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Any VCU news yet?

Artists, I'm visiting the VCU campus this Saturday for the first time. I'm nervous, I don't know what to ask, how forward to act, etc etc ad nauseam. What pointers can you veterans share to ensure this process goes swimmingly? i.e. I want my first impression to be positive. Thanks folks.

Sounds like you're being treated with a great degree of professional courtesy. loljk Are all hyped schools so clinically dismissive?

The SOP is the single greatest generator of self-doubt I've encountered. I'd rather be told my work is garbage than have to dig into myself and translate the findings into words. The process of writing about art makes me miss actual art making. ;_; My portfolio will be added to/edited up until I click submit. The work I'm making at this time feels more genuine than many of the images currently in my portfolio. Also, I'll be visiting VCU this Saturday. Nerves.

All this time I assumed Indiana University was in: where else? Indiana.

Not if you're using acrylic and painting 10"x10"

What's the consensus on dropping faculty names? e.g. "I was first drawn to your program for the chance to work with So-and-So. Their work has been a huge influence, yadda yadda etc."

I'm interested in learning more about the application waiver, broke as I am. I've convinced myself these are like unicorns.

Thanks for the feedback (and the lulz). I've decided that my earlier draft was much too personal, biographical, and didn't leave enough room to expand on what I'm doing/where things are heading. I think selective honesty might be the key, and finding a way to hook the reader in the opening. What does your hook sound like?

Should the SOP be an opportunity to spill my guts and soul to the grad committee? I'm worried about revealing my true self to these people. I've been told that my way with words can be a little scary, and as much as I don't want to be off-putting, I feel like this is the best way to engage whomever ends up reading this. Reading a few hundred essays has got to become droll quickly for those people. Do we have a responsibility to keep our cards close to the chest? I mean, this isn't a therapy session after all. ...or is it? Fuck.

Painter here, time for MFA round 2. VCU is top priority, applying there for my second time with much stronger work. Fingers crossed.

i will say this with total objectivity: i would probably do terrible things for a fully funded year at VCU. :V

necessity is the mother of invention. have you considered grants to fund your materials? what are these new materials? this is the land of plenty; you'd be surprised what can be had for free. for instance, recycling centers often have free paint. i don't know about stipends, but combing a department to find materials/funds seems pretty ordinary. if you want to go to this school you should probably just shoulder some of the cost. you'll always find a way to track down what you need.

Can we see your site? I know a current UNC MFA candidate and I'm curious to see how your work relates to that department. The faculty are pretty awesome there.

I've got a question for you application grinders. When writing to faculty at prospective schools, is it best to cut right to the point with questions? Or is it wiser to butter up first? Say I'm looking for clarification with the portfolio review panel. Would faculty (who I assume to be busy) rather answer a bulleted list of questions, or do they want a well-written paragraph with a personable tone? I know you only get to make a first impression once, so I don't really want to shoot myself in the foot by appearing excessively frank or demanding. Also, how faux pas is it to send a site link to faculty? "Hey i dig your school, do you feel like looking at my work in your down time? Maybe throwing some knowledge gems my way?"

mlk, I posted earlier wanting to see your work but it is probably now lost in the maelstrom of stress-chat. Do you have a site?

mlk, I would really like to see your work. I intend to apply to Yale next season and I'm curious to see what their prospective painters are making.

Have any of you been presented with financial aid packages just yet? I'm really curious to hear about the more generous schools. Also, reading this thread makes me want to throw up. I'm not applying until next year but I feel for you guys, everything is a cliffhanger that just happens to determine the rest of your life (or at least what you're going to do for the next year if you aren't accepted). Good luck and remember that everything is subjective. If they don't like you, fuck 'em.

Can anyone in this forum speak about Yale painting? I remember seeing some articles about that program losing some of its prestige but it's been on my list for a long while (half because of the mythology, half because of the possibility of funding). I'm almost certain I would qualify for finaid as I've lived well below poverty for most of my days which, judging by their site, is the only factor in determining funding. Is the school still carrying the weight of yore? Who are some artists of note to have come from there in recent times?

Is there an updated version of this list floating around?

I'm quite impressed with your work, specifically Minor Devastation and Adit. These signify to me abstraction done correctly. I want to keep searching them for known objects but they are evasive, almost mirage-like. I am not an art historian but these paintings feel new to me, like something I can't recall from history. There's a disconnectedness or an implacable nature in them, like an unreliable memory obscured by time. You say you missed art school but I don't feel that way whatsoever. Also, the figure drawings are excellent but I'm not sure how relevant they are to the other work.

I don't disagree with you necessarily. I'm somewhat blown away by your assessment; it's like you have put my own obscure thoughts into words. I think you're absolutely spot-on, I am struggling most in my presentation. Whereas I know what my content is, I am still unsure of how to use it (or understand all of its many implications). The logic behind my acute imagery was something like "i'm disgusted, so you should be too!" It's an angsty, rather impatient way of composing an image and I thought it was a strength at the start of many of these paintings. Now I feel the opposite: it's weak, too narrow, too authoritarian. As much as I want to hold the world responsible for its atrocities, I don't think sabotaging my own art is the correct way to do it. Doing the viewer's job indeed! I laughed when you said you made me uncomfortable because I think there's truth to that. I think I've been bullshitting myself this whole time, trying to justify unfinishedness as a mode of chaotic emphasis. I still don't know how to make good art. The good-feel-painting you mentioned is probably accurate. I've also come to a realization that there isn't enough of me in my recent work. I've been focusing entirely on others, on bigger nastier ideas and almost completely removing myself while missing the point altogether. They do look like illustrations and that is not my goal. I hope you didn't read my reply as defensive because I'm thrilled to be having this conversation with you.

I agree with the comment on the venus. It is overtly blatant and leaves little room for interpretation, a revelation I was unable to see until after publicizing the painting and viewing it in a more subjective format. I continue to feel like my paintings are undergrad, as if I must see them in this format to realize my next move forward, or to see how juvenile and literal they really are. Because when it's just the painting and myself in a room together it feels brilliant! Then I see it on my website and think what the fuck am I doing? I disagree with your comment about painterly-ness though. Part of me wishes to disarm this clinical approach used in documentation, like this or that casualty is an accessory in the image, as if there wasn't a human being recently attached to that corpse. By showing the paint I'm attempting to connect myself empathically to the deceased, like saying it's OK to let my human hand be seen while trying to find a connection to a dead person. I now see that my attempt have been unsuccessful, something part of me knew at the time but required criticism to fully realize. This is why I continue to feel like an undergrad. But it's also why I know I need to keep working to see it through. I really appreciate your thoughts, they are instrumental in helping me push forward.

These are valid points which I've also been considering. The statement changes so frequently that I've sort of plugged that in as a very general summary, also as a means to remind myself where next to take it. I have probably written twenty statements over the past few years and none have fully encapsulated what I feel. Honestly it seems more difficult to create than the work itself. My art is drummed up from anxieties regarding militarism, dying, consumerism, isolation, oppression, and erratic violence. All of these things I feel and try to mediate through painting. How the f*** can I do it more effectively, and verbalize it? Truly a hair-pulling existence. The drawings are not very good and I've since removed them. Don't really want to add more because we both know they were weighing down the paintings. Thanks for the nudge I have also tried moving away from figures unless I find them necessary to the idea being represented. In retrospect, I was simply inputting figures because I enjoyed painting them, a reason that no longer flies with me. There is a desperate urge in me to take this to the next level, whatever that may be.

I (and I assume many other artists) am in need of a resource which will allow me to post my work and have awesome people like you share opinions and criticism. Does such a website exist already? Or shall we make one here?