tincanevening

It certainly has been quiet on here lately, but I assume everyone is working. I've been painting and writing a lot, though all of my other work is consuming much of my time. At least it's all art & design related and feeds my goals! December is going to be mad. I've narrowed my list of schools significantly, with only the dream schools remaining. I have residencies lined up for next summer and fall, so my thinking is that if I am not accepted, I will at least introduce myself now and show serious progression and intention with the second round, most likely with a broader selection of schools. I feel confident in my portfolio and potential, but there are so many talented people out there, and I don't want to rush this decision. This makes sense from my perspective and removes some of the pressure, though I am sure that will peak come February. Anyway, good luck to everyone else out there. It does help to know that there are a bunch of us going through all of this together!

This helps. Thank you!

Thanks Douchamp! You're right about the first sentence, and your edits are superb. I hope you don't mind if I adapt (or straight up steal) a lot of what you wrote! I still need to smooth out some awkward points, as there are a few, but it feels great to have something more concrete. It helps with my current projects, too! I think initially I was trying to cram everything into one short paragraph, which ended up making everything vague and meaningless. This conversation really helped me to focus, put together the pieces, and write more specifically about my relationship with my work. Seriously, I cannot thank you all enough!

Thanks kafralal! All of these ideas have been churning around for a while in notebooks and my brain, but your feedback (and kwonberry, agrobaby, wm000) really helped me pull it together. I'll keep digging into the second paragraph and my interactions with these emerged systems that make up my work. Is the statement of purpose more focused on why grad school, goals, etc? And why THIS grad school? I guess I thought we were supposed to mash the two into one paper, but it makes sense to separate them.

I don't want to hog this thread, but you guys have given me great feedback so far. I worked on my statement, and tried to address what was lacking. Please be brutally honest! I work from drawings of drawings of drawings that begin with an intense, unshakeable connection I feel in the physical world. As I continue with this process, my dreams and memories begin to alter one another, and each time I reach to retrieve them, they begin to collide and decay, eventually transforming into fantasy. This distance and distortion of my own history parallels my fascination with the power of the unseen, elusive, and archaic. I am completely obsessed with my own experience, which I compulsively record and review. My desire for secrecy and even alienation confronts my need for connection, and this is most easily resolved outside of human relationships, though these I cannot ignore. For me, everything is alive. My dreams and the situations I imagine feel more authentic than social interactions, so this is the world to which I aim to bring awareness. I believe Picasso when he said "Anything you can imagine is real." Emergence, the idea that complex systems arise from a multiplicity of interactions, is crucial to my work and the way that I view the world. Each piece represents both an environment and a being or beings colliding; each mark is a living component that must relate to the whole. These systems are at once aggressive, mysterious, and inviting, and I must defy my fear and hesitation to enter. My work is in dialogue with that of Elizabeth Neel, Christopher Wool, and Allison Shulnick. I connect with Elizabeth Neel's interest in the natural world and what lies behind it, and admire her violent handling of materials as they do more than simply represent form. The disruption, resistance, fractured meaning, and emotional force of Christopher Wool's work relates to mine, and I aim to exaggerate and strengthen this relationship. Allison Shulnick's imaginative works, though more figurative and stylistically dissimilar, share my sense of foreboding and unease to create comfort. Scale, materials, and how I paint are concrete elements I need to address. I want myself and the viewer to feel both gargantuan and minuscule, and my work needs to reflect this polarity. I feel less tied to materials than to these concepts, though I recognize and embrace the fact that they will evolve as well.

douchamp's observations make a lot of sense to me. I do want to have to do more work when I view yours! Check out Elizabeth Neel. Her work is abstract, and I definitely relate to it, but you might, too. There's a lot of violence to her work, but it's anything but literal. Indefinite Detention informs me with its title, but maintains a sense of mystery, which I value a lot. In Obstruction, I think a simplified green rectangle furiously, almost hastily painted would be a lot more powerful.

I took no offense, and it got my brain working. I'm with you, and found it very interesting to consider how much relevancy matters to me. And now I have this idea of obsession, which has always been there, to focus on. Thanks again!!

I jumped a little when I typed "completely obsessed", and found it quite interesting myself. You're both right about the vagueness of my statement so far. I just kind of tossed together a lot of words I like, but need to tie them closer to the work. I'll work on getting more specific and going into more depth! I have the titles, media all sorted out, though for some reason they don't always show up on my site. I'll add Rutgers, Cranbrook, SAIC, and Indiana. I know this is a really competitive list, but you might as well aim high, right? I love seclusion, but I think you're right about going to a school closer to a city.

I think this is an interesting and almost logical next step for your work to take! I'm excited to see what happens:)

I looked at your work before reading your statement, and it definitely resonates. The only thing that wasn't obvious to me about your work was the suggestion of the final metamorphosis as post-human. I'm into this idea too, but it's the only thing I wish I saw more of in the work. Everything else seems right on. I'm not saying to remove it from your statement, perhaps just wanting to see it exaggerated visually, as I find it interesting.

Thanks, kafralal! You're right, it doesn't sound to be relevant to anyone outside of myself. I'm still not sure that my work IS relevant to anyone else. I've been thinking about this a lot. I'm completely obsessed with my own experience, but truly value connection. I actively look at what's going on in contemporary painting, but haven't figured out exactly how I fit in, or how to phrase it if I do. I'll work on this!

You guys are all awesome. I feel isolated down here in Florida, and this conversation is helping so much! The figures are indeed just exercises, so I think you're right on about not including them with an application. Douchamp- they do feed into my other work, naturally! I am aware of it but it's not exactly intentional, if that makes sense. I just can't avoid the influence, and don't mind it either. And wow, I'm so glad the relationship to dreams and memory is apparent! That's a lot of what my work is about, and what inspired me as an artist in the first place. I actually just rewrote my statement last week. You're right agrobaby and kafralal, it absolutely helps! Here's what I have, and please oh please let me know if any lines ring true (or not), what it is lacking, etc. Confrontation, collision, and connection with the power of the unseen feeds me, presenting a path to accept and embrace the paradox that shapes experience. In my work, I find myself searching for clues of resurrection on the tense line between desperation and delight. I am interested emergence, alienation, and entanglement in the worlds within worlds that surround me. Pulling from observation, invention, dreams, and memory, I aim to create images that are generous but elusive. The mirage separating me from my environment is steadily dissolving, and this is the territory I explore. Thanks for the advice on PAFA and NYSS as well. I'm more interested in a school that is less technically focused. Although I know I could continue to work on drawing skills, I'm more interested in concepts and want to push myself in that direction. I don't want to change my work to fit a school's aesthetic perse, but I do want to be relevant and contemporary, or at least show that I am aware of what's going on. And become aware. I just got my subscription to New American Paintings (finally), and it's a valuable resource.

Thanks! Rejection is definitely part of the deal, but we all know it's worth it. Good call on drawing objects or spaces that tie into my interests, treating them in the same way. I've done the figures just to feed my other work and because I value drawing too, but I don't want to do figurative work. It's funny; I didn't think of myself as especially traditional, but that's why I'm on here, for feedback! I need to figure out if I should push that, do a 180, or both. Good luck!

Wow, thanks so much for the encouragement! That's definitely what I'm going for, and what I'm interested in. I'm working on my statement, and your words make me feel like I'm on the right track. This whole process is making me painfully insecure, and I've barely begun:) I draw from the figure every week for fun and exercise. Is it worth including one or two with an application, or is it totally taboo? Anyone?