experience could be better—and we could learn as much if not more about our work in the process The enforced writing is good though, once the fog clears and something coherent emerges—I am learning a ton doing it all.

How about this? http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-doesnt-know-how-parents-ever-going-to-pay-off,34656/

I find it hard to make comments about your work because it lacks cohesion. A re-organization of the individual pieces may help, but it also may be that you need to work through your ideas more. The first two sentences of your statement are good, but you loose me when you start telling me what to think. I also don't think that in general your figures are particulary distorted, so that throws me off as well.

I think if there is a problem, it is often with the institution rather than the program itself. If your work is really good the program might fight for you if your gpa doesn't meet the minimum. Check with the indiv. schools.

For those interested in a program in Beautiful British Columbia! Brand new, beautiful studios with lots of light! http://www.artandeducation.net/announcement/university-of-british-columbia-ubc-seeks-applications-for-fall-2014-graduate-programs/

Say all the things about your work that are important to you and how you make your work, point to both general and specific concerns or interests and find insightful ways (words) to connect or contrast them. Show what you have learned and how: what challenged previous assumptions and what pointed you in new, unexpected directions. Some of that is in the paragraph you just wrote.

I think much depends upon what your portfolio says about your work and how it relates to contemporary concerns (art and otherwise), anatomy etc. meaning, how and what you are thinking in and through your work, and how you reflect on it in your statement. Style is not a particularly contemporary concern and art history is broad, so those statements aren't very helpful. The combination of being broke and needing to do low-res is a significant problem to overcome.

Great. Thanks for calling. Today's message on the portfolio page is definitely clearer about this than the original.

Hi thekylemeyer! Impressive photos! Gaining access seems to be one of your strengths (I'm not really a photo person, so please pardon my ignorance in advance). As you have probably already been told, I think you would make a great photojournalist (national geographic comes to mind), but the market is saturated, as you say...you're looking for other ways to use your images (I'm thinking/ writing here!)...stitching and weaving has 'entered the picture' (sorry!) in a pretty organic way...bleaching etc. Interesting....but maybe these techniques are all still a little too superficial as is, maybe they need to be pushed more? I'm wondering what you are thinking of in terms of photography, other than market saturation. The weaving, sitching is promising and potentially interesting, but we need more... It seems to me that photography, like other media, is pretty self-reflexive these days—photos and photography ask critcal questions of themselves, rather than just looking for, and stopping at, new techniques...maybe something to think about when writing your statement and thinking about the work you've done so far and where you are taking it...or maybe I'm not saying anything you haven't thought of already and/ or maybe you're headed in a totally different direction... A couple of details showing the stiching might be good. That makes me think about how documenting stiched, woven or otherwise physically manipulated photos is quite different from digital documentation (not sure if your original photos are digital or film)—they are objects that require external lighting....anyway... hope I've stumbled on something useful.

Ok, I haven't really looked into schools on the east coast (there are so many!), but I'm sure others have, and could make some suggestions.

Sculpture. You too? Dec 4 was the original due date, then it was pushed forward. Good chance everything is due on the 17th (and nothing on the 4th) but I'm going to check with the office, after the week-end, just to be sure.

There is a whole series of video lectures by Jan Verwoert under this same title that I highly recommend...and not just for painters. http://www.unitednationsplaza.org/event/10/

What are your thoughts about location?

Your work seems to be quite accomplished. I like your home page piece (white plaster? in wooden cage) and the iron and glass ones the best. One less angle shot and one detail shot of at least one piece in each series, would be nice. Not sure what your criteria are for the schools you have listed but, how about VCU?