tony clennell on wed 15 oct 08
Fergy: Whatever you do don't model your career path after mine. My
route to Alaska has taken me right off the continent at times. I first
want to address this statement of yours "Whether or not I stay in clay
is altogether another question as I have interests in film making,
writing, and digital arts."
I'll address it with a story of two profs recruiting grad students at
Nceca. A young guy came to them and said " I'm in love with ceramics
and think it is really, really great but I just took my LSAT exam and
did very well. I'm wondering if perhaps I should go to law school????
The one prof answered " Oh that's fantastic by all means go to law
school. There is a great career to be had in law". When the young man
left the other prof said "What the hell did ya say that for we're
supposed to be recruiting young bright grad students?" The first prof
replied " If you have any doubt whatsoever about a career in clay then
you're not suited".
God with 4 kids and a wife this a HUGE decision for you. I also think
that with these tuff economic times applications to schools will
increase as people look for sanctuary from the market. There could
also well be a freeze or decline in positions as the universities
tighten their budgets.
In the past week I've watched what investments I have shrink to levels
of about 4 years ago and my debt because of school increase. I'm
about a year away from telling ya to go for it or stay at home. On a
bad hair day I could throw in the towel but I'm in the 10th round and
I got some fight left in me so gloves are on.
Off to work. I'll think more on this.
Best,
Tony
On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 7:50 PM, Tony Ferguson wrote:
> Both Kelly and Tony, personal desire and current economic times have motivated me to pursue the MFA for developmental reasons. It's time to change my work and explore new areas--maybe functional, maybe sculptural, who knows.
>
> This is an often asked question "What MFA program is best?" on this list but as time changes, so do the programs and the people in them. And I have grown to trust after gathering an overview, of what people have to say on this list.
>
> Vince and a few others have given me some good information that I've been chewing on for sometime now, visiting websites, observing work done by the instructors and grad students.
>
> As I am not a traditional student--have taught for community colleges in the class room and online, have a family of 5, etc., although certainly open minded, I am not the young impressionable artist I once was. My plan, should I be accepted into a program, is to treat it like a job.
>
> Can anyone recommended a solid, respectable MFA program with instructors aware of the Art speak crit world yet backed up with solid skills and exemplary, cutting edge work in the functional and non-functional areas? Simply, they can talk the talk and walk the walk with their work speaking primarily for themselves and not being to heady.
>
> I am also interested in the instructors capability to guide me, provide technical expertise when I need it, and overall find instructors whose goal is not to aggrandize themselves, but actively challenge and take their students as far as they can in the time they have with them. I am not looking for hand holding, more expertise and raw focused energy.
>
> Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated and will be added to my research. Feel free to email me directly if you wish. Take care.
>
> Tony Ferguson
>
>
> Take Care,
>
>
>
> Tony Ferguson
> Artist...Clay, Web, Photo, Video
>
> ...where the sky meets the lake...
>
> http://www.tonyferguson.net
>
--
http://sourcherrypottery.com
http://smokieclennell.blogspot.com
Tony Ferguson on wed 15 oct 08
I hear you Tony.
I think on the tale end of a mid life crisis (let us hope) and recovering from a car accident nck injury, my confusion to stay in clay hopefully is normal. I have no doubts about my ability to succeed even with my current indecision about which path to take. Working in clay, problem solving, building kilns, developing glazes, etc., like you and many of us, has made me confident in my abilities to the point that I can learn to do just about anything.
I just have many interests and trying to figure out which way to go, how I can feed my family, pay the bills, etc. A program that allows me flexibility may be better suited for me or I can go in and just do clay and explore clay in ways I haven't before--and I may just do that.
After being in China, I have a particular interest in tea ware, sets, design--both eastern and western and am curious about all the variations on theme, scale, surface, etc. I think I could fill 2-3 years no problem exploring tea related things in ways I have never explored.
I think maybe the challenge with non-traditional folks like ourselves is we have tried and experimented many things already and yet we know we certainly we can come in with a enough ideas to move us along - but shouldn't graduate school be about doing things you haven't done before, synthesizing between yourself, other grad students, the profs, challenging ourselves and each other, and exploring new areas and ideas? Talk to me Tone. I'm an outsider at the moment.
Tony
tony clennell wrote: Fergy: Whatever you do don't model your career path after mine. My
route to Alaska has taken me right off the continent at times. I first
want to address this statement of yours "Whether or not I stay in clay
is altogether another question as I have interests in film making,
writing, and digital arts."
I'll address it with a story of two profs recruiting grad students at
Nceca. A young guy came to them and said " I'm in love with ceramics
and think it is really, really great but I just took my LSAT exam and
did very well. I'm wondering if perhaps I should go to law school????
The one prof answered " Oh that's fantastic by all means go to law
school. There is a great career to be had in law". When the young man
left the other prof said "What the hell did ya say that for we're
supposed to be recruiting young bright grad students?" The first prof
replied " If you have any doubt whatsoever about a career in clay then
you're not suited".
God with 4 kids and a wife this a HUGE decision for you. I also think
that with these tuff economic times applications to schools will
increase as people look for sanctuary from the market. There could
also well be a freeze or decline in positions as the universities
tighten their budgets.
In the past week I've watched what investments I have shrink to levels
of about 4 years ago and my debt because of school increase. I'm
about a year away from telling ya to go for it or stay at home. On a
bad hair day I could throw in the towel but I'm in the 10th round and
I got some fight left in me so gloves are on.
Off to work. I'll think more on this.
Best,
Tony
On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 7:50 PM, Tony Ferguson wrote:
> Both Kelly and Tony, personal desire and current economic times have motivated me to pursue the MFA for developmental reasons. It's time to change my work and explore new areas--maybe functional, maybe sculptural, who knows.
>
> This is an often asked question "What MFA program is best?" on this list but as time changes, so do the programs and the people in them. And I have grown to trust after gathering an overview, of what people have to say on this list.
>
> Vince and a few others have given me some good information that I've been chewing on for sometime now, visiting websites, observing work done by the instructors and grad students.
>
> As I am not a traditional student--have taught for community colleges in the class room and online, have a family of 5, etc., although certainly open minded, I am not the young impressionable artist I once was. My plan, should I be accepted into a program, is to treat it like a job.
>
> Can anyone recommended a solid, respectable MFA program with instructors aware of the Art speak crit world yet backed up with solid skills and exemplary, cutting edge work in the functional and non-functional areas? Simply, they can talk the talk and walk the walk with their work speaking primarily for themselves and not being to heady.
>
> I am also interested in the instructors capability to guide me, provide technical expertise when I need it, and overall find instructors whose goal is not to aggrandize themselves, but actively challenge and take their students as far as they can in the time they have with them. I am not looking for hand holding, more expertise and raw focused energy.
>
> Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated and will be added to my research. Feel free to email me directly if you wish. Take care.
>
> Tony Ferguson
>
>
> Take Care,
>
>
>
> Tony Ferguson
> Artist...Clay, Web, Photo, Video
>
> ...where the sky meets the lake...
>
> http://www.tonyferguson.net
>
--
http://sourcherrypottery.com
http://smokieclennell.blogspot.com
Take Care,
Tony Ferguson
Artist...Clay, Web, Photo, Video
...where the sky meets the lake...
http://www.tonyferguson.net
Lee Love on wed 15 oct 08
On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 9:28 AM, Tony Ferguson wrote:
> After being in China, I have a particular interest in tea ware, sets,
>design--both eastern and western and am curious about all the variations >on theme, scale, surface, etc. I think I could fill 2-3 years no problem >exploring tea related things in ways I have never explored.
Tony, if tea ware is your focus, there is no better place than Japan
to study. Folks don't realize the level that tea culture has been
taken there.
We cashed in on retirement investments just before the dot.com
bubble burst. It cost us about the same as an MFA to move to Japan,
get set up and support us for the first year. Because we don't have
those savings now, we are moving back to Minnestoa incrementally, with
Jean working while I get the business running here.
The economy is pretty bad in Japan for potters. I just heard that
my favorite living Mashiko potter is having a difficult time selling
her work. That dumbfounds me!
Pete Pinnell does a great east/west synthesis as far as teapots go.
--
Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://heartclay.blogspot.com/
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
http://claycraft.blogspot.com/
"Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." --Rumi
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