brianmc

That's a nice a video! What a service to humanity it would be if every MFA program had the common decency to produce such a video so potential applicants didn't have to quit their jobs in order to have time to research potential programs. If anyone else knows of any such videos, whether it's a program you are interested in or not, it might help others. Throw up a link. That would be very cool!!! P.S. Congrats to everyone getting acceptances and making decisions. I hope you have a prosperous grad experience.

Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of these programs...attended or at least visited, or have a friend that has? Just trying to find out more about schools within my radius. Thanks.

Does anyone know of any? It's sometimes easy to learn from other's questions. For the most part I just want to tour facilities, see studios with student work and get a general sense of the energy in a program. I don't really need to schedule an individual visit, but this scenario seems to only exist for undergrads. I know VCU does group tours on certain days, but does anyone else?

I'd love to get some feedback on the work I'm doing from people who don't know me and have no reason to be nice. My current work is a narrative series filled with a sort of broad symbolism called "The Triumph of the Big Machine." It was born out of an early interest in Futurism, but not necessarily an embrace of those ideals. I'd like to study printmaking and eventually see this work maybe becoming three dimensional in some form of toys that could be organized into images or maybe something 3D and computer based as well as some 2D vector graphics. Right now I'm sort of just developing my vocabulary through painting. I see this series going for a long time across a broad spectrum of media and eventually being organized into a more sequential epic, that could be a ballet or film, although it isn't really being created in order as of right now. Anyway, I'd love some thoughts on the work, whether technical, or conceptual...and I'd love to know whether or not anyone thinks I have any business applying to grad school. www.flickr.com/brianmcart

Hey everyone, Everyone hear knows how exhausting it is to research schools and try to find somewhere that you might fit in and even thrive. I thought maybe we could share information to help one another possibly find the programs where we should apply, where there are faculty that might think and/or work like us. I'll start. I'm an image maker. I work from my imagination, not life. I am interested in formal concerns as well as narrative and social commentary. I am interested in studying printmaking in grad school, but I am also a painter. The medium isn't as important to me as the images I am making. I could work by drawing with a stick in the dirt if I had to. My biggest influences/favorite work are the late figurative work of Philip Guston, later figurative work of Carrol Dunham (I know he teaches at Yale or somewhere I can't afford to go), Max Beckman's triptychs. I also enjoy Lari Pittman's work more for the narrative than the way of working (love it, but I'm a little more loosie goosie), I like Goya's social commentative works, and things like Daumier's Third Class Carriage are always creeping out of my sub-conscious. From all of the digging I've done I've found a guy named Michael Miller at SAIC whose work I like and feel I would like to study with, but I'm sort of on a state school budget. I'll apply there just incase, but does anyone have any ideas? Have you come across anyone in your travels, visits, research, or know of any schools where my work might fit. Thanks in advance. Oh yeah. My work looks like this... http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianmcart/ Brian Mc

Could I bother you again for the University of Delaware?

What are the facilities like? Do you have 24 hour access to the printshop and studios? Do grad printmakers get a small private studio where they can keep all of their stuff? What would you say the average age of the grad students is? I'll be turning 36 if I get into a program for fall 2012, will I feel really old there? Even though every school says they encourage a diversity of styles and approaches, many (not all) are lying, do you have any thoughts on this as far as UT Knoxville goes? How do you pronounce Beauvais?

UT Knoxville has some great video and photos on the web if you dig around a little. Looks like there is a lot of camaraderie among students and faculty there and they really seem to get involved in the greater printmaking community as a whole. They have done some collaborations with other University printmaking departments and they have a printmaking club that raises money for students to attend the annual Southern Graphics Council meetings. Looks like a really awesome place to spend a few years. UW Madison looks like it would be pretty awesome too. Especially if given the opportunity to work with their Tandem Press. I think those are my two front-runners right now. I'm also sort of interested in Indiana, Iowa, Georgia, USF, Tyler, Rutgers, maybe a few others. I'd really like an opportunity to study abroad for at least one semester or maybe a couple of summers. I wish I had the time and money to visit every program before spending the money to apply, but I'll probably just have to wait and try to visit the ones I am lucky enough to get accepted to...if any. I'm close enough to visit Tyler and Rutgers, but the rest are pretty far away.

I'm just gathering information. I'm not applying until next year. Have you visited any of the schools? Are they listed in your order of preference? I wish some of these schools would shoot some short documentaries with student and faculty interviews and walkthroughs of the facilities and throw them up on youtube. It would be a good way for people to start to get an idea of what they are all about and what spending a couple of years there making art might be like.

Does anyone have any new printmaking news? Is anyone applying for printmaking?

Where did your friend go on Fulbright?

If you can make it work...do it. I'm 34 and I'm planning on enrolling in a three-year MFA for printmaking (BFA in painting) if I can get accepted somewhere. I'm not applying until next year to begin in the Fall of 2012. I'll turn 36 a few weeks into the first semester. I'm applying to state schools only. I don't think expensive private schools are worth the debt if I have to return to my career as a bartender. I don't think you are ever to old to return. You have to do it to get the teaching credential, and it is very hard to get any constructive criticism unless you live in a strong artistic community.

A majority of schools don't separate anymore. I'd really like to attend a program with a group of printmakers, so I can have some technical assistance. My undergrad work was in painting, but I'd like to teach printmaking, so I really want to be able to learn the processes and become familiar enough with all of the materials involved that I would be able to order things that were needed and oversee a printshop someday. I've never done litho, so I would need to take an elective in that at the very least, and my memory of intaglio is slipping because it was so long ago, although now I think something called "solar plate" that doesn't use acid is taking over, so I'd like to be somewhere that I can learn that too.

Delaware has made a lot of moves to revamp their program in the last 5 or 6 years and I've heard they offer funding to about 70% of their students in the MFA program, if that helps you decide. I think at worst, if you get in, they knock the out-of-state tuition off of the bill.

Thank you very much. It's good to see so many public Universities on this list.