2014 MFA Applicants: Share your work and statement!

[agrobaby]

There's quite a bit of interesting material, but also some measure of bloat, to the detriment of the specific maximalism you discuss. I enjoy certain pastiche qualities, the confrontational twist of grotesque to femininity-cake-mold-land, though wish it had a certain more aggression rather than the sort of shock/awe effect. Going through the site I think there's something to be said about your bio "eldest of 9" that could lend a certain emotional or biographical quality to your statement. 

 

Artists who call themselves (or fall under against their will) 'feminist' is always a slippery slope of maintaining my interest unless theres a sense of what I consider 'balance.' Kathe Burkhart, Beverly Semmes, both artists who taught at my undergrad maintain a tight balance between their material delivery and specific statement they choose to make. Cindy Sherman's Society Portraits series was enjoyable because it was hard to tell where the masquerade and where the self deprecation was specifically, and that vagueness against the meticulous photography was compelling. Just some initial thoughts, I'll probably read this tomorrow when my brain is less sluggish and go 'wtf...'

 

I find it really interesting that although I do not drop the "f" word at all in my website right now, you instantly latched on to my interest in feminine gender explorations, labeled them as feminist, and therefore found them quickly uninteresting. As an artist, and as a female artist, and as a person with radical politics, which includes feminism, I have struggled to decompartmentalize my politics and my work and life. I'm very aware of how female artists are treated, not only here but in europe, also. The female artists that do well either blend in with the boys, or become so loud that people can't help but take notice. Two female/feminist artists I whose work I use to love are Beverly Semmes and Ghada Amer, both of which are now making these stupid clay sculpture pot things, after loosing their feminisique in the early 2000's. I am not into their new work at all.

I'm here to make authentic work, work that no one else could make, work that gets me riled up. I am fine with critiques, but I loose respect for people when they write off any perspective as uninteresting because it does not resonate with them. 

[kafralal]

Yay! Statement critiques! 

I will throw a segment of mine in here for the mix. Would love to hear feedback.

For visual reference, or an expanded version, see trobinette.com, though my new body of sculptural work isn't photographed yet, though there are sketches posted.

 

 

               My current work investigates a compulsive too-much-ness, a maximalization, as I create combinations of hyper-sexed engorged forms. My sculptural work is born out of excess, of bourgeois sensibility, and a perversion of good taste. I consider the fantasy of the sublime in my work, constantly seeking to heighten the clash of beauty and the grotesque.

 

                Both seductive and aggressive, the forms replicate like genetic abnormalities, cancerous cells, and become futile pop culture cadavers.  They are mid-transformation; dangling in a liminal state, suggesting the final metamorphosis will be post-human. They assert that manufactured degradation is the conclusion of consumption.

 

                 My own physical body is key to my work, both in sculpture and performance. The forms reference my size and shape, my appetite, genitalia, and my excrement. The horror of mutation is created using sensuous fabrics, as replicating structures emerge and are perversely disturbed. The fabric operates as skin; following patterns based on the body, both internal and external, and are stuffed, distending the forms.

 

Love the first and third paragraphs. I think the second one says too much; you're telling me what the work does and I'd rather work that out for myself.

[agrobaby]

Thanks for the feedback Kafralal. I agree that I may be saying too much in the 2nd- not leaving enough for the audience. 

[kafralal]

I find it really interesting that although I do not drop the "f" word at all in my website right now, you instantly latched on to my interest in feminine gender explorations, labeled them as feminist, and therefore found them quickly uninteresting. As an artist, and as a female artist, and as a person with radical politics, which includes feminism, I have struggled to decompartmentalize my politics and my work and life. I'm very aware of how female artists are treated, not only here but in europe, also. The female artists that do well either blend in with the boys, or become so loud that people can't help but take notice. Two female/feminist artists I whose work I use to love are Beverly Semmes and Ghada Amer, both of which are now making these stupid clay sculpture pot things, after loosing their feminisique in the early 2000's. I am not into their new work at all.

I'm here to make authentic work, work that no one else could make, work that gets me riled up. I am fine with critiques, but I loose respect for people when they write off any perspective as uninteresting because it does not resonate with them. 

 

I recently read Johanna Burton's Power Difference: Time Space, Feminism in "Meaning Liam Gillick" which may give a context for those "stupid clay sculpture pot things." If youre interested and can't find it email me at camillahoratii@hotmail.com.

[agrobaby]

I've talked to Beverly Semmes about her recent pinch pots, and still don't like em. I haven't talked to Ghada Amer about her new stuff, but they seem so much weaker than her earlier work. (I drink with older artists, and end up meeting people).

I couldn't find the article anywhere online, I will email you for it. Maybe it will change my opinion? thx!

[agrobaby]

I recently read Johanna Burton's Power Difference: Time Space, Feminism in "Meaning Liam Gillick" which may give a context for those "stupid clay sculpture pot things." If youre interested and can't find it email me at camillahoratii@hotmail.com.

 

Thanks for hooking me up! Great text. 

[tincanevening]

I don't want to hog this thread, but you guys have given me great feedback so far. I worked on my statement, and tried to address what was lacking. Please be brutally honest! 

 

 

I work from drawings of drawings of drawings that begin with an intense, unshakeable connection I feel in the physical world. As I continue with this process, my dreams and memories begin to alter one another, and each time I reach to retrieve them, they begin to collide and decay, eventually transforming into fantasy. This distance and distortion of my own history parallels my fascination with the power of the unseen, elusive, and archaic. 

 

I am completely obsessed with my own experience, which I compulsively record and review. My desire for secrecy and even alienation confronts my need for connection, and this is most easily resolved outside of human relationships, though these I cannot ignore. For me, everything is alive. My dreams and the situations I imagine feel more authentic than social interactions, so this is the world to which I aim to bring awareness. I believe Picasso when he said "Anything you can imagine is real."

 

Emergence, the idea that complex systems arise from a multiplicity of interactions, is crucial to my work and the way that I view the world. Each piece represents both an environment and a being or beings colliding; each mark is a living component that must relate to the whole. These systems are at once aggressive, mysterious, and inviting, and I must defy my fear and hesitation to enter.

 

My work is in dialogue with that of Elizabeth Neel, Christopher Wool, and Allison Shulnick. I connect with Elizabeth Neel's interest in the natural world and what lies behind it, and admire her violent handling of materials as they do more than simply represent form. The disruption, resistance, fractured meaning, and emotional force of Christopher Wool's work relates to mine, and I aim to exaggerate and strengthen this relationship. Allison Shulnick's imaginative works, though more figurative and stylistically dissimilar, share my sense of foreboding and unease to create comfort.

 

 

Scale, materials, and how I paint are concrete elements I need to address. I want myself and the viewer to feel both gargantuan and minuscule, and my work needs to reflect this polarity. I feel less tied to materials than to these concepts, though I recognize and embrace the fact that they will evolve as well. 

[manohman]

okay so posting my statement here, i do believe it's a little general but i don't know what else to do =p 
 

"The nature (for some a shortcoming and for some a saving grace) of human memory retention is it that it indelibly gets written over. the only evidential record of our lives is our memory of having lived through a kaleidoscopic chain of events - images, sounds, smells, feelings, in short- mere impressions of  no objective value. The works explore the illusion of memories, overwhelming sense of nostalgia and underlying sense of everyday violence reflecting a constant yearning for the past, often in an idealized or distorted form. I used my personal experiences with memories to deconstruct others’ old family photographs, and create new, idealized, and illusionary moments. Each image evokes a certain mood and emotion encased in a memory- whether it is an eerie memory that you can’t quite put back together, or a dreamy, fantastical memory that you will never forget. The series tells a fragmented story of different emotions, moods, and moments that translates these foreign   family photographs into something familiar and thought provoking. I wanted to establish a familiarity in each image, allowing viewers to extract their own personal meaning and be able to relate them to their own memories and past."

[kafralal]

 

I don't want to hog this thread, but you guys have given me great feedback so far. I worked on my statement, and tried to address what was lacking. Please be brutally honest! 

 

 

I work from drawings of drawings of drawings that begin with an intense, unshakeable connection I feel in the physical world. As I continue with this process, my dreams and memories begin to alter one another, and each time I reach to retrieve them, they begin to collide and decay, eventually transforming into fantasy. This distance and distortion of my own history parallels my fascination with the power of the unseen, elusive, and archaic. 

 

I am completely obsessed with my own experience, which I compulsively record and review. My desire for secrecy and even alienation confronts my need for connection, and this is most easily resolved outside of human relationships, though these I cannot ignore. For me, everything is alive. My dreams and the situations I imagine feel more authentic than social interactions, so this is the world to which I aim to bring awareness. I believe Picasso when he said "Anything you can imagine is real."

 

Emergence, the idea that complex systems arise from a multiplicity of interactions, is crucial to my work and the way that I view the world. Each piece represents both an environment and a being or beings colliding; each mark is a living component that must relate to the whole. These systems are at once aggressive, mysterious, and inviting, and I must defy my fear and hesitation to enter.

 

My work is in dialogue with that of Elizabeth Neel, Christopher Wool, and Allison Shulnick. I connect with Elizabeth Neel's interest in the natural world and what lies behind it, and admire her violent handling of materials as they do more than simply represent form. The disruption, resistance, fractured meaning, and emotional force of Christopher Wool's work relates to mine, and I aim to exaggerate and strengthen this relationship. Allison Shulnick's imaginative works, though more figurative and stylistically dissimilar, share my sense of foreboding and unease to create comfort.

 

 

Scale, materials, and how I paint are concrete elements I need to address. I want myself and the viewer to feel both gargantuan and minuscule, and my work needs to reflect this polarity. I feel less tied to materials than to these concepts, though I recognize and embrace the fact that they will evolve as well. 

 

 

This is sooo much better! You can keep tweaking it over the months before apps are due, with emphasis on the 2nd paragraph. I would save the last two paragraphs for your statement of purpose and/or interview though. One other thought is that you might want to talk a little more about the way that you interact / participate (pragmatically) with the systems that emerge.

Disclaimer: I'm in the same boat as you and have never gone through the app process before, so I may not know what I'm talking about!

[kafralal]

okay so posting my statement here, i do believe it's a little general but i don't know what else to do =p 

 

"The nature (for some a shortcoming and for some a saving grace) of human memory retention is it that it indelibly gets written over. the only evidential record of our lives is our memory of having lived through a kaleidoscopic chain of events - images, sounds, smells, feelings, in short- mere impressions of  no objective value. The works explore the illusion of memories, overwhelming sense of nostalgia and underlying sense of everyday violence reflecting a constant yearning for the past, often in an idealized or distorted form. I used my personal experiences with memories to deconstruct others’ old family photographs, and create new, idealized, and illusionary moments. Each image evokes a certain mood and emotion encased in a memory- whether it is an eerie memory that you can’t quite put back together, or a dreamy, fantastical memory that you will never forget. The series tells a fragmented story of different emotions, moods, and moments that translates these foreign   family photographs into something familiar and thought provoking. I wanted to establish a familiarity in each image, allowing viewers to extract their own personal meaning and be able to relate them to their own memories and past."

 

I think this is pretty good and might only need to be refined over the next little while with a few grammatical corrections etc.. After reading this, you might want to experiment in the new photos by trying them both with frames and without, and see what you think. The frames just might be an integral part.

[tincanevening]

This is sooo much better! You can keep tweaking it over the months before apps are due, with emphasis on the 2nd paragraph. I would save the last two paragraphs for your statement of purpose and/or interview though. One other thought is that you might want to talk a little more about the way that you interact / participate (pragmatically) with the systems that emerge.

Disclaimer: I'm in the same boat as you and have never gone through the app process before, so I may not know what I'm talking about!

Thanks kafralal! All of these ideas have been churning around for a while in notebooks and my brain, but your feedback (and kwonberry, agrobaby, wm000) really helped me pull it together. I'll keep digging into the second paragraph and my interactions with these emerged systems that make up my work.

 

Is the statement of purpose more focused on why grad school, goals, etc? And why THIS grad school? I guess I thought we were supposed to mash the two into one paper, but it makes sense to separate them.

[20koosya13]

hey everyone, i hate to post this twice, but please give me some feedback on my work, even if you think it totally sucks. living in a non-english speaking country and not being immersed in an art community for 2 years has made it pretty difficult to get a lot of meaningful criticism. if you leave some honest comments, i'll be sure to offer my two cents about your work too! my work is here: 

• http://be.net/colleensmith

[douchamp]

 

I don't want to hog this thread, but you guys have given me great feedback so far. I worked on my statement, and tried to address what was lacking. Please be brutally honest! 

 

 

I work from drawings of drawings of drawings that begin with an intense, unshakeable connection I feel in the physical world. As I continue with this process, my dreams and memories begin to alter one another, and each time I reach to retrieve them, they begin to collide and decay, eventually transforming into fantasy. This distance and distortion of my own history parallels my fascination with the power of the unseen, elusive, and archaic. 

 

I am completely obsessed with my own experience, which I compulsively record and review. My desire for secrecy and even alienation confronts my need for connection, and this is most easily resolved outside of human relationships, though these I cannot ignore. For me, everything is alive. My dreams and the situations I imagine feel more authentic than social interactions, so this is the world to which I aim to bring awareness. I believe Picasso when he said "Anything you can imagine is real."

 

Emergence, the idea that complex systems arise from a multiplicity of interactions, is crucial to my work and the way that I view the world. Each piece represents both an environment and a being or beings colliding; each mark is a living component that must relate to the whole. These systems are at once aggressive, mysterious, and inviting, and I must defy my fear and hesitation to enter.

 

My work is in dialogue with that of Elizabeth Neel, Christopher Wool, and Allison Shulnick. I connect with Elizabeth Neel's interest in the natural world and what lies behind it, and admire her violent handling of materials as they do more than simply represent form. The disruption, resistance, fractured meaning, and emotional force of Christopher Wool's work relates to mine, and I aim to exaggerate and strengthen this relationship. Allison Shulnick's imaginative works, though more figurative and stylistically dissimilar, share my sense of foreboding and unease to create comfort.

 

 

Scale, materials, and how I paint are concrete elements I need to address. I want myself and the viewer to feel both gargantuan and minuscule, and my work needs to reflect this polarity. I feel less tied to materials than to these concepts, though I recognize and embrace the fact that they will evolve as well. 

 

 

This is like night and day. I do have criticism for the first sentence, however. "I work from drawings of drawings of drawings" is a bit awkward and a bit confusing at first, especially for the first sentence. I totally get what your saying, but I thought it was a bit disorienting.

 

"As I understand it, your saying in that paragraph that your drawings start as a survey - a diagram -of the empirical world, but through the process of recording other recordings over and over, representation becomes deferred. The drawings/paintings begin to talk about the nature of recording and how fiction and memory distort recordings until what is left is only that initial visceral connection whilst the diagram has been lost to oblivion. History, experience, and memories become lost in this self referential game of signifying other signifiers. What you edit out - choose to forget - becomes just as important as what you leave in"

 

That's what I was going to post yesterday, when you posted the initial draft of what became your artist statement. There was only that first paragraph, but this is what I took from it. Reading the rest of it, I can see all the points you raise in your statements as logical growths from your first paragraph. On a whole, I'd say its much more interesting than the very first artist statement from a few days ago.

[tincanevening]

This is like night and day. I do have criticism for the first sentence, however. "I work from drawings of drawings of drawings" is a bit awkward and a bit confusing at first, especially for the first sentence. I totally get what your saying, but I thought it was a bit disorienting.

 

"As I understand it, your saying in that paragraph that your drawings start as a survey - a diagram -of the empirical world, but through the process of recording other recordings over and over, representation becomes deferred. The drawings/paintings begin to talk about the nature of recording and how fiction and memory distort recordings until what is left is only that initial visceral connection whilst the diagram has been lost to oblivion. History, experience, and memories become lost in this self referential game of signifying other signifiers. What you edit out - choose to forget - becomes just as important as what you leave in"

 

That's what I was going to post yesterday, when you posted the initial draft of what became your artist statement. There was only that first paragraph, but this is what I took from it. Reading the rest of it, I can see all the points you raise in your statements as logical growths from your first paragraph. On a whole, I'd say its much more interesting than the very first artist statement from a few days ago.

Thanks Douchamp! You're right about the first sentence, and your edits are superb. I hope you don't mind if I adapt (or straight up steal) a lot of what you wrote! I still need to smooth out some awkward points, as there are a few, but it feels great to have something more concrete. It helps with my current projects, too!

 

I think initially I was trying to cram everything into one short paragraph, which ended up making everything vague and meaningless. This conversation really helped me to focus, put together the pieces, and write more specifically about my relationship with my work. 

 

Seriously, I cannot thank you all enough!

[manohman]

I think this is pretty good and might only need to be refined over the next little while with a few grammatical corrections etc.. After reading this, you might want to experiment in the new photos by trying them both with frames and without, and see what you think. The frames just might be an integral part.

thanks kafralal ! phew! yaaay! =D the transfers in the the frames were actually a part of an installation, but with new work i'm trying to break from the very direct reference of the photograph, i think it should be a bit subtle. but yaaay! thank you, all of you! you guys give me hope! 

much love and luck =D

[agrobaby]

 

hey everyone, i hate to post this twice, but please give me some feedback on my work, even if you think it totally sucks. living in a non-english speaking country and not being immersed in an art community for 2 years has made it pretty difficult to get a lot of meaningful criticism. if you leave some honest comments, i'll be sure to offer my two cents about your work too! my work is here: 

• http://be.net/colleensmith

 

 

I would be interested to read your statement, and see how you conceptually tie this work together. There seem to be stronger and weaker paintings, 2011 and 2012 have some good examples. The element of fantasy or other-worldliness is the most interesting part of the work that runs through many of the paintings. Maybe continue to develop that?

Are they all self-portraits, or are you only interested in the female form?

[kafralal]

Thanks kafralal! All of these ideas have been churning around for a while in notebooks and my brain, but your feedback (and kwonberry, agrobaby, wm000) really helped me pull it together. I'll keep digging into the second paragraph and my interactions with these emerged systems that make up my work.

 

Is the statement of purpose more focused on why grad school, goals, etc? And why THIS grad school? I guess I thought we were supposed to mash the two into one paper, but it makes sense to separate them.

 

I guess it depends on the institution, some seem to ask for an artist statement that accompanies the already completed work in the portfolio, while a proposal for the work you are going to do in grad school is presented in the SOP (which presumably also contains a discussion of the work that got you to this point)

[20koosya13]

I would be interested to read your statement, and see how you conceptually tie this work together. There seem to be stronger and weaker paintings, 2011 and 2012 have some good examples. The element of fantasy or other-worldliness is the most interesting part of the work that runs through many of the paintings. Maybe continue to develop that?

Are they all self-portraits, or are you only interested in the female form?

Hi agrobaby, thank you so much for your feedback. I am currently writing my statement, but it is not finished yet. I like to focus on the female form, but some of the paintings are simply self portraits. Conceptually, I like to explore the space between reality ( and what we show on the surface) and the other-worldly, subconscious manifestations of emotions and reactions to every day life. My paintings are somewhat autobiographical. I am going to be without internet for a week, but will post my statement ASAP. Thanks again for your help! It's great to get some real criticism.

[tincanevening]

I guess it depends on the institution, some seem to ask for an artist statement that accompanies the already completed work in the portfolio, while a proposal for the work you are going to do in grad school is presented in the SOP (which presumably also contains a discussion of the work that got you to this point)

This helps. Thank you!

[R.R. Kaufman]

Hey everyone!

 

I am also applying this year for my MFA in Painting. I unfortunately do not have a website right now, but you can see my work on my https://rebeccareidkaufman.see.me 

 

I am working on my statement, but it seems like a lot of the schools I am applying for want statements really specific to their programs (makes sense). 

 

Anyhow, I would like to have a few people to compare admissions essays with. I will edit yours if you'll do the same!

 

These are the schools I am most interested in:

 

Hunter

Colombia

University of Iowa

California College of the Arts (CCA)

UCLA

maybe VCU

 

I also like the idea of University of Indiana, Bloomington, and UT Austin, but I feel like they want artists doing more representational work. Anyone else have any advice based on my work? (I apologize for the quality of my photographs, I am working on finding someone to take photos of my work for me.)

 

Thanks!

[agrobaby]

Hey everyone!

 

I am also applying this year for my MFA in Painting. I unfortunately do not have a website right now, but you can see my work on my https://rebeccareidkaufman.see.me

 

I am working on my statement, but it seems like a lot of the schools I am applying for want statements really specific to their programs (makes sense). 

 

Anyhow, I would like to have a few people to compare admissions essays with. I will edit yours if you'll do the same!

 

These are the schools I am most interested in:

 

Hunter

Colombia

University of Iowa

California College of the Arts (CCA)

UCLA

maybe VCU

 

I also like the idea of University of Indiana, Bloomington, and UT Austin, but I feel like they want artists doing more representational work. Anyone else have any advice based on my work? (I apologize for the quality of my photographs, I am working on finding someone to take photos of my work for me.)

 

Thanks!

 

I will show you mine if you will show me yours! 

 

(mine isn't written yet, but I would love to get a handle on this part of the process)

 

Keep in touch!

[kafralal]

Hey everyone!

 

I am also applying this year for my MFA in Painting. I unfortunately do not have a website right now, but you can see my work on my https://rebeccareidkaufman.see.me

 

I am working on my statement, but it seems like a lot of the schools I am applying for want statements really specific to their programs (makes sense). 

 

Anyhow, I would like to have a few people to compare admissions essays with. I will edit yours if you'll do the same!

 

These are the schools I am most interested in:

 

Hunter

Colombia

University of Iowa

California College of the Arts (CCA)

UCLA

maybe VCU

 

I also like the idea of University of Indiana, Bloomington, and UT Austin, but I feel like they want artists doing more representational work. Anyone else have any advice based on my work? (I apologize for the quality of my photographs, I am working on finding someone to take photos of my work for me.)

 

Thanks!

 

I sent you a message.

[agrobaby]

New works posted, any feedback would be great! Especially in relation to my statement.

 

http://trobinette.com/sculpture-installation

 

ALSO, any thoughts on including sketches for sculptures (made or not made yet) in the portfolio? 

 

Thanks!

[Erpnope]

I would only include work you've actually made and is realized until the interview stage, then i would introduce work that is maybe unfinished or in prep

[kafralal]

New works posted, any feedback would be great! Especially in relation to my statement.

 

http://trobinette.com/sculpture-installation

 

ALSO, any thoughts on including sketches for sculptures (made or not made yet) in the portfolio? 

 

Thanks!

 

So, I think you should include the url for your webpage in either your CV or SOP (where ever you decide is appropriate) because you've got a lot of work, and I think overall it will work in your favour.

 

I think your prints add something more to the rest of the work but the images are too small.

 

I found the sketches where everything was worked out ahead of time a little disappointing because it tells me that nothing new was discovered in the making, so I think the corresponding sculptures are better without them. That is not the case for the more schematic sketches.

 

I agree in principle with Erpnope concerning yet to be realized work, but in this case I don't think it matters if the sketches stand alone. —and I've noted that some schools say you can include work in progress.

 

One tiny thing more... about your statement…you use the word "interested." It standouts for me because I think it is a weak word in most statements, but even more so in yours where everything else is over the top.