don't stop believing

To anyone reading this blog in real time, I'm sorry it's been a while since an update. I have been in my studio painting. I like the idea of tracking what it's like to go through a research-intensive MFA program, but in order to do that, I have to be making work.

I had my second round of crits today. Things went much better than they did the first round. While there were still plenty of comments about things that I could have done better, there were also comments about the successes. I think the main thing I did was show that I've been putting in studio hours and that I've been willing to experiment.

Early on in the semester, I heard people talking about a lot of conceptual aspects of their work. People stressed that content is king. While that's correct, the part I was missing is that it's better to figure out how to express your content by executing a plan and meeting limited success than it is to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to express your content. Make choices for reasons, be willing to evaluate them.

I talked to a friend earlier this week. I was freaking out because I was not sure about the work I was making. He's been through an MFA, so he understood. He told me to dive in. That's what I'd done, but I was afraid it wasn't going to pan out. It doesn't matter if everything pans out. A lot of being successful is just making work and evaluating what does and doesn't work. You can't learn if you keep making the same things by the same formulas. Once you learn anything, that lesson will inform how you work from that point on.

Anyway, I know I'll be stressed again, but for right now, I feel good about the progress I'm making. I have my official progress review coming up in a few weeks. I'm positive I'll have some of the freak out about that. I'm just going to try the best I can.

Critique Follow Up

After my critique, I had studio visits with several faculty. This provides a different format for feedback. The focus is less on the success of pieces presented, and more on how to continue. I got a lot of advice. Even though some of it seemed contradictory, it was all good. You can't expect professors to tell you what to do with your art. That is your own job. They will ask you questions and offer ideas to consider. It is impossible to follow all of this advice.

I am learning that I need to focus my work better. As one professor put it, I need to make sure I answer all of the "stupid" questions, the things that may be obvious (or unconsidered) are the ones that hang viewers up. If any spaces are left conceptually empty, viewers will supply their own ideas to fill them. I need to be in the moment with my work when I am creating it. It's ok to be in a mental zone where I am just focused on working, but if I let myself fall into making things and not being present with them, the quality will suffer.

I'm also learning that there isn't one true answer. Every professor and student I've talked to had different ideas about what did or didn't work. the trick is to read between these different ideas. There isn't a formula to make better artwork. Improvement is the result of having a better understanding of what causes people not to connect with a piece. Addressing those doesn't mean following the exact suggestions, but it is important to consider them. Even though I will probably not cover everything by the next critique (which is in three weeks), I will have tried. Chances are that things will go better.