2014 MFA Applicants: Share your work and statement!

[tincanevening]

Hi Kyle! Love your work, and your statement adds so much to it. The Turban series is great. One little thing: make sure you change "waste" to "waist"!

[Nire Nedyah]

Hi Everybody,

 

Looking to apply to:

Yale

Northwestern

SAIC

UIC

CalArts

Columbia

University of Washington

University of Wisconsin Madison

Hunter

VCU

USC

UCLA

 

I think I might be spreading myself too thin...

Looking for:

painterly/collage faculty

teaching opportunities

and inexpensive!

 

 

what do you guys think?

http://erinhayden.tumblr.com/

[kafralal]

Columbia, Calarts and SAIC are not inexpensive!

[Nire Nedyah]

Apparently I posted this in the wrong place. Lets see if this gets a response here. 

 

My work can be seen here: http://jordansmithart.com

 

I'm applying for my MFA in sculpture at the following schools:

 

University of Cincinnati 

Alfred University

Michigan State

University of Michigan

Massachusetts College of Art & Design

University of Indiana at Bloomington 

University of Tennessee Knoxville

University of Maryland

 

I welcome critique of my work and recommendations for different schools to apply to or information on the schools listed above. 

 

Thanks,

J

Looks Great!

[m-ttl]

Thank you for all the feedback.  I am having a hard time what I am going to say in my SOP its tough cause I work in a vast array of ways.  

 

The Turban series is this: After being entrenched in African culture the last couple years, I fell in love with a quintessential component of that culture: the wax print fabric. This Fabric is used by women to wrap around their waste, head and even their back to carry infants. Having spent quite a bit of time in a bus rank, I observed how frequently women uses this fabric to wrap around their heads as hats. I acquired my first few pieces of fabric and started experimenting on my own by wrapping, twisting and knotting it. I taught myself how to make a range of wraps, from simple waist wraps to extravagant bows and flower-shaped head pieces. Given homosexuality is Swaziland is illegal, as well as working on a documentary in a church I constantly had to hide my sexuality and suppress my feminine side. By making these hats and wraps, I was able to embrace my femininity and find my voice in the extremely masculine-dominated culture that I was living in.

 

I suppose this is a bit late, but I have a (strong) nitpick: 

 

Africa is not a culture. Africa is a continent. It comes off as ignorant to imply it is a monolithic culture, quite honestly. You were immersed in the culture of Swaziland, not Africa. Fabric does not need to be capitalized. The artistic quality of the series is fine, but given your statement mostly reads as culturally appropriative -- not considering your own role in a given society or what it means that you would take something from another culture like this. I much prefer your sculptures. 

 

I would also be wary of phrases that don't make sense without context -- what is a "bus rank"? And this sentence doesn't sound cohesive at all: "Given homosexuality is Swaziland is illegal, as well as working on a documentary in a church I constantly had to hide my sexuality and suppress my feminine side." 

[Ariet]

So I am still working on my website but does anyone what to give me feedback on my short film. I am applying to video and intermedia programs.

Http://vimeo.com/83367155

[michelle sumaray]

Hello everyone, 

 

This is the first year that I have applied to graduate schools so I am not sure what to expect. Feel free to take a look at my work and statements on my website: www.michellebreland.com. I am open to feedback. If nothing else, I hope that someone will get something from seeing another artist's work.

 

I have applied to schools that are either interdisciplinary or offer a new genres department:

 

USC

UCLA

UCSB

UMD

SVA

[thepictureisstill]

I would love any feedback on anything!

www.ruthkburke.com

 

i'm going to be applying to (at least) the following schools:

OSU (Sculpture)
Yale (Sculpture)
Indiana University (Sculpture)
SAIC (Studio)
CalArts (Studio)
University of Michigan ((Studio)

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Studio)

University of Wisconsin-Madison (3D/4D)

CCAD (Studio)

[thepictureisstill]

Hello everyone, 

 

This is the first year that I have applied to graduate schools so I am not sure what to expect. Feel free to take a look at my work and statements on my website: www.michellebreland.com. I am open to feedback. If nothing else, I hope that someone will get something from seeing another artist's work.

 

I have applied to schools that are either interdisciplinary or offer a new genres department:

 

USC

UCLA

UCSB

UMD

SVA

Michelle,

I like your statement but what are you working on now? "This notion of self-preservation has influenced the subjects that I choose to study as well as the materials that I use." I think this sentence and the ones surrouding it would be a great in the beginning of your statement. Transitioning from your general philosophy into specific works always flows better for me (total opinion). I enjoyed your "Images of Movies", definitely don't be afraid to talk about what you might do with these images. All statements are living documents and can easily be changed, but what are you thinking about doing with these images?

just some thoughts your site was nice and clean. easy to navigate!

[michelle sumaray]

Michelle,

I like your statement but what are you working on now? "This notion of self-preservation has influenced the subjects that I choose to study as well as the materials that I use." I think this sentence and the ones surrouding it would be a great in the beginning of your statement. Transitioning from your general philosophy into specific works always flows better for me (total opinion). I enjoyed your "Images of Movies", definitely don't be afraid to talk about what you might do with these images. All statements are living documents and can easily be changed, but what are you thinking about doing with these images?

just some thoughts your site was nice and clean. easy to navigate!

Hi Ruth,

 

Sorry to respond so late. I haven't logged into this site in a while. Right now...I'm actually working on the "Images of Movies" series that you saw on my website. I'm thinking of narrowing down the focus to moments in film after a specific event, such as a character dying. I'd like to maybe say something about how we learn how to respond to certain situations based on how fictional characters in movies do...I'm still brainstorming but thank you so much to looking and giving me feedback!

 

-Michelle

[lolapola]

Hey Ruth!

I did my undergrad at CCAD, if you have any questions about the school. I loved it. Also, since you are looking at sculpture programmes, consider VCU. I'm there right now and it's absolutely magical and everyone, every single student is ridiculously good at what they do, and make things I've never seen before. The faculty is brilliant, kind, so well spoken, and supportive. The facilities are amongst the best and very impressive. I've only been here a week, but I'm thrilled.

[ouchfinger]

Hi, I'm an international applicant from Seoul. I will be graduating next Feb. and I'm hoping to go straight to grad school(painting) the following fall. My choices are

 

Calarts

Columbia

Yale

UCLA

RISD

SAIC

 

I'm still struggling on English statement, but my works are available at

 

www.minjeekimworks.com

 

 

My website is brand new(made two days ago!) so it is not organized at its best 

Any feedback is welcome. Thank you! 

Edited September 10, 2014 by iamme91

[thepictureisstill]

Hey Ruth!

I did my undergrad at CCAD, if you have any questions about the school. I loved it. Also, since you are looking at sculpture programmes, consider VCU. I'm there right now and it's absolutely magical and everyone, every single student is ridiculously good at what they do, and make things I've never seen before. The faculty is brilliant, kind, so well spoken, and supportive. The facilities are amongst the best and very impressive. I've only been here a week, but I'm thrilled.

Thanks Lolapola!

I've decided not to apply to CCAD. I was advised by quite a few people that it's too young of a program and for what I'm setting my sights on, wouldn't be the best use of my MFA money and time. I'll definitely look into VCU, thanks!

[xerxes5005267892]

Hello everyone! 

I'm in the process of applying to various MFA photography programs. I'm a little apprehensive about my portfolio. I'm not very confident about my work body. I sometimes feel like my portfolio is not strong enough. Can you wonderful people go through my photographs and let me know what you think? I'll be submitting a mix of self portraits and landscapes. 

 

I'm working on my website so that is not available right now so I'm leaving my tumblr blog here - www.guramritkaurphotography.tumblr.com

[chris_h]

I am applying to photography and performance programs.

 

The current list is:

 

SAIC

RCA

Goldsmiths

Kuva

 

You can check out my work here.

[chris_h]

Hi all,

 

First time posting. I'm thinking of applying this round for admission in fall of 2014, but I might wait it out a bit. I've only been out of school one year and was only really an art student for just over a year at school. I was transfer student to University of Chicago and wasn't planning on a visual arts BA (not BFA) but sort of fell into the program and realized how to sync my love of making with my love of ideas and call it contemporary art. Anyhow, my website is www.davidnasca.com. My statement is: 

 

"In our age of queer acceptance, when mainstream activism is focused on normativity and disidentification with the far left, I’ve found a particular locus of frustration with my own identity and biology. As a gay man, I am incapable of reproduction. I am trying, and will always be failing, in my art to affect this condition.  In some ways, I see my art as activist art fighting against the hegemony of science and biology, forces I see as great, unchallenged oppressors of queers today. We’ve gone from “explaining out” homosexuality via moral grounds, to ways of “explaining in” homosexuality via science. Society refuses to let sexuality just be. I believe that science cannot access our attractions, orgasms, and affective bonds, that a gene cannot explain homosexuality, that psychology can’t explain why we want to be tied up, and that while sexual reproduction can explain the process of evolution, evolution cannot explain the origins of sexuality. I want to stake the ground in this scientific lacuna, and make a new resting point for queer identities.

 

My making is my way of reproducing myself in the world. Each object I make is a physical and sensual act: I pierce, stitch, mold, and stuff myself into my work. I see my making as one side of a collaboration with fantasy. My objects are a way for me to realize fantasies, either my own or others’, in three dimensions. In this way they become fetish objects, ways of accessing what we normally cannot. Often, I seek to engage my audience in collaboration, inviting them to rest upon, use, or otherwise violate a work’s status as an art object. In these ways, my work becomes a site of not only contemplation, but bonding as well. I often work with leather because of its myriad cultural valences; it is a material often eroticized, coveted, and associated with particular uses, allowing me to draw in these connotations. Leather also quite literally contains the visceral; it is a material with the ability to both entice and disgust. This quality makes it especially suited to exploring sexuality: that inexplicable force that perpetuates us, drives us to sadness, love, creation, elation; that which vacillates between condemnation and celebration; that fundamental of humanity which science, society, and politics seek to explain, to regulate, to legislate, but not to engage."

 

I'd love any feedback! Like I said, I'm not sure if this is the year for me but I might apply to a few schools to feel it out. I just wish it all wasn't so damn expensive... Schools that I'm interested in are VCU (crafts-fiber), MICA (sculpture), Hunter, Yale (sculpture), and I am researching more. I'm trying to balance finding a program where student work has a high level of finish (VCU, MICA) with finding a program with very strong non-art academic offerings (ie Yale). I found I benefited tremendously in my art making from my academic classes as an undergrad (esp queer theory classes) and have been missing this sort of stimulation outside of school. That being said, I'm very invested in making objects, and making them well (I hope). I was pushed in directions to make my work sloppier in some ways at UChicago (pretty theory/concept heavy dept.) and I don't want to have to defend what I want to do in grad school. I'm worried a program like Yale might be similar. Any suggestions? 

 

Thanks in advance!

Hey David,

 

Nice work! Your statement is on point as well. I find it surprising that you aren't applying to SAIC's programs as much of their programs are cross disciplinary and the community has strong queer influences. Many of my friends that have come out of the MFA programs there have loved it, maybe its worth a look? Also, if you want theory heavy I strongly recommend attending an overseas program such as RCA or Goldsmiths.

 

A good friend of mine is about to graduate from Yale's photography program and has had the exact difficulty you are speaking about. At Yale its all about defending yourself, and in their case, to a group of straight white men. I don't know much about their other programs however I know that Yale is pretty specific when it comes to photography. Just some food for thought.

 

Oh and my friends attended the photo program at SAIC but as I understand it much of that programs students are making sculpture/fiber/performance work.

 

 

Best to you!