The eight of us seem a little deflated. The class behind us is rocky insofar as who will continue. There is a lot of naivete amongst the four of them. Two are still on.... John announced to the group that people should do what they need to do. He promoted Marywood and briefly mentioned Hartford briefly. However, he sometimes speaks without all the backup and was overly positive about credits being picked up by other programs etc. I threw water (sprinkled a little) saying people should ask about transferring credits as part of the questions they ask without assuming anything.
Our class is all finishing their work and will graduate. Richard's work is good and he is moving towards the finalization. Traci is the same. Chris' work has changed and really tightened up to terrific results. We are missing Ross...but he is planning to graduate with us. John asked me if I had any mailing lists for SU. I only have my year, the year behind and in front as that was all Lisa would provide to me as I wanted to start a list to send Christmas cards to them. Apparently, Lisa Ryan was "locked out" of her computer and no one seems to be able to access any of the historic lists to notify those students who hadn't completed their thesis as to the closing of the program and the limited time for those students to complete their work and obtain their degrees. It is no longer an open ended thing. If any of you out there have mailing lists of classmates, could you please forward them to John Thompson as a courtesy to the almost alumni of the SU ISDP Program?
The MFA students that started at the same time as we have are not even focused, let alone progressing on their thesis. It seems an extrordinary amount of time to get an F --being full time students to double the credits we obtain essentially with 4 weeks in class per year for two years. They really don't seem to have much of a flame lit under the keester to get them moving. I guess its a good life anticipating a full time teaching gig that everyone and their brothers want. Too bad they don't learn anything about type while they are in the program.
There was a great deal of melancholy among our class at the end of this trip. We were remembering our friends from the graduating class of 2006 and the fun we had in San Francisco. We were reminiscing about our work, progress and learning while feeling blue about the state of illustration in the UK (bleak) and in the US (not as bleak and def more "blue sky" if you can believe it. It has left me a bit in purgatory--and really do not know what end is up. I will be glad to be back in the saddle on our sunny plateau soon.
SU ISDP News:We will be having Gary Kelly this summer. Our group submitted a list of names of people we would like and John def perked up with one of them. I wont let on until the person has been bidden, and we have him. John's pick for the second week is George Pratt--. Please god...a change. We will see. If we do a London picture, the director of the London studies program would be interested in showing them (maybe?). I will need to move the needle re: my room for this summer when I get back. Preliminary thesis writing due June 1. I would like to take a crack at it and have it to him by April 1...so I can get back to making pictures.
The crowd liked my sketchbook drawings. They like the heavily inked things like the skulls and the mean old bulldog. The new birds were a big hit as they are simple and designed. Gotta build the skulls out to be something.
More later>>