mlk

Loric: being a internet troll is not the same as being a maverick - especially when you have the veil of anonymity if you think that there is any real ideological power to this forum you are totally delusional if you think that smugly interjecting yourself in the middle of conversations is the same as shocking people out of complacency you are nothing more than a provocateur and an egomaniac if you think that deflecting every critique of your character with rhetoric or argumentation will help you grow as an artist or as a person you are hard-headed and have no place in graduate school apologies to all for distracting from the real discussion at hand... I will not post any more about this... just had to say something

Loric: Why are you being such a troll and contrarian? Your snarkiness is of no help to anyone here. Why don't you show us some of your work if you're so much better than everyone else?

Yes, I did in fact see that. But I thought it would be nice if we could discuss things in a bit more detail and not amidst the results of other disciplines.

I thought, with the notices of of acceptances and rejections beginning to trickle in, that I would start a topic where we could post the date we received said notice and how (website, e-mail, phone call).... So other people can know if they haven't gotten an interview, etc (seeing as admissions committees are always SO timely in notifying those they have rejected).

Loric: where did you apply and for what

loric - I'm not sure why you're so aghast at the implications of my statement, which is, in my opinion, a relatively easy pill to swallow if you think about academic painting in the 19th century, painters like Bouguereau, in comparison to painters like Manet - the former having perfect academic technique and the latter revolutionizing painting in subject matter... that's what I mean. I don't care to say the latter is better than the former but in terms of pushing art forward Manet had a far greater influence. also, don't be smug about vermeer - using whatever kind of optical reference he used in a time pre photography is not the same as taking a photograph with a digital camera and copying it. that is the same argument as "my kid could do that" when you see jackson pollock. you are ignoring art historical (as well as in the case of vermeer, technological) context, art history and totally missing the point. being one of the first (if not the first, I don't know) artists to use optical tools to create space in a painting (as opposed to type of synthetic perspectival space in Renaissance painting), that is revolutionary. marilyn minter taking picture of some woman wearing a lot of lipstick biting a pearl and then wasting 40 hours copying it on a painting is not the same thing. plus the source photographs, which Minter and Cotton (for example) regularly exhibit alongside their paintings are just as stupid. and yes, if you conflate "technique" and the total act of conceptualizing and then making a piece of art then excellent technique will yield excellent art. but as bowtiesarecool helpfully implies in his/her agreement with you, that definition of technique belongs to aristotelian poetics, not the 21st century. and for bowtiesarecool, who is talking about aristotle, perhaps you should follow the philosophical trajectory of poetics if you are going to use that as way to think about art. samuel johnson and pope critique aristotle and introduce the concept of genius as an aspect of poetics exterior to technique. not to mention the entire discussion of the sublime which exists outside of the realm of technique i'm not saying that if you know this and that fact your opinions are more substantial (i.e. better) but both of your viewpoints can be easily undermined by basic art historical/rhetorical references...

that is what I am saying. if you look at the rutgers visual arts application page, for example, they ask high school applicants not to submit drawings taken from photographs. if they expect that from 18 year olds then it goes without saying that it is unacceptable in an MFA application portfolio. people are rightfully very suspicious of work that looks like it was copied from a photograph. there are artists who work from photographs, like Damien Loeb, Marilyn Minter, Will Cotton, Jeff Koons, (all of whom are not generally regarded as very good artists) and some drawers - Banks Violette, DL Alvarez - but all of these artists have perfect technique.

to the original poster: you are not ready for an MFA program. you may not even be ready for a post-bac program. the fact that there are still pencil drawings copied from photographs will get you rejected at any school worth going to. any school that will accept you, at this point, just wants your money and is not worth your time. this may sound harsh and cruel but it is the truth. Frankly, it is to early to tell what your art will even be like. Draw and paint for at least two more years. take some more art classes. you do not need to take figure drawing classes. just take regular painting classes and keep on making work and keep on trying to make your work better. decide if you want to be a painter or an illustrator, as the fantasy sci fi stuff has the potential to be interesting but will not be received well by any fine arts MFA program. You need to look at more good drawing and painting. You do not need to copy it but you need take in as much as you can as you only minored in art and probably have been exposed to an inadequate amount of art history. go look at the students' work at the schools you are interested in and see what it looks like. you do not need to copy that of course but you will see that you lack the level of finish and cohesiveness that admissions committees want. Everyone else here is being too nice to you and ultimately deluding you more than helping you. Save the money you will lose applying to grad programs this year and put it towards art materials and a fee for art classes. if you work hard and remain self-critical you will achieve your goals. your work has a seed of something interesting - sci fi combined with african american images - but right now you are not ready for an MFA. note - this does not make you any less of an artist. it is just about timing. best of luck