I feel proud of my sliver-smithing abilities: yesterday I successfully soldered a tiny curved wire, perfectly filed to meet the edges of my irregular heart pendant. I also made several jump rings and marked out where I want to chase surface texture on the edges. Once the chasing is complete, I plan to make the surface gently bombé with the wooden dapping tools I made a few months back. For the finish, I’d like to blacken the piece to enhance the details, but I’ll have to buy sulfur first. It’ll be a fun wearable pendant when done, and pretty soon I’m going to have to get all of my pieces assayed and stamped for sale. Exciting!
Last week I also started a still life painting featuring my dead banana plant. It’s going to get a text commentary layered on top that makes it into a metaphor for colonialism. I prefer to think of it as a still death, because, why not? My current goal is to pursue an academic art practice that will hopefully include an MFA program, but I’m not feeling optimistic about my candidacy. It doesn’t help to have just received a rejection (from the one I’m least excited about, but still). I know the programs here are competitive, but don’t know how competitive I am as a candidate. I worry about ageism: I will almost certainly be the oldest person in the program, and likely 10 years older than the average. It also seems like having a design education (and career) is seen as lesser than traditional fine arts for many of these programs, and might count against me. It takes me back to when I was in the art school in college and my friends told me I wasn’t a real artist, just a designer. It’s almost as annoying as it is ridiculous. Guess I’m just a sellout wondering if I can convince the academé otherwise.