Time off?

[Squirrel8296]

Hi all,

I just turned down the two programs I was accepted into because one wasn't a good fit and the other ended up being too expensive. Does anyone have advice on what I can do over the next few years to make my application more competitive for schools that are a better fit and have better funding. I'm considering both interdisciplinary studio MFA's and art history grad programs for my next time around.

[SpillToBuilt]

Don’t worry about grad school for now. Figure out how to make work without the structure of college. It will help your portfolio and chances for MFA acceptances. A lot of schools don’t want people right out of undergrad, ya know? Take the time off from school. Then later in the year decide if you are ready for grad school or not. And definitely trim that website down. Way too much going on. Only show your best, cohesive projects. This is probably going to be your most recent work, since you are still in undergrad. But get rid of anything that just feels like a miscellaneous collection of works in a certain medium or 101-type stuff (it looks like you even have high school work there?). Your CV looks good—keep building it up. But more importantly, keep making lots of work after undergrad. If funding is important, only apply to well-funded schools. Maybe do a few schools where funding is more competitive if you like the schools, but there are so many fully funded programs as-is.

If you want, link your three best projects from your website and corresponding statements if you have them. That would be a lot more helpful in regards to advising you. 

[Squirrel8296]

On 3/27/2020 at 11:16 PM, SpillToBuilt said:

Don’t worry about grad school for now. Figure out how to make work without the structure of college. It will help your portfolio and chances for MFA acceptances. A lot of schools don’t want people right out of undergrad, ya know? Take the time off from school. Then later in the year decide if you are ready for grad school or not. And definitely trim that website down. Way too much going on. Only show your best, cohesive projects. This is probably going to be your most recent work, since you are still in undergrad. But get rid of anything that just feels like a miscellaneous collection of works in a certain medium or 101-type stuff (it looks like you even have high school work there?). Your CV looks good—keep building it up. But more importantly, keep making lots of work after undergrad. If funding is important, only apply to well-funded schools. Maybe do a few schools where funding is more competitive if you like the schools, but there are so many fully funded programs as-is.

If you want, link your three best projects from your website and corresponding statements if you have them. That would be a lot more helpful in regards to advising you. 

Thanks @SpillToBuilt that's good advice, especially for the website. I have been planning on completely redoing it but I've been dreading that since I've had the website for over 5 years and I didn't want to do that much work. It sounds like it will be a lot less effort than I thought.

These are my 3 best projects:

1. The Mascjacket http://wizigns.com/index.php/portfolio/re-education/ (details are at http://wizigns.com/index.php/portfolio/the-mascjacket/ and http://wizigns.com/index.php/portfolio/the-mascjacket-photos/ )

2. Morning Woodcuts http://wizigns.com/index.php/morning-woodcuts/

3. Lightspeed

 

[SpillToBuilt]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you—things have been crazy.

I feel like this is all an excellent start. You definitely have the thought process down, just need to keep refining it and let the work grow. I think some time off of school will be great for your practice. Maybe consider writing about why you continually come back to masculinity as an issue for your work. I feel like your writing could be more personal and less generalized too. For example, you use yourself as the subject in some of these projects but you could use anyone, so why you? Also, I saw on the main thread that you were accepted to at least one MFA though? Any reason you didn’t go? Regardless, I would try to stay in touch with your art people—instructors, classmates, etc.—try to keep getting feedback on your work from time to time. Maybe a good idea to reach out to grads/faculty of interest at schools you want to go to. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by SpillToBuilt
Typo

[Squirrel8296]

On 4/14/2020 at 7:59 AM, SpillToBuilt said:

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you—things have been crazy.

I feel like this is all an excellent start. You definitely have the thought process down, just need to keep refining it and let the work grow. I think some time off of school will be great for your practice. Maybe consider writing about why you continually come back to masculinity as an issue for your work. I feel like your writing could be more personal and less generalized too. For example, you use yourself as the subject in some of these projects but you could use anyone, so why you? Also, I saw on the main thread that you were accepted to at least one MFA though? Any reason you didn’t go? Regardless, I would try to stay in touch with your art people—instructors, classmates, etc.—try to keep getting feedback on your work from time to time. Maybe a good idea to reach out to grads/faculty of interest at schools you want to go to. 

Hey no worries, everything has gone super crazy!

I've gotten tired of masculinity as a topic for my art... I kind of explored it in my first upper level class and then ended up in a shotgun marriage to it for my final 2 years of undergrad. Out of the three above, Lightspeed is the oldest piece but shows more of the conceptual direction I want to head with my art going forward, if that makes sense.

So I ended up turning down that one program mainly because the program wasn't a good fit. I only applied because it was advertised as being fully funded and because my undergraduate mentor encouraged me to apply. It was a "fully funded" program that really wasn't fully funded. These were a ton of extra gotcha expenses along with being provided no materials and no workspace so I would have taken out tens of thousands of dollars in loans for a program in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest in a medium that I wasn't passionate about. I honestly wanted a more interdisciplinary experience that they couldn't provide. That program didn't check off most of the boxes of what I wanted out of a program (like studio space, networking opportunities, visiting artists, courses with other MFA students, etc). I could tell it would have ended very badly from my end.

Hopefully I don't sound too cynical and jaded because I love art... I just made poor choices during undergrad.