Wednesday, April 20, 2005

master of the university??

a pesky little thought has lodged in my brain and refuses to leave.

i'm beginning to entertain the idea of getting my m.f.a. in painting. (i take it out to dinner, we see movies. it's very amused, this idea of mine.)

the only problem i can forsee (besides having to unlearn many of the techniques developed once the whole shindig is over (quite like i had to do with undergrad. i did NOT want to be derivative of my painting profs, thank you very much.)) is funding. because i cannot take out student loans.

i've got a little under a year to get to work on the portfolio (which i've been updating lately anyway), artist statement, application letter, blah de blah de blah. (no gre for artists. we don't even have to take miller analogy. which is a shame because i've always wanted to take that one.)

but what say you, dear readers? am i being foolish to consider completing my fine arts education? (fine art degrees only reach the masters level. there is no phd program.)

in all honesty, i'd only be attempting the program to try to aquire an adjunct prof position once it's all over. (i mean, tenure track would be nice, but let's be realistic...) think it's a good idea???

4 comments:

Lisa B. said...

As a holder of a master's degree (albeit not in painting), I say no. You'd probably be better off working part time and then dedicating the remainder of your time to getting your art shown (and working on more art, but getting it shown is the biggie). Grad school is run by wankers to produce more wankers, just so they can all look down their noses at all the non-wankers and feel so superior.

r4kk4 said...

that's exactly what i was thinking.

but i have a project that would work great as a thesis. and i'm not going to be able to get it finished any other way that i can see.

i dunno'. i've got a while to think about it. maybe showing will work once i get to seattle.

Anonymous said...

Here's 2 cents from one of the wankers... :)

If you'd like a teaching gig (and there's def worse jobs to have...) Yeah, the MFA's a def prereq.

(Not all of us do it for the down-nose-non-wanker-looking Lisa!)

Re:funding... most grad students I know *are* fully funded in exchange for teaching undergrad intro courses... doing dept web design, etc. They don't pay a dime. I vote you keep thinking about it.

-ML

r4kk4 said...

thanks, matt!!

your opinion really helps! ESP considering that we're pretty much in the same field! (well, except you're cooler and more saavy and stuff! and i dabble in paints and not so much graphics.)

*whew!* good to know about funding. i thought it would be possible (esp considering my lack of income--har har!)

are faculty meetings as dire as i think they are? (i hated them when i taught hs art. and all of my profs in college used to tell me all the dish that had happened at their meetings. sigh...politics.)

and how bad was the thesis? i helped my mom with hers in psych (proofing, bibliography stuff) and that seemed to be a huge pain. is it any worse than getting ready for a show?