I am now within two months of achieving my goal of obtaining a MFA. I re-read my post of a few years ago stating my hopes for grad school. What I have actually experienced is way beyond what I could have guessed at the time. Let's see, I am three years older now, divorced after my first year, full of newly acquired artistic descriptive phrases to describe my work and crit others and a *whole* lot of scars from battles that I have won. Am I better off, you bet!
I liken the experience to that of maturity. I had already been in the professional graphic design field for 16 years. What new things could I learn? Hmmm...well, I found out and it wasn't anything I had expected, so much more. History, research, critical analysis, dissimilar attractions, academia itself, so many areas I had never considered.
The scars I mentioned earlier were the deep, dark times of distress I went through in my first year as I desperately tried to understand why my work was being viewed so critically. This rarely happened in the professional world. I was going through so many changes that year, especially at home. The year ended up in divorce. The end, or a new beginning? I hung on and made it a new beginning. Slowly but surely, things began to make sense. Modes of thinking and aesthetic values begin to seep in. I was on my way.
But now, at the end of year three, as I am about to embark into practice, I feel like a kid again, about to search for a position that has been, in reality, ten years in the making. I'm ready and eager to teach, work with professional peers and see what a mark I can make on impressionable minds. The future looks bright.
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