supaslim

In theory, yes. But it takes a lot of money, as well as real estate and some custom wiring/ventilation, and once you're settled in you pretty much can't ever leave. I would also have to move closer to Chicago since I'm currently living with the parents on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and that alone is unfortunately well out of my budget. If I'm very, very lucky I'll find work assisting some production potter in Minnesota or Wisconsin or the Carolinas and will have the chance to produce more work, but if not, I'm genuinely worried I'll never get my hands dirty again. It's a cruel medium to love. Thanks

Got my final rejection today, from the one school I thought I had a shot at... The stinger is I can't really reapply next year because I don't have money, and my portfolio will be exactly the same (so if I didn't get in this year, I wouldn't next year either). So I'm probably never going to be able to do ceramics again unless I luck out and find a well paying job in the city. Which probably also isn't ever going to happen, because McDonalds won't even hire me because there are so few jobs. It's been a rough day to say the least.

Checking in to vent my nerves- I'm going to NCECA in Milwaukee next week (ceramics conference) and every school I ever applied to is going to be there. I'm going to have to talk to the dozens of people who personally rejected me over the past two years and act like I'm thrilled to disclose and discuss my continual failure with them. It would never be enough to stop me from going, but it does add a thick dose of anxiety to the whole thing. :/ I know being rejected from grad school isn't personal... but it's still not easy to know you're going to have to talk to the people who decided five days into the selection process that your work is unacceptable.

Got my second rejection today, from UNL. And here I had dared to hope. Now I kind of just want to cry. Their rejection letter was like a slap in the face. Basically insinuated I was too young, fresh, and artistically immature/boring for their program, and they bundled in a pamphlet for their non-degree, out of pocket "special" ceramics program as if I'm going to jump at the opportunity to relocate to Nebraska to go into debt for the grad school equivalent of Weenie Hut Jr. A huge part of the reason I want to go to grad school is to give me an opportunity to simultaneously improve my skill and situate myself so I can continue making ceramics post-grad. Without grad school, I can't do ceramics at all for the indefinite future. I don't have the resources or location for it. They're saying please continue to develop your work and maybe apply again in a couple years, but I can't develop my work any more. I'm stuck until somebody accepts me or until I win the lottery and can afford my own studio, and it's a ridiculously depressing thought. I don't know. I don't mean to harp, I'm just. Kind of crushed, even though I tried really hard not to invest myself. But with their response, I just can't tell anymore if I'm even cut out for an MFA program, or if I'm blind to how completely mediocre and hopeless I am as an artist. Maybe they're right. I don't know. I mostly just feel like a talentless hack right now, though. And now I'm crying. Oh god.

I'm right there with you. I played my way through the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy over the past two days just trying to distract myself. Except every time I hit a loading screen, I would go check my email in hopes that something came! And my contributions to dinner conversation are all along the lines of "so I haven't heard back from my grad schools yet..." They must be getting so sick of it!

Not gonna lie, all of you having interviews makes me a bit nervous since I've had nothing but silence from my three remaining schools... maybe it's different with ceramics than other mediums because there's only ever one opening, maybe two, so I don't know...

Sorry to hear about Alfred! I didn't even try, I really couldn't see myself getting in. Good luck on the remaining four!

I'm really inspired by the work of: Stephanie Young Carol Long Lynn August Peter Voulkos And Jim Schietinger, who taught me everything I know and whose work and perspective really rubbed off on me. All potters, some much more well known than others.

You obviously don't understand the blog. I'm not stigmatizing any personality types, or glorifying them, and that's the point. If you had actually read anything, you would see that. However, I think you'd rather leap to conclusions. A little closed-minded, there?

It's more of a system of categorization than a personality test of the sort that tells you your spirit animal or hogwarts house or whatever. It's just a tool. It is often misused and misunderstood; it is supposed to outline how you think based on you, not tell you how you ought to think. Similar to how we examine species physically and genetically to place them on a phylogenetic tree; we don't say that echidnas and hedgehogs are clearly closely related because they look alike. Instead we examine each separately and come to independent conclusions about where they belong in the tree. In the same way, MBTI examines each person individually and classifies them under a type. Each type only broadly outlines how that person's thought processes may work; it doesn't dictate how each person has to think based on outside impressions. And all the stereotypes that come along with it- INTJs as evil geniuses, ENFPs as bubbly airheads, what have you- are just stereotypes and should not be given much attention. It's not something I live my life by. Everyone is an individual, and there are more than 16 kinds of people in the world. Still, I don't think it's entirely unfounded when you strip away the layers of bs that people have flippantly piled onto it, and it definitely helps me communicate with people who are very different from me. If nothing else, it's a good window for introspection.

http://intj-explained.tumblr.com/

I'm an INTJ.... I actually run an INTJ blog that offers advice and tries to dispel stereotypes in my free time. Heh. Sometimes my hobby is more stressful than my profession. Anyway, yeah. There are no good or bad types, no type is better than another type, and your type only classifies how you think and process information, not what you think and believe or what you like, what your interests are, etc. MBTI is great.

My work is technically functional? I make a lot of jars and carve celtic knots and welsh folk stories into them. The aesthetic is most important, and the whole concept of the vessel, but they could technically be used. I do make some that can't be considered functional though, like giant pots (~4 feet tall) and jars with the lids tied to the jar with fancy knots. http://www.smartinart.tumblr.com/tagged/ceramics My deadlines were pretty late compared to most schools, it seems. Edinboro was Jan 15, Nebraska Feb 1, Montana Feb 12, and Florida's is tomorrow, Feb 21! So even though I'm getting antsy, it's a little silly, because two of my schools have barely had time to look at applications, or haven't even started yet. I should be hearing from UNL in the next couple days though... Really nervous about that. I'd love to go there. I'd love to see everybody's work, by the way! Portfolio links?

Another MFA Ceramics applicant here. Schools in signature. Where did you apply, PPP?

Seems like a silly question... but are you sure those universities' app deadlines have passed for this year, and it's not last year you're seeing? I mean, one of the schools I applied to has their deadline in two days. It's unusual, but maybe they're still accepting applications this late. Also, have you checked your spam folder in your emails? I've only heard back from 1 of the 4 schools I applied to, and that one was like a kneejerk rejection just a couple days after deadline, so you're not alone.