Emoree

That sounds awesome, i'm going to have to read that. is today the day i'll finally hear from Herron???? I'm SO tired of waiting. i want to be able to plan what I'll be doing for the next few years (!).

it's a hamster, btw.

i'm telling you... this person has GOT to be doing some really idiotic ~performance art~ here... i can't believe this is for real. wow. Congratulations!! Yay for a fellow printmaker! Now, was that so hard????

that stinks ugh so sick of this waiting.

I heard back from IUB printmaking mid-Feb. You should try calling their grad. coordinator if you haven't already, she was very helpful when i called. she should be able to give you an idea of when decisions are going out or if you somehow missed yours.

I don't know if anyone else applied to Herron, but they said they'll be sending out letters most likely next week. Argh. I'm also waiting to hear back about a job, and waiting for our tax return so we can do some more work on our house--- tired of waiting!

yes, i've heard about that, and also neo-sentimentalism (seems mostly to apply to literature, though, at this point).

Good luck to you, too!! Since it's finally March 1st maybe we'll start hearing from these slower schools... So hard to wait!

wow that looks really awesome, thank you so much. it sounds like what i'm looking for! my local library is really bad, but maybe i can use the university library (assuming they're any better). yeah, steve baker discusses Baudrillard and Deleuze & Guattari in The Postmodern Animal. they sound like exactly what i don't want to read--- ie, they are mired in the same old prejudices and opinions that I want to get away from-- but thank you for mentioning them! Did you guys see Paola Antonelli (MoMA) on Colbert this week?? This is what she said of "what" we are right now: "We are post-post-postmodern, present, pre-future, but a little bit of future today, with the history that comes with us." Hah! And continued with: "Be yourself. Be in the moment. You're going to be modern." Hah again!

have you called IUB to see if they've made their decisions yet? i assume you applied to their painting program? their grad coordinator is very helpful and could give you an idea of when/if decisions have been made

totally agree. also, this is a nice interview with Tara Tucker. http://inthemake.com/tara-tucker/ she doesn't seem to be overly concerned with any over-arching theory but this is kind of nice: "First of all, I’m a strong believer in not having any rules in art. So, in my fantasy world where there aren’t any humans left on earth and animals have filled in that space, domestic animals have gained some new and fascinating symbiotic relationships with one another. I also love the subliminal idea of domestic animals meeting up with their much more wild and unpredictable buddies."

Thank you!! I *love* her sheep sculptures and her drawings are interesting. But guess what?? Her name is actually TARA Tucker (unless she recently changed it from Tamara). i was looking for her website and only could find the Okaygreat article on her which has her name as Tamara. but their link to her blog shows that her name is Tara. weird!

You've GOT to be kidding. either you are pretty funny at times, or are not very self-aware.

thanks for the suggestions and leads (and conversation!). can i venture one more question to narrow it down further for my own personal concerns... how about art/art historians that focus on the human/animal relationship--- in a way that doesn't hurt or exploit animals (ie, no fish in a blender crap, pickled sharks, genetically modified animals, etc.). the only book i've been able to find is The Post Modern Animal by Steve Baker from 2000. it was a decent survey, but seemed to only barely scratch the surface and didn't really offer a way forward from the cherished assumption in art that wild animals= "good" and domesticated animals= "bad" (among many other things). i also wanted to reply to this: i'm well aware of the conflict between what i believe and what is "generally" believed--- i have no illusions of universality in terms of everyone having to believe what i believe. for instance, every time there is a "discovery" that a particular animal (or insect, etc) has some remarkable feature (crows using tools for instance) my reaction is always "DUH, as if we have ANY clue of the reality and intricacies of nature, why are these findings always a surprise instead of a verification that we can't assume we know anything and we should act as such-- carefully, thoughtfully, respectfully and with restraint"--- while society in general is usually surprised/amazed and then immediately pigeon-holes the finding as something unique to that particular species and not to be thought about too much. OR, even worse, and which is generally the case, society tries to find a way to make that finding useful to humans at great detriment and enslavement (or extinction, etc) to the other! christ. well, i've probably said too much (and too vaguely) but if anyone has any suggestions on artists/theorists grappling with the human/non-human problem ie, what is our place in this void, let me know

Thanks so much woodworked and hwrios! yay i have some reading

yes! absolutely--- i am/have been extremely cynical, drowned myself in irony, etc. and still use that part of myself, i just want to learn what place sincerity (etc) has in contemporary art. i really don't care what the theory is called (hence the crazy title) i just don't want to read more about the same old outdated crap--- i want to read new things. basically, i should have just asked what contemporary art theorists people would recommend-- theorists who look mainly forward, while of course drawing on the past, but not being limited by it. thank you for your answers, btw.

yeah i figured that writing this post would bring some derision, but if there's anyone on here with any helpful info i figured it was worth it. obviously i don't know how to totally express what i'm looking for since i don't know whether/where it exists. and if i knew how to express what i was looking for i wouldn't be posting here (except maybe to say-- hey! i found it!). i'm a fan of derrick jensen's writing, if that helps, but he isn't concerned with art at all. i don't like ayn rand so that won't help either (she wrote art theory???? ugh). i don't care about reading about anti- post-modernism so forget donald judd. see, the fact that "sincerity, empathy, emotion, compassion, and honesty in art" is automatically equated by some people to Bob Ross and "warm and fuzzy" is problematic to me. if someone can read A Language Older Than Words (derrick jensen) without crying, precisely because of those "warm and fuzzy" things he indulges in like honesty and compassion (weaving in memories of being raped nightly by his father with the most amazing and perceptive insights into our culture), then that person is so immersed in cynical narcissism i don't know what would reach them and i don't care to find out.

does anyone have any suggestions for some books/articles/authors who write in a post-post-modernist vein? i'm interested in things like sincerity, empathy, emotion, compassion, and honesty in art--- no snark? No cynicism? I know, how unfashionable. Those things are fine for what they are, but they're not what I'm interested in at heart.

just in case anyone else applied to Herron (IUPUI) and is waiting to hear back, they told me that they send all letters out at the same time (no interviews, no staggering decisions like some other schools seem to do) and will send them early March. i hope it means really early march, because then it's just a week away!

I hear you. i was so relieved to not have been rejected from IUB but it's a weird feeling to be an alternate. I know it's all about fit with the particular other people who have applied, so I'm trying to leave it at that and not read into it obsessively. I haven't heard from the other school I applied to (Herron), they said they'll send out letters mid-March, which seems like an awfully long time unless they are "secretly" holding interviews or something in the meantime. I wish there was something more I could do to talk with the people making the decisions and show them why I would be a good fit. since i only applied to two schools (just like i did back in 2010!) i'm not holding out hope of getting into either for sheer statistical reasons. i figure if you don't apply to a bunch of different schools (at least 5, i'd say) you're taking a huge risk of not getting into a program. these were the only two schools around here i wanted to apply to, and we're not moving anytime soon, so i'm taking my chances and hoping someone accepted to IUB will decide they'd rather not live in the middle of nowhere (compared to the east coast or west coast) and will go elsewhere so I can have their spot!

Has anyone else applied to Herron (IUPUI)? They said they would be sending out letters in mid-March, but I don't know if that was just for people they weren't going to accept, or if that was for everyone.

i called bloomington re: my alternate status for printmaking. she said they don't over-admit students, so that's good, and that it's a short list of alternates (also good!). she also said no one has accepted yet, but that's not surprising since it's still early. it seems like many first years don't get funding (it's a three year program, and usually you get funding for the other two, or at least one). that doesn't bother me at all since i'm in-state and tuition is very reasonable, but i hope that turns off some of the people who were accepted!

yay! congrats on your acceptance! i hear ya about being nervous in interviews. it doesn't help when you really really really want something-- it's so much easier when you're being interviewed for something you don't really care about!

i'm sorry you've been getting some less than awesome news! you still have a bunch of schools left to hear from, though, i wouldn't give up yet! i wonder, too, about funding for waitlisted people. i would imagine that if someone gives up their spot then their funding would be distributed among the people who accept, but i really have no idea.

Thanks guys for the input on recommendations! I recently moved from the NE to the midwest, leaving my all-consuming full-time job so my husband could pursue a new job down here, and have been focused on making work (etc) and have not been getting out into the art community. If I don't get into either school I'm going to finally step out of the studio and try to get to know people down here! It's good to know that recommendations don't have to be from professors, that helps a lot.