DidacticPrinter

clock face

sour face

It's not over until it's over! If you haven't heard anything yet, don't give up hope until you've officially heard that you're not in. Maybe the interview requests come out in waves and they just haven't gotten to you yet. Can't know. Every school is different. (Realize I'm also partially saying this to myself, as I too am waiting for news from Hunter.) Plus realize that you're still waitlisted at Alfred, not rejected. There's still a chance that something might pull through for you there! You just have to wait to give other people the time to sort their own options out before you know more definitively one way or the other. My first time applying to grad schools four years ago I was applying with a different medium (ceramics) and only applied to three schools. I was straight up denied to all three and felt completely crushed. But in that time my work has completely developed and changed, my skills have improved, I've had one residency, and I've traveled all over the world and gotten some work experience. Time can be a seriously valuable thing. In a conversation with the director of the Visual and Critical Studies program at CCA that I had last night she told me, "Part of what we were so impressed with in your application was really your knowledge and ability to just get the hell out of Dodge." If you end up not getting into a program this year, travel the world, integrate what you see and experience into your art, and let yourself grow. Go to art shows in every variety of places that you possibly can and see how expression changes from place to place to place, and figure out how that fits into who you are, what you create, and who you want to be. Then again, maybe you won't need to. Because you've still got a chance.

Tebrikler, resim!

luxury tax

group therapy

divine intervention

Current distraction is grading TOK essays my students have turned in. Nothing makes you forget the pain of purgatory like the overwhelming desire to write heinous comments all over drivel turned in by high schoolers who want to sound "philosophical" but are fully aware that everything they're saying is complete BS. (They will freely admit it if you ask them. This isn't just me being mean. I mean, it's partly that, but mostly it really is fully realized BS.) And then I take a break from grading and remember that a year from now I won't have to grade high school papers! And then it gets me wondering, again, just where I WILL be in a year from now... Vicious cycles.

Second City

by line

cheer captain

nacho cheese

hard cheese

OK, so I was admitted to CCA's Visual and Critical Studies program 10 days ago. In the e-mail the department chair asked me to go visit campus and go to some of the forums and attend classes and things, but because I'm so far away (and a high school teacher prepping my students for exams) it's basically impossible for me to do so at this point in time, which I told her. So she requested to at the very least do a Skype chat, which I will have with her in two days. I have some questions for you all: 1) What's the main purpose of this chat? Is it to kind of woo me so that maybe I'll decide to go there? Or is it just for me to ask questions of her? Any ideas/experience with this? 2) Assuming that this conversation with her is largely so that I can ask questions, what questions should I really be asking? I've already been accepted, so it's not like I need to really work at impressing her, but I'd like to still feel prepared. The only major question I've got for her right now is about how likely it will be that I will have time to still pursue my own artwork. (I applied for their dual-degree program, but haven't heard back from the MFA side of things. Considering today is their last day of interviews and I have heard nothing from them I'm presuming it's a rejection.) What else could/should I be asking? I know this is about an MA, not an MFA, so technically it's not something for this page, but I figure y'all might still be helpful on this.

hard knock

April 15, not March, is the date most schools give to respond by. One of my schools told me in an e-mail in early January that final notifications will be mailed on April 1. Whether positive or negative, it's just going to leave me wondering if it's all a big April Fool's joke! So very cruel.

I wish I could tell you that I was! Going into this whole process CCA was my top choice school so that I could do their dual degree program, but I haven't heard anything at all from the MFA side of things. (Because I've heard nothing from them I'm assuming it's a no-go for me, but I guess you never know for sure until the final letters are sent out.) I hope you hear back something soon! It certainly looks bad on them to be this disorganized and not get back to you.

Woke up to an interview request for this coming week with Pratt for printmaking. No word from their art history department. It's frustrating that I applied to two dual-degree programs and have only heard back from one department of each one. It's like you've succeeded, but only half-way, so not really. In any case, yay! More interviews! This time applying to graduate school is going so much better! Granted the first time I applied I was straight out of undergrad at a no-name school and I only applied to three schools, and now four years later I have more life experience and some more classes under my belt, but it still feels much nicer to get at least interviews instead of flat-out rejections!

acute angles

vertical lines

smooth moves

shocking pink

ear candle

wax lips

buttered popcorn