Alternate plans - 2014

[bathtub]

Hi all,

I imagine this topic could use a new thread. Looking into reapplying for MFA next year with a stronger, more focused body of work.

I see Columbia's painting summer intensive priority deadline has passed, but I'm sure there are other great options out there. Any ideas you can share?

Thanks. Ideas commence!

Edited March 30, 2014 by bathtub

[workwoman]

I was going to ask this too!  I'm a senior now, but I did not feel confident with my portfolio when the deadlines came this winter and spring. Now I have no idea how to spend my 'gap year'.  Parents probably expect me to get a waitressing job, but I'd love to get into a residency! Most of those deadlines have pasted as well, and many require an application fee...

 

Give me ideas!!! I'm terrified and clueless!

[kierstin]

I was going to ask this too!  I'm a senior now, but I did not feel confident with my portfolio when the deadlines came this winter and spring. Now I have no idea how to spend my 'gap year'.  Parents probably expect me to get a waitressing job, but I'd love to get into a residency! Most of those deadlines have pasted as well, and many require an application fee...

 

Give me ideas!!! I'm terrified and clueless!

 

Waitressing sounds pretty reasonable to me.  Actually, that's what I've been doing for the past two years, paying off all my undergrad loans before taking on more for an MFA.  It has been useful for me to make work in the absence of deadlines and the gratification of group crits, and figure out how to self motivate.  It takes some adjusting.  As long as you have a studio to continue making work in, I say it's worth it to learn how to balance money making with art making. Hopefully you will gain more clarity and independence in your work along the way. I haven't done a residency so I can't speak to the merit of that path, but unless your tuition will be covered by your parents or scholarships, your priorities should be earning money and making work.  Grad school is expensive.  Plusss... there's a good chance you'll have to moonlight as a server to pay your rent as an adjunct professor.  Might as well build your resume now.

[workwoman]

Waitressing sounds pretty reasonable to me.  Actually, that's what I've been doing for the past two years, paying off all my undergrad loans before taking on more for an MFA.  It has been useful for me to make work in the absence of deadlines and the gratification of group crits, and figure out how to self motivate.  It takes some adjusting.  As long as you have a studio to continue making work in, I say it's worth it to learn how to balance money making with art making. Hopefully you will gain more clarity and independence in your work along the way. I haven't done a residency so I can't speak to the merit of that path, but unless your tuition will be covered by your parents or scholarships, your priorities should be earning money and making work.  Grad school is expensive.  Plusss... there's a good chance you'll have to moonlight as a server to pay your rent as an adjunct professor.  Might as well build your resume now.

 

I'm not against waitressing or any other manuel/parttime/minimum wage job, and I will probably get one soon. But I can't help but resent the idea that I will be spending a large majority of my time at a poor paying job and sacrificing time I could spend improving my portfolio, artist's resume, and applications.  Another worry of mine is finding studio space.  I live in small town Michigan--rainy, cold, hot, windy, bugs, etc.--so painting outside is sometimes an option, but never reliable and I'm pretty sensitive to fumes...so I'm worried about funding my materials and studio space.

 

I think you make a good point about learning to self motivate--that's another future task I find daunting!