From: Jack Fulton (jefulton1@home.com)
Date: 10/19/01-09:25:30 AM Z
Christina, prior to me stepping out to my studio to put together a slide
show for my lecture on history tonight, I though to answer your letter.
First, thank you for your enthusiastic response.
Please do not interpret the acceptance of one into an MFA program as less
than sincere. I am an honest person and through what was described as a
theoretical scenario (which does occur) it was one, in which, the
possibility of losing all five 'preferred' candidates is not likely.
People do apply to schools they sincerely want to attend. Over the the years
our Institution has presented to the world some extremely fine people who
now teach throughout the country. There was a statistic sometime back noting
that about 4-5% of the major awards over a period were given to SF Art
Institute students. many of these wonderful folks were not the highest on
the list.
Further, your 'fear' of being in a program where you were 'less than' is
something one ought not to worry themselves with. That is too self conscious
and what one must do in an MFA program is to work on their heart's desire:
the medium they chose for "self expression" not worrying about the self.
I reflect also on being a parent for nearly forty years and it has never
been an interest of mine, or my wife, to let the children know what we
sometimes felt. Yes, indicate to them a certain displeasure, but never to
tell them they were less than perfect just as they were.
As I said, judgement is arbitrary and once a decision is made to offer
matriculation into a program to any student, you do not wish to cloud their
future and fortune w/a useless, rude statement that they are not really up
to much. We are all there to aid one another and bring photographic
creativity to its highest potential for each person within the program.
Also, in regard to 'the truth', we feel, "who is one to judge?" I just went
through the 'judging' of North Carolina photographers in a competition
sponsored by Meredith College (as noted in another post). In my juror
statement I mentioned specifically that judgement is arbitrary and noted
Ernest Hemingway mentioned a number of times his tall stack of rejection
letters. Again, if, for instance, I am rejected by an NEA or Guggenheim or
other committee, and I have, is that a message to stop what I am doing? No.
Absolutely not. In many ways it further steels my determination to keep on
with what I am doing but with greater determination and invention.
At our place, we are interested in a variety of expressions so as to
diminish our own prejudices and foster a creative environment. We feel our
students present an eclectic mix of expressive truths using the medium of
photography. Yes, there sometimes is a lot of BS and gossip, but it must be
understood that is only a portion of the conversation, or, should I say . .
dialogue.
Jack
> Jack,
> I love this letter, and your perspective on MFA'ing through the years.
> One question (since I will probably be applying to grad school this or next
> year): do you give the incoming students the truth, that they weren't one
> of the top five wanted? I myself would not want a program accepting me if
> they thought I was "less than" (so keep that in mind when you see my slides
> come through the admissions process! :)). I'm figuring when I apply to
> places that if they deny me admission it's because there's no way I'd be a
> good fit, not that my work sucks. For instance, I'll probably apply to Yale,
> too, but I would be shocked if they would accept me because my work is so
> different than what I saw on their walls when visiting last spring.
> However, I wouldn't alter my submitted work to fit their conceptual mode
> because it'd seem false.
> Hey, Shannon, maybe you and I will be appllying to the same place at
> the same time and meet each other!
> Chris
>
>> 'there is something happening Mr. Jones . . and, you don't know what it
> is."
>> Bob Dylan
>>
>> To add another vegetable to the stew pot . . or is this discussion on
> stone
>> soup?
>> I've taught since '69 here @ the Art Institute and in the grad program
> since
>> the early 70's.
>> THEN
>> The student was fairly new to the idea of obtaining an MFA in photography.
>> We were similar in age and I was the 'gang' leader. We all worked and
>> shared the produced images. Each of us were excited by the creativity
>> amongst ourselves and the potential for new directions.
>>
>> Slowly, as I grew older, and the hippy thing and the Viet Nam war subsided
>> and Reagan/Bush plopped into power, the realization of teaching became
> more
>> critical and the average student to the MFA program knew less about being
> an
>> artist but knew more regarding photography.
>> We started seeing well made portfolios of almost non-content imagery.
> Though
>> I overblow my statement, much work was objective/possessive rather than
>> poetically portrayed.
>> Our probram expanded to include more art history and even the PM aspects
> of
>> theory. Some teachers came in and tore everyone and everything apart with
>> Post Modernism. Now that much of it is understood better and accepted (it
>> was very difficult churning the obtuse language to create a more
> vernacular
>> comprehension), we have what we consider to be a far more rigorous
> academic
>> course for the student to follow.
>>
>> Also, in fairness to the institutions you may refer to and the
>> teachers....yes, some are turkeys and some places are dull, yet the
>> enlivenment of a program is, in my mind, due to the creative energies and
>> interests of the students.
>>
>> NOW
>> Keep in mind that students are 'invited' to participate. For instance, we
>> may have over 90 portfolios to look through. Out of those, our faculty
>> (which is four: Linda Connor, myself, Reagan Louie and Henry Wessel) is
>> aided in our choices by: additional faculty who are adjunct or invited,
> the
>> complete graduate class who are given two votes. We may pick about 4 to 6
>> candidates (5%) but the program needs to take ten to maintain the size and
>> quality of the program. From past experience it is realized that twenty
> need
>> to be invited for an average of 50% attend. NONE of the original 5 chosen
>> may come and we could end up with the program holding 12 people we did not
>> relish to as great a degree as those we found held more votes.
>>
>> Then, the task becomes more focused on teaching. More often than not those
>> invited rise to the occasion and do well. Another classic example of the
>> average student is the person who comes in with a portfolio and thereby
> sets
>> out to 'experiment' and create something completely different. It is the
>> rare person who is creatively capable of such an endeavor and they return
>> (in almost 75% or more of all cases) to their original work and expand it
> a
>> bit.
>>
>> It is my feeling the student ought to come into a program with a strong
> body
>> of work and expand upon that. By doing so they will slowly put together a
>> body that holds variety such as that of a well led life. They will also
>> refine the raison d'etre for the work as a whole and be able more to
> define
>> what it is they are actually doing. Curators et al, in general, like to
> see
>> a "body' of work so they can mull it over and choose images THEY feel to
> be
>> important. I'd rather have the contemporary photographer do it. However,
>> there are such examples as Walker Evans not knowing diddly about his work
> in
>> "American Photographs' which is fully edited by Lincoln Kerstein.
>>
>> I am sure some of what I have said may be taken cum grano salis but it is
> a
>> scenario not uncommon. The student entering a program, whether at our
>> institution of @ UNM, Chicago, Pratt, VSA, Seattle, Arizona, wherever
> should
>> be prepared to work their butt off making photographs, That is the key . .
>> to make the photographs and let them be.
>>
>> Jack Fulton
>>> On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, shannon stoney wrote:
>>>> teach them. People in my classes still want to know things like how
>>>> to use the zone system, how to use a view camera, how to process 4x5
>>>> film. They have been asking about this stuff for a long time, and
>>>> since our teacher has been stalling on teaching that stuff, they ask
>>>> me to show them how to do these things.
>>>
>>> I loved grad school, but I used to say it was like a Victorian lecture
> on
>>> marriage, a lot of talk about the beauties of conjugal love, but if you
>>> asked about HOW IT WAS DONE (film, development, etc.) you were quickly
>>> shushed.
>>>
>>>> In one of the best drawing classes I ever took, the most helpful
>>>> things I learned were some "technique" things. The teacher could
>>>> teach these things because he was a working artist. He didn't go on
>>>> and on about theory; he taught us how he worked. That was very
>>>> helpful.
>>>
>>> Right -- no "theory of drawing."
>>>
>>>> Not to say that theory is never helpful; it just seems as if lately
>>>> it has become a substitute for anything else substantive, because in
>>>> a way it's easier to talk about books and words than it is to get
>>>> down to making something.
>>>
>>> Not to mention that theory remains state-of-the-art about as long as
>>> software.. If you go back & read "theory" of, for instance, the '70s,
>>> it's like another planet... which many tenured profs are from.
>>>
>>>> position on why you did something or why it's better to take pictures
>>>> of flowers or not take pictures of flowers for example. My problem
>>>> with the teachers at my school is that they don't support their
>>>> theories with any good reasons. They just beat people up with them.
>>>> They have been doing this, unchallenged, for so long that they have
>>>> forgotten, if they ever knew, why they believe the things they
>>>> believe. I think they accepted them as dogma at some point in their
>>>> careers and have never really examined the validity of these ideas,
>>>> or their practicality, or their effect on students, especially young,
>>>> hesitant students. I am an old, stubborn student, so I mostly blow
>>>> it off. But I end up defending younger, less confident people a lot.
>>>
>>> Very well said !... Of course one hopes to produce art that transcends
>>> theory... which, alas, may not be clear until we also are, so-to-speak,
>>> transcended.
>>>
>>> Judy
>>>
>>
>
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