Friday, April 13, 2007

North vs. South - new MFa contender, UC Davis

Inbetween taxes, selling the Honda, and design work (dubbed "clicky clicky" for my time tethered to the mouse), I got an email titled CONGRATULATIONS. The use of all-caps seemed perfect for news from UC Davis to switch me from the Wait List status to the Yes List for their MFA program.
A week's mulling of Long Beach versus Laguna, left me leaning towards the private school, LCAD. I have a better grasp of LCAD's teaching style and like some of the teachers work a a lot. But my waffling is now distracted by the lure of the local... Davis is just a train ride away in a bikeable, beautiful town. It's hard to find out what the tone of the department is from the info online, since I can find the only report of student work is a write-up from 2004 MFA show involving piles of dirt and shovels. Very curious how much support there is for normal 2-d folks or if there a real new-genres bent.

An oddity of state school visual art departments is their lack of MFA show images online. All the Davis grad image links are dead. Lesson learned from grad school apps so far, is to visit the schools in-person. Very hard to get a feeling for it online.

The neighborhood is already planning a going-away party, so i'd hate to interrupt a chance for snacks and festivities. This time next week, I will have made my choice of where to paint in the Fall. eep!

4 comments:

William Fehr Creative said...

Congratulations!!!

Maureen said...

congrats, Robin - on your acceptance -- and even better to have the difficult choice to make. that means you have choices. All the better. I agree with you it's really almost impossible to get a real feeling for the tone of a grad school without visiting in person.

Davis is where one of our sons is working on his PhD in physics. He loves it there. Although I think sometimes he wishes the town were a little bigger (but then he came from a small town in Montana and wanted to experience the "big city."

Might not be as many transformers and power lines as you're used to ... and the thing about Davis' lack of online exposure for grad students work ... maybe that's something you could take by the horns. You might be the motivator, the impetus for Davis' art department to get their www-act together. you'd be good at it.

anyway, good luck. I wish you well and look forward to seeing what you make of more art school.

Robin said...

thanks bill and maureen! just below the "where to go" question, is a sustained "yippeee!" for the coming years. I too wonder how my creative expression will evolve after focussed practice. Sure, I have hopes and expectations for a career of great artmaking. But its all future fiction. After living and working in this city for the past ten years, its clear that creating art is both luxury and necessity. Just can't wait to dive in, and make it first priority.

Anonymous said...

yeaaa. congratuations R.

can't wait to read more in this exciting school saga.