Following my guest talk and presentation of my installation at CSU Channel Islands earlier this Spring, I was honored to participate in a group of guest panel speakers for the Art Department's Concept to Career: Grad School Night program. Below is the line-up of my fellow presenters, including my esteemed colleague and friend, Julianne P. Gavino:

Julianne Gavino
MA, Museum Studies, NYU
PhD (in progress)
History of Art and Architecture, UCSB

Ashleigh Norman (CI Class of ’11)
MFA, Painting (in progress)
San Francisco Art Institute

Jocelyn Kornfeld (CI Class of ’09)
MFA, Graphic Design
University of Edinburgh

Bradley Schnell (CI Class of ’05)
Masters of Architecture
University of Pennsylvania

Agnete “Chippy” Todd (CI Class of ’09)
CERCAL, International Footwear and Design School
Italy

Van C. Tran
MFA, Art, Public & Social Practice
UCSB

The event was overall successful, with a filled room of audience members of all ages and backgrounds. The majority of the audience stuck it through our group discussion, which included responses to the public's questions about our student loan debt, grad school advice, and what our grad school experience was like in a nut shell. 

I enjoyed listening to the different voices behind the presenters, who all had taken a different academic art trajectory. Although a majority of the panel speakers were CI alum, everyone had a different higher educational background and perspective to share. This broad base of interests show that there are many options to choose from when selecting and applying to schools as a prospective grad student. And not choosing to go to graduate school to pursue professional work is and has always been an option.

Since this experience, I have been reflecting on how much I have grown post-graduate school, and where I am now with my creative work and professional work. Though it can be easy to get stuck in the moment (as well as the past), I'm trying to use this self-reflection as an assessment of what's next and identify what previous goals I'll need to realign. 

I shall extend these similar reflective questions aloud: How much have you grown (since your education) and where are you at now with what you are doing? What connections have you made between what you explored in school and your current work?

Here we are. My colleagues and I graduated earlier this summer and for me I feel a sense of relief from the rigorous training we received the past two years.

What's next is based upon variables that we as artists define and carve for ourselves. Some of us have moved to LA, one is currently traveling overseas, another out in the East Coast, and a couple of us remain local. Being launched into the professional world and settling a career within the art-world is merely a step for our kind. The journey continues and it certainly doesn't stop here.

For being in transition of relocating and displacement, finding gainful employment and/or residencies, I am learning to come to terms with the jolting freedom we've thrown ourselves back into after having immersed ourselves in the bubble of art school academia. An MFA isn't so much about gloating the degree that we earned. It's more of a matter of what we do with our MFA. Whether we're out as future faculty, freelancers, arts administrators, curators, practitioners, or even a survivalist taking a hiatus from the art-world and eating instant ramen to make ends meet, we are made... but in the long run, what counts is that we are making and are continuing to do so.

 
I'm in the middle of transitioning out of Santa Barbara and after moving out of my studio and returning my set of university keys, I'm a little short on the resources I once had access... including the internet.

I've also learned that weebly and Google Chrome are not compatible, which is why for the past couple of months, I was unable to troubleshoot loading errors. I guess they'll break up to make up maybe one day. I’m barely pushing through here on Explorer.

But don't fret, dear reader. Here's a small list of publications that you can catch up on reading, particularly with the recent exhibitions I've participated.

    Here’s a slam on the group exhibition BOOM by  KCRW’s Ed
    Goldman. Ouch, Ed. Ouch.

    And a review of Goldman's review.

    Here's another publication on BOOM from LA I'm Yours.

    One of my older works was featured in the MFA thesis exhibition 
    Headgear for Tony, review by SB Independent’s Josef Woodard. 
    Here's a downloadble .pdf version.

And if you're wondering what I've been sticking my nose into, I've been reading other "light" material, such as Anne-Marie Slaughter's "Why Women Still Can't Have it all," from Atlantic Magazine, and Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams. The latter is quite poetic and reminds me much of Calvino's Invisible Cities. An excerpt from the novel was part of the graduation speech that my committee chair Marko Peljhan, read to me in front of our audience. It was quite evocative, and I often refer to such materials when addressing/poeticizing past experiences.

More soon. Read on.
    

JULY 27 - AUGUST 24, 2012
----- Opening Reception This Friday, July 27th 5 - 8pm -----
Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Ave., 2nd Floor
den Suites B215, B222, B257, B261 & B273West Hollywood, CA 90069

BOOM is an annual artist-developed survey of art in and around Los Angeles.

From an area regarded for its reputable educational opportunities in the fine arts,  BOOM features traditional and non-traditional artwork by MFA students who  have recently graduated or are currently working out of colleges and universities  in Southern California. BOOM 2012 introduces its artists to a contemporary  art ecology that endures as a global and desert-coast nexus of experimentation and elaboration in the arts. A collective student-organized effort, the exhibition is an opportunity to engage a heterogeneous scope of new art. BOOM includes
artworks that have been developed in contexts of contemplative study with rigorous student and faculty dialogue, from Orange County to Santa Barbara. Considering the formal MFA course in conjunction with our subversive, playful, and idiosyncratic sensitivities, BOOM is pleased to announce this second-annual group exhibition in partnership with den contemporary. Representing 10 Southern California institutions, the participating artists include:

Jonathan Apgar, Gabe Arroyo, Daniel Axe, Rachel Bank, April Bey, Logan Bell, Tim Brown, Ryan Bulis, Andrew Cameron,Renee Chartier, Catherine Davis, David De Boer, Mauricio Demarfil, Jenny Donaire, Clifford Eberly,  Marten Elder, Sean C. Flaherty, Jared Flores, Aaron Giesel, Girl Puke , Maya Guranz, David Gutierrez, Anitra Haendel, Ashley Hagen, Yaron Michael Hakim, Kyla Hansen, Kelsea Heino, Christina Hendershaw, Mary Hill, Alison Ho, Raymie Iadevaia, Janna Ireland, William Kaminski, Bridget Kane, Michael Kelly, Yongho Kim, Bessie Kunath, Hans Kuzmich, Tina Linville, Joe Lloyd, Joshua Logan, Nick Lowe, Nick Loewen, Justin Lubliner, Annelie Mckenzie, Kathleen Melian, Stefan Meyer, Keith Monda, Ragen Moss, Michael Nannery, Travis Novak, Ruby Osorio, Lisa Oxley, Alexandra Pacheco Garcia, Fabia Panjarian, Shalini Sanjay Patel & Amanda Katz, Ryan  Perez, Atilio Pernisco, Ashley Pottenger, Elise Preiss, Patrick Quan, Cima Rahmankah, Chelsea Rector, Kari Reardon, Christopher Reynolds, Cassie Riger, Xilomen Rios, Elena Rosa, Becca Shewmake, Eric Schott, Shilla Shakoori, Chris Silva, Rimas Simaitis, Michael Shroads, Jonathan Takahashi, Lisa Talbot, Elizabeth Tinglof, Liz Toonkel, Van Tran, Tammy Vo, Matthew Waller, Tessie Whitmore, Emily Wing, Emily Wiseman, Brandy Wolfe, Bethany Wray, Kim Ye, Michael Zahn, Rodd Zinberg

 
FOLLOW UP WITH BOOM:

Facebook: "BOOM 2012"Twitter: https://twitter.com/BOOMLA2012Web Address: www.boomlosangeles.com