Art School/College

Hello! From Art School!

What is taught:
1) how to "perform and participate" in critique, or "crit"
2)...

DON'T DO IT.

Yeah, critique is okay I guess. But then this is my MFA and I'm glad I did something at least SOMEWHAT academic for my undergrad.

Adam, who, aside from Dean Gulberry, would you count as your principal inspirations?

I liked the art program at my third-tier state university. It was pretty laid back, mostly good professors, none of the attitude (or the trustafarians) you might see at a real art school. OTOH, a BFA from the University of Texas at X does not exactly confer a lot of privileges on the holder.

I still get stuff from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and would love to go there if it were even remotely possible.

I always wanted to go to art school...my parents were adamantly against it. This lady at our church would encourage me to do it every week, and I'd go home depressed of this impossible dream. Eventually they had her quit mentioning it to me.

It is a bitter thing but in some ways it seems pretty damn pointless to get a degree in anything that won't yield a job significantly better than you could get without a degree or college. It depresses me just thinking about it. OTOH I know people *do* manage to get jobs with these things, if only a larger minority (or smaller number, whatevs). I probably shouldn't think about this again.

Adam, who, aside from Dean Gulberry, would you count as your principal inspirations?

Spencer Chow, Momus, Devin The Dude...and god.

I am studying painting but actually do more sound/photography/drawing. Tomorrow I have a progress review. I know it will go badly because I wanted my work statement to sound as unpretentious as it could.d

My advice to anyone is similar to ian's

I have a BFA from the University of Texas at X, where X=Austin.

bastard

It has done me absolutely no good at all, if that makes you feel better.

Heck, even if it doesn't.

you don't go to art/music school to "get a job"
you go to meet weird, lame people who are better than you at everything you've ever attempted, and also to waste yr parent's money

In that case, mission accomplished!

It's the very last item that killed my ability to go through what would certainly be the personal hell of the former, mr. or ms. bag.

I know little or nothing about 'art school'. The only reason I can imagine to attend one would be to learn a wide variety of techniques for handling various media, so that when you want to create some art you know how to use your materials to get the effects you want. This used to be accomplished a couple of centuries ago by apprenticeships.

Beyond the niceties of the craft, what else could they teach you that you couldn't better discover on your own, by looking at art and at the world and by thinking about what you see?

I always figured art schools also sped one through the "re-inventing the wheel" aspect of young painters quicker than would happen on one's own painting in the basement.

I went. Was it a waste of time? Eh. Depends on how serious you take it. If you take advantage of the facilities when you're there and make enough connections it can turn out to be pretty lucrative. I know quite a few people I went to school with who are doing very well. I, of course, dicked around and have no portfolio to speak of that's worth a shit.

Beyond the niceties of the craft, what else could they teach you that you couldn't better discover on your own, by looking at art and at the world and by thinking about what you see?

Beyond whatever anyone teaches you at art school, the access to free equipment is without a doubt the most invaluable resource it provides. As a film grad, the reality of having to rent cameras, lights, so forth for hundreds of dollars a pop post-graduation makes me wish I had banged out a few more quality products while I had the shit at my fingertips for close to nothing. And I'm sure that goes for dark rooms, kilns, etc, etc.

I went to art school. I won't say it crushed my soul, but it is a waste of time unless you're self motivating and ready to find like-minded students to help push your work and development. And then if you really want to be a fine artist (vs. a commercial artist/illustrator/graphic designer/etc.) you pretty much have to go to a top notch grad school after to create art world connections and exposure.

you go to meet weird, lame people who are better than you at everything you've ever attempted, and also to waste yr parent's money

weird, sometimes, lame, yes, the rest....I wish. It seems that anyone who knows what a pencil looks like can get in these days. By year three it becomes clear life can be just as satisfying going with all other choices I had in mind.

What Werner said - I get to rent a lot of equipment for "free" (obv. I pay tuition but I got a partial scholarship), I get a little bit of studio space, I get to meet and work with a lot of people doing a variety of interesting things, I get taken seriously in that I can meet with professors who are "established" artists and critics who will look at my stuff and give me feedback, I also get opportunities to try things I would never dream of trying if I weren't in school. Also no matter how ridiculous this is, the fact that I am a grad student in a good school means that when I contact people outside of school for help/advice on certain projects, they take me more seriously than they would a year ago, when I was just an office worker who did this shit on his free time.

But it maybe a false economy of sorts, I'm not in a position to say right now. I'd imagine that if you think art is sort of pointless, you'd think the same of art school. There's a sense that without all this academic infrastructure that indoctrinates us all into thinking a certain way about art and venerating certain people, a whole strata of "the art world" would probably just collapse in on itself. It is a little self-perpetuating and there is perhaps a sense of too much consensus.

But I think art is incredibly important. Maybe I just go to a bad school. I have a theory lecturer who is incredibly inspiring. I come out of his classes all fired up. I finally understand something Jose Gonzales Torres says about Walter Benjamin because of something he says about Helen Frankenthaler. But I'm sick of the constant barrage of platitudes and being told my work is very "conceptual" despite the fact that it really isn't. At all.

Fucking hell, that last comment was me.

I go to art school for painting. Thank god.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2005/1911031158_785e2e8d29.jpg

whoops. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2005/1911031158_785e2e8d29.jpg

Does anybody know of any internet forums that are quite active where people talk about art and exchange ideas and stuff?

i'll talk to you about art. let's talk. are you an art history major?

Right okay, no, I study painting, why do/did you study art history?

Just guessing from the way you said it is all.

i didn't, actually. it was a big major at Vassar and i heard it was hard. lots of memorization. but it seemed interesting.

who's your favorite painter?

http://www.barbarakrakowgallery.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/03920a94be423902cad7fe12c2ac0ec7/img_two/martin_pace2.jpg

Agnes Martin

Actually I'm supposed to be writing a paper on process as content in art at the moment and I've chosen to write it on her, but I still haven't actually started.

Which is weird because normally I'll use any opportunity to rant about how wonderful her stuff is.

Actually I have a pretty nerdy dream. I've never been to America, but if I ever do I'd like to do a sort of Agnes Martin Pilgrimage. Starting in Canada in Saskatchewan where she was born and travel down through America seeing as many of her paintings as I can and stopping in New York where she painted some of her most beautiful all the way down to Tao New Mexico where she work for the last period of her life and died.

http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_424492560_335144_agnes-martin.jpg

that sounds like a beautiful dream. is this her stuff?

You can see a lotty lot of stuff in Taos.

So are where are you at in your schooling "I Know, Right"?

I am so signing up for the Agnes Martin road trip. She is the greatest.

Also I get sad whenever I see a reproduction of a Martin, because it just does not do it justice.

Also I get sad because the Portland Art Museum has something of a quest to have third-rate paintings by first-rate artists, and its Martin is only so-so but it is still one of their best 20th C. paintings but why couldn't it be a really good one?

(Also that have one of the lamest Rothkos I've ever seen.)

i always sorta wanted to go here

Oh yes. My friend looked into a summer thing there.

Also I get sad whenever I see a reproduction of a Martin, because it just does not do it justice.

This is depressing, I've never seen one in real life. I once ran across an exhibition in Hamburg (very unlike me) with excitement because I thought I saw one. But it became gradually apparent the closer I got that it wasn't. Anybody who wants to join me on the Agnes trip is one hundred percent welcome, see you in Macklin airport!

That's so funny about the Burren Art college thing. I've never really looked into the place, it's a bit off the map in official terms. I go here I'm in third year now, it's a four year course, but the first year is pretty much irrelevant as they feel (depressingly correctly) that they need to spend a year teaching you what art college is.

I love Felix Gonzalez Torres. I am really jealous of the way he used materials in such a simple, profound way. There are very few artists that actually give me that burning desire to wish I had made their work, or at least known them. (Sometimes I get very upset that I will never meet Agnes Martin).

Surmounter, if you are around, you want to talk art now?

the agnes martin pieces at documenta were beautiful and extremely well-situated in a room w/ lotsa nasreen mohamedi drawings. sets up a nice compare/contrast study, you oughta look into her if you haven't yet, IKR

funny you also mention felix, he had a joint show with agnes around this time last year at the gallery i intern for now (i didn't get to see it)

You intern at Andrea Rosen! yeah, I know all about that show. Obviously it would cost a lot more money than I would be able to muster for a long time to get there. I'm very jealous by the way. What do you do there by the way?

I have written Nasreen Mohamedi in my notebook, that is solid gold proof that I will be reading up on her. In fact I like what I see in this initial google image search.

Question, is Andrea Rosen an actual presence in the gallery?

I wish shows like this would go on tour.

Please be still online!

Do you like impasto? I've been trying it recently & I realized it makes painting FUN for me instead of tedious.

What media do you like to use?

i am here! private message me tho: ga11uc✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ (replace 1's with l's)

uh, in case that didn't show up, last three letters before @ symbol: cij and you can probably figure out the rest