MFA 2021 Freak Out Forum

[lizavetar96]

18 minutes ago, San Diego Stone said:

Magic Mountain: https://www.sixflags.com/magicmountain

Do I think that USC is a big deal? You bet your ass I do. I ONLY applied at USC for an MFA. I only applied there because of two professors in specific that jive with what I want to accomplish, Nao Bustamante, and Edgar Arceneaux. There are others who I like at USC, but I've respected them for a while. Because of my experience in the arts and life, I feel that those are the two professors best suited for me to work with. It is also in L.A., where I have not got a lot of experience in and think I need to to round out my art direction.

Rankings are meaningless, period. It's about the faculty and staff and facilities. It's also about being in Los Angeles, right near San Diego, Mexico, and San Francisco in CALIFORNIA. But ultimately it's about you and what you are going to bring to the table. If someone thinks that a university sucks, well, make it BETTER, or don't go there. But they shouldn't be saying nasty things about what they saw on the internet that they had nothing to do with. Don't listen to these negative people. As an artist, it's not good for you.

You gotta ask yourself why you want to attend a specific school and go there and kick ass and do the best you can. I went to Sacramento State even thought I got into UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State, and other so-called "prestigious" schools, and I brought something to the community and student body and did my best to make it a good place to be. Why? Because Sacramento has been huge for Chicano Culture and art for decades, and I had access to great artists within the community. I also had that in San Diego, but now I've got that in Sacramento, and hopefully in L.A. this fall. Did some US News website rank it up with Stanford? NOPE! But I did my best and did well, despite someone's opinion about prestige.

My niece goes to Harvard, supposedly the best school in the world. But what use is the "best school in the world" if you do nothing with it? Well, It's of no use at all. Same as with going to a school not viewed as prestigious. If I go to a normal university and do awesome things, then hey, the university was a good university.

Avoid negativity. Listen to yourself, listen to your heart and what you want to accomplish. If you are doing what you need to do then you will bring success to yourself and to others around you.

I apologise - I think my response came off too negative. I should have been more careful with the wording. I actually remember you from the Zoom orientation with Nao. Your father (or grandfather?) is also an artist, right?

You are right about the rankings. I phrased my response more in terms of “I don’t know” as I really do not how much they matter to curators, buyers etc. I am very new to grad process. But I am on the same page with you about prestige - despite their prestige, I am not applying to any Ivy league schools for reasons I don’t want to discuss on this forum, as a lot of people here are involved in application process to Yale etc and i have nothing but respect for them and their strife. I am applying to CalArts and also places like Tulane which maybe is not ranked well, but I really love the work they produce and admire certain members of the faculty. And I am applying to USC partially because of Nao and the work she put forward, “America the Beautiful” had a big impact on me.

That said, I DO think that the whole cohort walking out is a real big thing to keep in mind. It is no shade on the faculty (it is all gone anyway) but it is a hint towards the way admin is structured and the overall culture of the school. And it is not just one anonymous disgruntled person on the internet who wrote about this, but it was such a big shock to a lot of people and major publications wrote about it. Administration should nurture the students, not leach off them, especially considering that we are giving our time and finances to the school. 
 

Of course USC is one of the top choice schools for me and I absolutely love the faculty’s work, but at the same time I am weary about the administrative problems that can really diminish my grad experience  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lizavetar96]

44 minutes ago, SocialKonstruct said:

LoL, perhaps insightful :). I like to help out other artists (and as a curator I do that all of the time). Definitely your driving concept sounds very fascinating.

Now about working in series, here is an example of a sustained exploration of a topic which is rooted in art history, the politics of labor, and commodification of form. https://albertabdulbarrwang.art/lowbrow-minimalism

Thank you very much! 
oh my god, it is 2 months into 2021 and you are already making work. Is there a link for you between working in the studio and in the public environment?

[SocialKonstruct]

8 minutes ago, lizavetar96 said:

Thank you very much! 
oh my god, it is 2 months into 2021 and you are already making work. Is there a link for you between working in the studio and in the public environment?

Yes, I am highly prolific tbh. I work in the studio all the of the time (and doing a SVA residency while taking 5 classes and co-running an art gallery) and this year has been prolific. I still have my Honors thesis to work on and finish this summer (maybe 400-500 pages long?) as well 2 photo series to finish up plus an art collaboration with two painters.  Never unbusy here

 

About the public environment, it all depends. Now that I have been focused on my sculptures and installation, I have been doing a lot of interventions  into the public sphere.

Edited February 28, 2021 by SocialKonstruct

[lizavetar96]

1 minute ago, SocialKonstruct said:

Yes, I am highly prolific tbh. I work in the studio all the of the time (and doing a SVA residency while taking 5 classes and co-running an art gallery) and this year has been prolific. I still have my Honors thesis to work on and finish this summer (maybe 400-500 pages long?) as well 2 photo series to finish up plus an art collaboration with two painters.  Never unbusy here

 

[lizavetar96]

1 minute ago, SocialKonstruct said:

Yes, I am highly prolific tbh. I work in the studio all the of the time (and doing a SVA residency while taking 5 classes and co-running an art gallery) and this year has been prolific. I still have my Honors thesis to work on and finish this summer (maybe 400-500 pages long?) as well 2 photo series to finish up plus an art collaboration with two painters.  Never unbusy here

But on a serious side: I looked through the art gallery artists you have brought together and it is an impressive bunch. Would love to collaborate one of these days!

[-----------]

1 minute ago, lizavetar96 said:

I apologise - I think my response came off too negative. I should have been more careful with the wording. I actually remember you from the Zoom orientation with Nao. Your father (or grandfather?) is also an artist, right?

You are right about the rankings. I phrased my response more in terms of “I don’t know” as I really do not how much they matter to curators, buyers etc. I am very new to grad process. But I am on the same page with you about prestige - despite their prestige, I am not applying to any Ivy league schools for reasons I don’t want to discuss on this forum, as a lot of people here are involved in application process to Yale etc and i have nothing but respect for them and their strife. I am applying to CalArts and also places like Tulane which maybe is not ranked well, but I really love the work they produce and admire certain members of the faculty. And I am applying to USC partially because of Nao and the work she put forward, “America the Beautiful” had a big impact on me.

That said, I DO think that the whole cohort walking out is a real big thing to keep in mind. It is no shade on the faculty (it is all gone anyway) but it is a hint towards the way admin is structured and the overall culture of the school. And it is not just one anonymous disgruntled person on the internet who wrote about this, but it was such a big shock to a lot of people and major publications wrote about it. Administration should nurture the students, not leach off them, especially considering that we are giving our time and finances to the school. 
 

Of course USC is one of the top choice schools for me and I absolutely love the faculty’s work, but at the same time I am weary about the administrative problems that can really diminish my grad experience  

 

 

 

 

 

 

No need to apologize, but I appreciate it. Do the people who interview you really lurk these forums? If so, HI GUYS!  

Yes, I was at the orientation. My father was a Chicano Artist and brought me up in that world. None of my brothers and sisters became artists but my brother Kiko, but he died back in 2007, so I'm the only one now. The others are all academics like Attorneys and Psychologists with one musician who never went to school. For me, Chicano Artwork is everything, and bringing that to the community is the apex of my approach. How can I make this happen is always the question.

One of the best things I've done is to get to know people on personal levels and putting any sort of consideration with regards to my education out of the discussion. My education is not demonstrable, but my art is the story and is approachable and quantifiable because I live it and it is my whole world.

I've mostly avoided gallery work and trying to rub elbows with popular people, and gone more for public artwork and working within the community, for the community, and by the community. The idea that I will ever make a living off of gallery shows and selling personal artwork has never occured to me. For me, I am an audiovisual engineer and photographer and event organizer, and that is how I make my living. Artwork is how I bring the most important things to the people, with the people, and how I can demonstrate the respect I have for disenfranchised communities. So, I only do a few large public artworks every year.

Does that mean that I DON"T EVER do gallery shows? No, I'll do gallery stuff. But I do it knowing that there is much more to art than putting a rectangle on the wall and encouraging people to look at it for 3 seconds. Art is a lifestyle. Art is a way to view the world, to right wrongs, or to at least highlight them in a way that elevates others and encourages community organization. It's not about caring about what people and organizations are going to like your work because of what school you went to. No one cares about that in the real world. People care about what you are producing, and why, and of course your aesthetics.

I won't try to talk you out of your opinion of what went down at USC way back in 2015, but I can't speak to it either because I don't have any intimate knowledge of it beyond peoples internet opinions, and I'm not really interested in that.

What I AM interested in is working with a small unit of professional artists and faculty and doing some bad-ass art and activism in Southern California that is going to bring the community up, bring the school and faculty up, and bring ME up. And I guarantee that if you get into USC, that will be your only concern as well.

If you want to check out some of my stuff then I'll post a link. Some of it is of others art who I work with in my art collective. You can tell what art is mine because I am in the photographs.

https://sites.google.com/view/wowportfolio2021/home

Do you have a link you your art?  

 

[BCS]

15 hours ago, ks1313 said:

Yep, I just got mine for utk yesterday evening. Supposedly they only had like 1-2 spots open within the painting program this year. Also, they started interviewing at the end of Jan. so it was expected, still sucks though. Btw, I applied to a handful of programs in the southeast as well (accetped into ETSU and WCU), where else did you apply?

Sorry you had a rejection as well, 2 spots is so few! I really wish I had applied to more schools. Congrats on your acceptances! I also applied to Ohio State, University of Georgia, UNC Greensboro, and Winthrop U (SC) whose deadline isn't until March but I applied in Jan. Fingers crossed!

Edited February 28, 2021 by BCS
typo

[SocialKonstruct]

6 hours ago, lizavetar96 said:

But on a serious side: I looked through the art gallery artists you have brought together and it is an impressive bunch. Would love to collaborate one of these days!

Actually if you are interested in working together you can e-mail our team at gallery.office.space@gmail.com. We work with artists who have only BFA's or artists doing MFA's (not done yet).  We aren't typical and we aren't elitist at all...

[SocialKonstruct]

6 hours ago, San Diego Stone said:

No need to apologize, but I appreciate it. Do the people who interview you really lurk these forums? If so, HI GUYS!  

Yes, I was at the orientation. My father was a Chicano Artist and brought me up in that world. None of my brothers and sisters became artists but my brother Kiko, but he died back in 2007, so I'm the only one now. The others are all academics like Attorneys and Psychologists with one musician who never went to school. For me, Chicano Artwork is everything, and bringing that to the community is the apex of my approach. How can I make this happen is always the question.

One of the best things I've done is to get to know people on personal levels and putting any sort of consideration with regards to my education out of the discussion. My education is not demonstrable, but my art is the story and is approachable and quantifiable because I live it and it is my whole world.

I've mostly avoided gallery work and trying to rub elbows with popular people, and gone more for public artwork and working within the community, for the community, and by the community. The idea that I will ever make a living off of gallery shows and selling personal artwork has never occured to me. For me, I am an audiovisual engineer and photographer and event organizer, and that is how I make my living. Artwork is how I bring the most important things to the people, with the people, and how I can demonstrate the respect I have for disenfranchised communities. So, I only do a few large public artworks every year.

Does that mean that I DON"T EVER do gallery shows? No, I'll do gallery stuff. But I do it knowing that there is much more to art than putting a rectangle on the wall and encouraging people to look at it for 3 seconds. Art is a lifestyle. Art is a way to view the world, to right wrongs, or to at least highlight them in a way that elevates others and encourages community organization. It's not about caring about what people and organizations are going to like your work because of what school you went to. No one cares about that in the real world. People care about what you are producing, and why, and of course your aesthetics.

I won't try to talk you out of your opinion of what went down at USC way back in 2015, but I can't speak to it either because I don't have any intimate knowledge of it beyond peoples internet opinions, and I'm not really interested in that.

What I AM interested in is working with a small unit of professional artists and faculty and doing some bad-ass art and activism in Southern California that is going to bring the community up, bring the school and faculty up, and bring ME up. And I guarantee that if you get into USC, that will be your only concern as well.

If you want to check out some of my stuff then I'll post a link. Some of it is of others art who I work with in my art collective. You can tell what art is mine because I am in the photographs.

https://sites.google.com/view/wowportfolio2021/home

Do you have a link you your art?  

 

Plus whatever happened at USC was 5 years old. In the art world that's a long time ago. Roski did everything to improve afterwards. And they have a very admirable program right now.

SDS, such wonderful work. Wow. I am part of two artist collectives  So I value group work.

Edited February 28, 2021 by SocialKonstruct

[SocialKonstruct]

Also on a side note, I think that the MFA application process tends to be a huge me-me-me solipsistic activity. For me, being an artist has always been about finding your tribe (as universal as it gets) and helping others. One good outlet is at: https://www.paradicepalase.com/join which I found to be very awesome. And they are very helpful. In fact, they are doing a feature on me next month- https://www.paradicepalase.com/shows-and-programs-calendar/2021/3/16/316-virtual-visit-with-albert-abdul-barr-wang

People think that the MFA program is just about their own portfolio but there is a myriad of factors. Being involved in the arts community is very important whether it's local or international. Granted they may not look at that but during the interview they will weigh in on that. The myth of the lone genius Van Gogh moody artist is just that... a myth.

[gradschool124]

I barely got any financial aid, and don't know how I would pay back almost $100k in loans. How do you afford to get an mfa? Are there other funding sources available?

[kwemo]

9 hours ago, erinwhomst said:

my website is https://www.erinsteinart.com/ ? Just out of undergrad so I've tried to keep my expectations in check, but still hoping I might hear back from someone.

Hey! Nice to see good talent coming out of Orlando! It feels good to see someone else coming out of the same community.

[SocialKonstruct]

1 hour ago, gradschool124 said:

I barely got any financial aid, and don't know how I would pay back almost $100k in loans. How do you afford to get an mfa? Are there other funding sources available?

A lot of folks tend to work 2-3 jobs after graduating with their MFA, usually adjunct professor jobs. In fact, I know of 3-4 folks who are in a few top galleries who are still paying off their debt after 15-20 years after the fact.

[geeeeebie]

On 2/26/2021 at 7:42 PM, dgrkrk said:

Anyone receive any rejections yet from Columbia/Georgia State for painting?

Did you interview for Georgia State? I haven't heard anything 

[elix]

Has anyone heard back from VCU Photo & Film?

[geeeeebie]

2 hours ago, gradschool124 said:

I barely got any financial aid, and don't know how I would pay back almost $100k in loans. How do you afford to get an mfa? Are there other funding sources available?

In my opinion, 100k is too much debt for an mfa. To eachs own, but realistically think of the chances of you paying that back if you don't "make it big" and work a normal job 

 

I'm still payig undergrad off so cant imagine tacking on that much more debt

[theundoing]

3 hours ago, gradschool124 said:

I barely got any financial aid, and don't know how I would pay back almost $100k in loans. How do you afford to get an mfa? Are there other funding sources available?

I personally would not be willing to take out 100k in loans for an MFA but if you desire both Grad Plus and Federal Grad loans are subject to income based repayment plans. Unless an artist has a huge gallery career post graduation ...most adjuncts I know make around 5000 per class

Edited February 28, 2021 by theundoing

[katfude]

gentle reminder to everyone to constantly check your spam folders  I just received an offer for a fellowship but totally would have missed it since it was flagged as spam!

[koolart]

Has anyone heard from UT Austin? 

[ZellFin]

1 hour ago, geemun said:

Did you interview for Georgia State? I haven't heard anything 

I interviewed with Georgia State a couple of weeks ago and was told to expect an answer around this time. Would love to know if anyone else has heard back! 

 

[SocialKonstruct]

3 hours ago, geemun said:

In my opinion, 100k is too much debt for an mfa. To eachs own, but realistically think of the chances of you paying that back if you don't "make it big" and work a normal job 

 

I'm still payig undergrad off so cant imagine tacking on that much more debt

Or could go to Rutgers and have your whole MFA paid for.

And make it big like Matthew Day Jackson

[erinwhomst]

6 hours ago, kwemo said:

Hey! Nice to see good talent coming out of Orlando! It feels good to see someone else coming out of the same community.

Hi! I honestly love the art community in Orlando. I've considered applying to my undergrad school to get my MFA but have been told it's better to get a change in scenery/professor input/community.

[teetertotter]

HALP! 

 

I got into SVA and SAIC low res. I'm so back and forth on where to go. SAIC still hasn't offered a financial package, but SVA offered 20% off. Any thoughts? NYC vs Chicago? Program directors are very different!! Which program do you think is better?? ANY thoughts welcome at this point... I'm utterly torn.

 

[tszszsz]

Curious if others are attending events for schools that they are waitlisted for?

Especially wondering about the more personal "drinks with students" events or smaller break out situations with faculty

[SocialKonstruct]

12 minutes ago, teetertotter said:

HALP! 

 

I got into SVA and SAIC low res. I'm so back and forth on where to go. SAIC still hasn't offered a financial package, but SVA offered 20% off. Any thoughts? NYC vs Chicago? Program directors are very different!! Which program do you think is better?? ANY thoughts welcome at this point... I'm utterly torn.

 

It's hard to say... is there a final deadline for you to reply back to SVA? I would wait until SAIC drops their financial package tbh