Lost in Monotony: After college dilemma

[Duck]

Originally Posted by Adelgander

Hi all,



Here is the situation:

Since my BFA graduation in 2009, I have not payed a dime back on the loans and other debts I acquired during those four years at SCAD in Atlanta. This seems like the least of my worries

.... Paying it back seems like the least of my worries".... Sounds like Obamanomics to me

[obseq]

Originally Posted by Adelgander

I admit, this situation is a little more difficult to produce work than it was when I had everything all in one place at school. But that is in no way an excuse to be idle, and you are all very correct in scolding me for that. Thank you!

It is more difficult. Absolutely! Sculptors have it hard but that's part of the challenge.
I always cringe when I hear about photographers and painters moan about their difficulties when it comes to materials and taking their work head-on.

Since you mentioned a MFA as a possibility, one common refrain I've heard while in contact with grad school committees is that they prefer to see how a prospective student contends with creating a body of work --outside--
of an academic environment, where facilities/materials are always within easy reach.

Hopefully, you're waist-deep in a newfound construction site dumpster!!!

[cheesepaws]

Being frustrated is a good thing. At least you feel the lack of support that you had while you were at SCAD. So many students leave school, never make art again…and never really miss it. So you are one up!

You have already gotten some great “just do it” advice form folks here – listen to them. Reaching out for guidance on this forum is a great start.

Also, like has already been mentioned, there are many great ways to continue your education in art/object making – but really, given your background, portfolio and suggested expectations for a “job” – grad school is your best option. Ries already mentioned you could probably go very cheaply to a good grad school (for example, I think I only paid about $200 a semester in fees at a large east coast state school.) Once back in school you can defer your undergraduate loans (or, more responsibly, make reduced payments) and you can pick up some awesome and inexpensive health care (that might be a nice gesture toward repaying your family for their support). Pick a program that maximizes the resources YOU are interested in. Studio space, tool facilities and professors who make work that might align with your own ideas is a great place to start. School – ANY SCHOOL – is only what you make of it. The bulk of the responsibility is always on the student to work hard, ask questions and seek out opportunities. Grad school (or undergrad) never guarantees you any kind of job but it certainly might make finding a job that meets your expectations much easier than some of the alternatives mentioned. Of course, with experience, expectations change. All systems have their pros and cons. Given how academic your work already is – I think you would flourish in an MFA program.

Oh – and your school DID provide you with resources for employment. Below is a link to the career/alumni service center at SCAD. You paid for access to these networks and I am sure they can help support you in many ways. However, in the end the “job” of being an artist has as many different meanings as there are students - YOU must define how you want to make art before any fellow artists, parents or professors can dole out guidance that best fits you.

If you are still not sure about grad school – or if you have missed the application deadlines for the program you are interested in – contact your student loan officer and ask for a “hardship” deferment – it will buy you some time and perhaps free up some more resources for strengthening your portfolio even further.

Best of luck!

CP

http://www.scad.edu/connect/career-services/index.cfm

[evaldart]

Very good advice Cheese. He would be smart to follow that to a "t".

[jOe~]

Good advice on more schooling from Cheese. Oh yeah you'll succeed in getting an MFA, but now Adelgander must do some hard thinking and focus on what problems an MFA will actual solve. Its time to get real and zero in on goals. Where specifically do you want to be in x number of years? What new doors will open? In other words: what is the PLAN? Otherwise you'll be in the same boat in the same puddle, and still sinking.

[Ries]

Goals? Plan?

oh no- do I have to worry about that stuff too?

I am 56- and I have never had either. And hope never to have to.

I am more of the Maynard G Krebs school of thought- Work? Me?

[evaldart]

Good point Joe; the hope is that the additional maturity, development (intellectual) and experience will provide an avenue (cause there will still be MANY). Most MFA's quit art shortly thereafter also. It wont be easier, indeed. But you'll be stronger and more determined and more realistic about what it means to give yourself to your creative potential.

And some folks just get it for teaching; pure and simple. But there DEFINITELY is no surplus of opportunities there. And god knows where you'll end up to fill that position (Detroit...yikes).

But, being amongst others in a more advanced form of the predicament will stimulate much discourse about "plans of action". And who knows...you might share an apartment with someone who becomes famous and they'll get you a leg-up. That happens all the time.

[jOe~]

Goals? Plan?

oh no- do I have to worry about that stuff too?

I've never been a planner, except when huge time and financial commitments were involved. Don't want to squander either. Also, school debt ain't what it used to be, and the middle class ain't what it used to be either. I paid off my university education while in school working part time. Reality is different now.

I am 56- and I have never had either. And hope never to have to.

I am more of the Maynard G Krebs school of thought- Work? Me?

Maynard was an early influence too. My favorite episode was the 8' ball of aluminum foil. There's an art project.
By the way Ries, do you have your sons watch Dobie Gillis reruns to study Maynard as a role model?

[cheesepaws]

Originally Posted by jOe~

Good advice on more schooling from Cheese. Oh yeah you'll succeed in getting an MFA, but now Adelgander must do some hard thinking and focus on what problems an MFA will actual solve. Its time to get real and zero in on goals. Where specifically do you want to be in x number of years? What new doors will open? In other words: what is the PLAN? Otherwise you'll be in the same boat in the same puddle, and still sinking.

I know I do seem to suggest more skoolin' quite a bit - but in this case you only need to look at his work to know that the kind of sculpture he wants to make is primarily attached to academia.

But you are absolutely right - he will get more from his MFA program with a good exit strategy.

So what's the deal Adelgander? What do you want to do with your life?

[jOe~]

I know I do seem to suggest more skoolin' quite a bit - but in this case you only need to look at his work to know that the kind of sculpture he wants to make is primarily attached to academia.

Agree completely--it looks exactly like good MFA work, but like you said:"he will get more from his MFA program with a good exit strategy. " Call it a plan, or goal, or exit strategy, it was absent from his BFA experience.

So what's the deal Adelgander? What do you want to do with your life?

He says the following:

My grand dreams of a contemporary lifestyle and work environment are slowly slipping away from me.

One of the toughest things in life can be "making things happen" that you want to happen. As an artist you either sell what you make or teach others how to make their own stuff, or make it and not worry about sales because you have other income that doesn't require messing up your art head too much.

[cheesepaws]

Originally Posted by jOe~

Agree completely--it looks exactly like good MFA work, but like you said:"he will get more from his MFA program with a good exit strategy. " Call it a plan, or goal, or exit strategy, it was absent from his BFA experience.

True, but I also expect it is absent from the goals of many undergrads. The twixter generation tends to see college as something to do BEFORE they consider a future career. Of course it is easy to criticize - to question the levels of rigor in high schools or scold coddling parents - but the simple lack of jobs is the obvious culprit.

[evaldart]

As an artist you either sell what you make or teach others how to make their own stuff, or make it and not worry about sales because you have other income that doesn't require messing up your art head too much.

Or you do BOTH.....plus a few other things to be sure the 48 hour days are packed to hell.

[Duck]

Originally Posted by cheesepaws

- but the simple lack of jobs is the obvious culprit.

Yo cheese..the A has a job! Remember paying his debt is the least of his worries in the old days he would be known as a Dead Beat.

[jOe~]

Paying it back seems like the least of my worries".... Sounds like Obamanomics to me

Yo cheese..the A has a job! Remember paying his debt is the least of his worries in the old days he would be known as a Dead Beat.

Give the young guy a break... fresh out of school on $200 a week. First priorities are food shelter transportation, better paying job,THEN paying off debt. You are way too quick to criticize. Think, open your mind, before you get on your judgmental high horse.

but the simple lack of jobs is the obvious culprit.

Nope. Its not simple, and not just a lack. There is not much demand for certain skills and there is nothing you can do about that except stand out or expand your skill set.

[craigktx]

Originally Posted by Adelgander

I like to think of my work as being a critical but 'helpful' allegory of certain aspects of society pertaining to government, politics, education, culture, etc. I have already had somewhat of a critique here on this work, but suggestions in the direction of how I could exhibit this sort of work would be really helpful.

http://www.sculptwig.yolasite.com

You can't be critical at this point, twenty something is not forty something thats been harden by the fire.(unless daddy pays for it)


Make something the masses will buy. (art and craft shows)That would have been a great gig in my twenties.
Then once you are a confident person (artist)the doors will open. (Slowly)

[KatyL]

I get what you are saying in the long run. I also agree that art school is only a "part" of a career, and not something that causes, or leads to a career.

I began sculpting again after a fallow period that lasted many years. I did it because it was my true vocation, and I recognized that late in life. (I also have a degree that did not lead to a job).

At the time, I was horribly unemployed. My job was eliminated because the equipment I used became obsolete. I was not trained to do anything else, and it had been 10 years since I graduated from college. I moved out of unemployment little by little, at first with a part time job. I do not make much money now, but it is over minimum wage, I have health insurance and some job security. (I bake bread for a living when I am not sculpting).

The person (not artist necessarily) needs to first take care of his livelihood-- meaning a place to live, food, transportation to a job, and a job. Certainly you know that everyone has dreams, and most people would rather be doing something else than what they are doing.

If you go to a tech school, you might pick up a CNA, or an associates in accounting. A CNA can bring in 12 to 14 dollars per hour where I live in the Midwest. Many hospitals have CNA programs which are free (you must interview as though it were a real job). I know a good painter who sells regularly who is a CNA. His job allows him to take the time he needs to do his art, and the money he needs also. Get job training in a field that is actively hiring people. Art, as you notice, is a kind of small business, and you can't expect to get any kind of work doing it.

Once you have a job bringing in a reasonable amount of money, work on creating a small body of work. This may take you a few years. Not that this is totally ideal, but you can't really get into a gallery without a reasonable sampling of your work. Don't go off on tangents-- do a bunch of stuff in a style that amuses you, and that you figure might interest other people. You really have to be a bit of a capitalist here. If you want to make sales, you need to chose things you figure will sell. Remember also that you can do other forms of art if they are cheaper or easier for you. For instance, you can paint, get into a gallery and move to sculpture in a few years. Becoming an associate member of a co-op gallery usually will get you some wall space.

This is somewhat similar to what I have been doing after the long period of unemployment. (I started in one gallery as a painter of abstracts). My abstracts still sell well. I have gotten 2 galleries interested in my sculpture (which is more figurative) one here, and one in Colorado. I have also had my work looked at by certain people who are decently big in the arts. I am linked now to a small foundry and giving mold making classes locally. It is a lot of hard work and shuffling priorities, and I still make only a handful of sales per year.

Meeting people who like your work is very important. Get some nice clothing, an artist's statement and go to cocktail parties and meet collectors. Easier said than done. Going to "Art Walks" is a start.

The business side alone will cost you money. Websites and packing and transportation costs. Crane rentals. As you might know, just because you have a show, or are in a gallery it does not mean you will sell unless you work on getting some name recognition. So you may find out that you are spending a lot of money but will not see a return for several years down the road.

But the first step is to get that new job and place yourself in a situation where you can put 300 or 400 dollars per month into sculpture. Also get a housemate to keep your costs down. Paying 1/2 for your lodgings really releases some of your money for your own personal use. I cannot say enough about "doubling up" you get so much more for your money.

It is not much as far as advice, but is a beginning.

At the moment, I see the art I do as an investment for the future. I am trying to build up about 20 sculptures so I can mount a first small solo show. There is no "simple" way to do it, just make one after the other.

Don't depend on art to buy you a nice warm bed, because it is a cruel mistress.