Tearing up

Ashley and I saw Bon Iver last night. 

I cried several times. 

Remembered a lot of things. 

I have been taking photographs.

I think if we do have a song, maybe it is Skinny Love... or Beach Baby.

excerpt.

Although I am not exactly sure what it was you heard. Most people say that I have not been around because I had lost my shit. To be honest, I am not sure if that was the case. I am sure that in the fall I took a good bit of LSD. That is acid. Usually I was alone. Also, I watched a lot of films and shows by David Lynch. It was great fun for a bit. 

At some point I went to Jail. Also you may know that I was depressed. Not my choice of words but I save the semantics. For several months I stayed in my apartment most of the time. After I got out of Jail I stopped drinking. Now I continue to pay rent for my apartment, but I spend the majority of my time at my girlfriend's house. She lives a block away. I do not like my apartment because it reminds me of hallucinations. Sometimes it reminds me of a time I thought I was trapped inside of a piece of wood. But that did not actually happen. I knew I was not really in the wood. Anyways.

Regaining Something

Currently I am having a slightly difficult time typing because in the past twenty-four hours I have managed to stab/slice my left and right index fingers. Ashley does not have any band-aides for some reason. Luckily, I found some medical tape in my art supplies, which I used it to stop the bleeding. So, now I am attempting to type with two Ruby Roman grapes on the tips of my pointer fingers.

My coffee tastes like french fries. That is gross.

Anyways, I am again responding to a question posed by my good friend Jonathan M. Hicks. Since this post is public, I am going to refrain from commenting about photographers/artists. Although I am strongly opinionated I hope that does not shine through...

Coley Brown

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Ryan Mcginley

Brandon Herman

Pete Halupka

Alec Soth

Richard Renaldi

Jackson Eaton

Terry Richardson

Shane Lavalette

Julia Galdo

Jeff Wall

Philip-Lorca DiCorcia

Anne Hamilton

Alana Celii

hmmm I will think for a little while and then go again. Sorry this is primarily artists using photography so far. We will always be children of our time.

f.

Started as an email, ended with a blog (for Jonathan M. Hicks)

Okay, First things first, What do you want to do? That is what you have to ask yourself. Are you interested simply in Photography? A lot of the Graduate level programs are geared in completely different directions but they do not usually specify that in their information. Some of these directions are Commercial Photography, Fine Art Photography, "Conceptual Photography", and Photo-Journalism. Each of these is equally important, but if you are wanting to do say Conceptual Art and you are at a school where they are interested in showing you new technical tricks of the trade, then you may become frustrated with your work. I found that a lot of the rankings put all the programs geared toward commercial work, and understandably so, commercial photography is very important. These programs often concentrate on just technical aspects. Fine Art Photography programs seem to be more traditional. Normally, I found that MFA programs like these do NOT want anything innovative or progressive. A lot of the SouthWest schools fall under this category. They will have nice facilities, but unless your portfolio consists of Large-Scale, traditional, black and white images consisting primarily of landscapes (maybe a touch of selenium toning, hell! why not even some sepia?) these schools may not be for you. Unfortunately, these two types of Masters degree programs already mentioned (Commercial and Fine Art) usually have the most opportunities for financial support.

I doubt that many people will agree with me on this, but I feel that some programs that are "Fine Art Photography" are more like "Conceptual Photography". (Also, I forgot that there could be people reading this that do not know that I am a sarcastic asshole. I probably should write this sans tone, but I don't like writing that way. So when I said that thing a few lines ago about large-scale traditional b/w work I was mocking them.) Anyways I find that Fine Art Photo is usually more stale, and Conceptual to be more progressive. (if you want elaboration just let me know because I don't know if I did a good job of explaining this.) The important thing to take away from this about Concept Photo programs, is they are diamonds in the rough. Often these departments will employ an incredible roster of faculty members who are still making interesting art (notice I said art not just photography) but who are also excellent educators that will motivate you. I found a hard time finding a lot of these while I was on my search for grad school, but started to see more once I investigated after I had settled on a school. But I would say examples of these would be similar to University of Alabama at Birmingham. If you find a nice school with a situation like this they may be the red-headed step child of the school and may receive less funding but I think they are GREAT!

Finally, I hate to say it, but I know little about Photo-Journalism programs so I have little to say about them. Mostly I do not want to misinform anyone.

Important things that I took into account when I was searching for the right school were Faculty, Facilities, Length of the programs, Courses, Alumni, and Benefits. I spent a good bit of time looking at Faculty work. I thought that was something pretty important. If you are working with someone who isn't producing their own work any longer they may not motivate you to do work. What about someone who's work is unlike yours versus someone's work who is just like yours... personally, I believe that going with someone who's work that you find provocative in some way and it may not necessarily be exactly like yours, but you are going to be learning something by working with this person. I mean you are going to grad school to learn and grow as an artist and if end up choosing to work with someone that will not challenge you, then you are wasting your time and money. I mention Alumni because you will wanna know if people are coming away from the program you are entering with successful careers.

Although the direction of your work will certainly change between now and when you graduate with an MFA, if you have an idea of things you would be interested in doing with future work then check the school to see if they have proper equipment to support your endeavors. Personally, I know that I am interested in trying to explore other mediums in my Grad Studies so I told the programs that because sometimes they will not let people intermingle with other disciplines. Just something to think about too.

I found that a lot of people disagreed on there being a set length of a program, but I felt like getting the most time where I can just be a student and be creating without having to worry about having a full time job on top of being a full time student on top of being a full time artist etc. would be best for me. Also, if you are interested in teaching, I have heard rumors that colleges are preferring 3yrs MFA degrees to 2yrs now, but I do not know if that is true.

Courses at some schools like Yale and UCLA were fucked-up-good. But they allow 0 students in each year... Alas. Good thing we know how to read and teach ourselves things. But seriously there are opportunities at some schools to take classes not normally offered at others and that is nice. Benefits like money they can give you is also important. So you should look at each school and see what they offer with assistantships and fellowships and grants and endowments and there are a lot of opportunities outside of just the department. It is worth explore for a couple of hours to get out of having to pay off loans for a couple of decades.

USA Today Ranking I don't personally agree with all of their decisions on there. A pretty accurate ranking that I have heard about but never actually got to use is published by the College Art Association. If worse comes to worse you could just Google it. Also, I tried to ask EVERYONE if they knew of anywhere. 

Anyways, here are some schools that I like...

UCLA

Yale

Colbumbia at Chicago

Ohio State University

UNC Chapel Hill

University of Washington

Indiana University

University of Nevada at Las Vegas

University of Nevada at Reno

University of New Mexico

Arizona State University

My dog is making me really angry so I am done writing for now.

f.

Overdue books

I have been lax with updating. For that I am sorry. Hmm. I can't remember the last time I posted... I suppose I will just go over everything new. 

I am moving to Las Vegas in August. I will almost immediately begin my first semester of Graduate school. Additionally, I will start my career in teaching at the collegiate level. I am incredibly excited about this but am not putting a considerable amount of thought into it because it isn't what is going on at the moment. 

In the past few weeks I have installed my first real show. It was at the UAB Visual Arts Gallery. I have also for the first time uninstalled my first real show. It was up for about 10 days. Tomorrow I am graduating from undergrad. My family is in town from all over. We will be eating foods. So that's neat. 

I am going to go work on binding a book. Maybe I will come back later and post more because I do have a lot to say. We will see I suppose.

Creator the Curator

This is probably going to come out really conceited, I realize that, I promise. But seriously I have made myself nauseous. 

Are you curious as to the source of my ill temperament? Well let me show you...

For the same reason I was originally apprehensive, I now feel this is successful: It is Personal.

What might have been lost?

What might have been lost?

I have been very busy. So much school work. So much art. So little breathing room. 

Hello my name is Fred Mitchell. The title of this post is an excerpt from a speech I wrote last week. It was about my art. In the past I have primarily utilized photography to express my artistic vision. Over the past few months I have endured a considerable amount of chastising from my peers and mentors about photography as an art form. I know that I have mentioned in previous posts that I have been reading Susan Sontag's On Photography. I was partly reading Sontag's essays on photography because I hoped that there would be some sort of quip or rebuttal I could find and use against these people. Unfortunately, so far I have been unsuccessful. I have learned a good deal about photography as art/photography as documentation though. I just keep coming across issues that make me question whether or not I should even continue with my art. It doesn't help the matter that I am taking twelve studio art classes (none of which directly involve photography), and I keep coming across people who make me question the validity or importance of what I am doing. Since my work is becoming more personal I really am just questioning myself as a person and as an artist. I am not a photographer. I am an artist who uses photography as a tool to convey my artistic purpose. I do not feel good about myself as an artist or as a person right now. 

I have now received assistantships from the University of Washington in Seattle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Nevada at Las Vegas. I have to make a decision soon but I don't know what I will choose. Those are the only three schools that I was offered assistantships from. I feel honored to have been offered such generous moneys from great art departments. 

I guess the rest is up to me. So, sleepless nights will ensue. Tossing and turning MFA programs over my mind, imagining which school could launch me into a successful career as an artist and an educator, but all the I will be pushing my tongue against the roof of my mouth and I'll be clenching my molars causing my bite to become slightly misaligned. Is this an excuse I can use for my lack of an appetite? Is it really? Maybe is it the thought of a grandiose failure? Maybe I simply forget? I guess a little of each will attribute to my weight loss. My birthday is Friday. I remember what I was doing two years ago. I wish I wasn't such a bad friend to the people who have been there for me. 

I actually have had trouble leaving my apartment because my panic attacks have become so severe. But when I had to give my speech last Wednesday I pulled my shit together as the last minute. I actually was proud of the whole deal, although my work did not look as good as the rest of the students, I did feel like I was able to articulate myself fairly well. Maybe I will be able to pull myself together again at the last minute and finish this semester with the GPA that I hope to get.

I started my new job with the Birmingham YMCA last week and a kid pooped in the pool. It is significantly better than UAB. Also, for my deer bike project I have found some ridiculous things on the internet like a deer leg, which I am going to be purchasing among other odds and ends. So, I look forward to showing that work. Now, I am going to work.

Sorry to all my friends who have to suffer by my hand for me being a poor friend for you. Now I must listen to these men who are shouting below my window. 

with love and squalor,

f.

foolish.