Where There's A Will, There's A Loan

Well folks, looks like my path to New York isn't so uncertain afterall. Previously I thought that since the National Student Loan Program didn't fund Canadian students studying abroad, that I couldn't get a loan to help me. I was wrong!

Last night, I was determined to find something to help me and I did. It's called the Canadian Student Loan (formerly CanHELP) and it's for Canadian students who wish to study in the U.S. Perfect! It's credit-based, and you need a U.S. citizen or permanent resident to co-sign... not so perfect. Other than that its basically like a normal student loan that you re-pay six months after graduation. I want to jump up and down! Just one problem though: I already owe about $20,000 in student loans (about $5, 000 a year) so far and New York Academy is currently $22, 700 a year! There's no way I'm borrowing THAT much a year, so I need other sources of funding. 

Which brings me to grants. A couple of months ago, one of my instructors thought my work would be good enough to receive the Elizabeth Greenshields grant ($12,500). I actually heard about it years before from a friend but I didn't think I had the work for it then. So I got a hold of the application and hung onto it for a while because I was planning which 6 pieces to enter. Because here's the kicker: If you don't get the grant the first time, you're not allowed to try again for another 2 years! So, of course, I was really doubting myself, because that made me very anxious. I'm still really nervous about it but I'm much more optimistic and I'm going for it. I've got the six pieces, and I feel like it's now or never. I really hate applying for stuff! But I'm sending it off this week. Wish me luck (I'm gonna need it). 

After the BFA

What's the big question on an art student's mind? For me at least its, "What the heck am I gonna do after all this?" Right now things are very uncertain...all I know is I need to get to New York to do my MFA.

It was pretty much a given that I'd need an MFA on top of a BFA since high school. The only question was where, when and how. While I was studying at an atelier, I heard of the New York Academy of Art, which is a figurative art school. So I looked it up on the net and saw all this amazing work coming out of their MFA programme. Actually a lot of great figurative artists, established and emerging, come out of that school.  Naturally I feel that is the only school I'd want to spend large sums of money on to earn my MFA. Check out their website, you'll see what I mean. So that's figured out, when is this all going to happen? 

Well, I don't know! I'm working on it though. The thing is, I don't live in New York, and I don't have anywhere near the kind of money I'd need to stay there and pay tuition. There are scholarships but none really add up to full tuition (as far as I know). So I need funding from many different sources, and preferably not the bank for God sakes! Anyway, then there's the portfolio, which although I feel my work is good, I'm not sure it's good enough to get a scholarship. Then again, I am my worst critic! So I need to work on that portfolio a bit more...

There may be some good news in this though. I do have family in New York, not in Manhattan where the school is, but hey. Hopefully I can work something out with them for the 2 years I'd be there. Naturally, I'd want to pay them rent or whatever they'd accept but man I really don't think I'd be able to have a job while I'm there. From what I know of the course load there, and strict standards of work, I don't see how even a part time job would fit in. There's so much to think about!

You know what, if you're reading this as a NYAA student...please comment! I could really use some guidance in this area. 

A Lot To Learn and Some Art News

Since my last post I made myself learn XHTML and CSS. XHTML was easy since I already knew html, but CSS is a bit more challenging for me. It's really the reason I haven't been able to do everything I want to do in my website. That plus Javascript perhaps. Anyway, I changed the title to a simple thing I made in Photoshop, but it wasn't the code I learned, it's just an option I wasn't aware of in the Blogger Dashboard. I've been trying out what I learned so far in Notepad which is pretty minimal right now, it's gonna take practice. Eventually I plan on doing my own template, as soon as I learn everything I need to know. 

By the way, I found it pretty hard to find good, clear information on how to make your own template. I also see people cashing in on the need for original templates...not mad at you, just saying. There needs to be more good, clear, AND FREE information on the web. I just wish I could speed up the process of learning all this stuff, I've got tons to do with it!

Ok, so a bit of art stuff...I mentioned plans of some sort, well, this week is an important week and I won't say much more than that except my life drawing in my first post has something to do with it and you will know more in about a month's time.  

Also, I recently heard the Dahesh Museum of Art in New York is closing due to rising costs in Manhattan. For those of you who do not know, the Dahesh specializes in 19th century art and I believe it's the only place you can buy the Charles Bargue Drawing Course book. The Bargue book has all of Bargue's lithographs aimed at teaching classical drawing; really a valuable source and I can attest to that. Anyway, the museum is closing and sadly I haven't even visited yet. BUT, I think they will be re-opening again soon so that's good news. I'll keep you posted! 

Visit the Dahesh Museum Website for more info.

Making Improvements

Yesterday I decided that I'm going to put a lot more effort into building my career as an artist. One of the things I've struggled with is my website. It all started back in grade 10 when I learned HTML in class, which as you can imagine was very simplistic. Later on I started to build my own websites to show my work, but they were never exactly what I wanted. Then I learned how to use Photoshop to build sites but it was too complicated graphically, took too long to load, and was very hard to add onto spontaneously. So then I learned Dreamweaver and that was a big improvement, but still I had trouble keeping my pages consistent and reading the more complex Dreamweaver code so I couldn't go in and change/add-on things I wanted when I wanted. That's where I am right now. I know basic HTML, but I really need to know XHTML and CSS and possibly other stuff beyond that to get what I want. Ideally I'd be able to pay someone to do all of this for me but I'm not rich yet and I actually don't mind learning. At least I'll be able to do what I want afterwards.

If you take a look at my current website , first of all, it's Geocities which was ok for a couple of years ago, but now I really need a domain. Second, I like that it's simple because my website in the past have been loaded with graphics, but I feel like it's too simple for my taste. I know great artist sites have a very simple streamlined look to really show off the work, but I can't help but want to embellish more...I guess that's just me. I need to find a balance. Thirdly, the gallery section failed for me because what I really wanted was a flash gallery that looked really cool and I could add on to it easily. The rest is fine but, I have something much better in mind. I've been working on a concept but it's purely Photoshop right now. It looks great but, I need it to be much more flexible and for that I need to learn CSS. It's a lot of work to learn though, let me tell ya! But I'll let you know how it goes when I try it all out...

Done, But Not Done

Ok so a few months ago, I was pretty excited to be done my four years as an undergrad, but because the courses I need are not available for the summer I need to go back in the fall for one more semester. I can't say I'm happy about that, I really was looking forward to future plans but that doesn't mean I can't do those things right? Actually I'm in the process of making my future plans work right now. I don't want to say too much but...Anyway, my final critiques overall were good, especially given the obstacles I had to overcome financially. Not being able to buy supplies readily isn't the most ideal situation. But I'm glad that's behind me and I've got a couple of commissions to get done and I'm also working on my Youtube channel. So far I've got four videos, and you can see them here. Here's the most popular of my videos right now:

I will be making more as soon as I figure out what I want to show next. Actually, I might do a video on pencil sharpening for artists and no, it doesn't involve a pencil sharpener ;) .