1st: I'm Bona Fide

Very belated great news:  J'ira a la France!!!

I applied for a UNESCO sponsored residency at Camac - an arts center located in a tiny town about 1 hour outside of Paris.  Sadly, I was not chosen for the sponsored program.  But the people who reviewed my portfolio wanted me to come anyway!  I told you I was brilliant!  I made the decision last fall to apply for artist residencies rather than to grad school, and here's the reason why:  there's too much MFA-produced crap out there.  No, I won't take it back.

Los Angeles is probably the best place to live as a practicing artist right now.  It's not about being in the "it" spot, or trying to be where everything is happening - indeed, everything is not happening here.  It's just that there's something about the environment in LA that facilitates creative thinking and productivity, and so many artists feel that and respond to it.   Unfortunately, the flip side of that is that just about anything gets an audience these days.

Whenever I go gallery-walkin' and such, I get the impression that at least 70% of the art getting representation right now is utter BS.  And more often than not, that BS has an MFA to back it up.  So I was thinking, "...if this is what passes muster after a rigorous program and critical thesis project, then I need to chill for a second while these MFA programs get it together".

I'm bona fide, I am already more than $130,000 in debt to Sallie Mae (see profile, that money-grubbing WHORE) for having the audacity to pursue a higher education despite my financial standing in this world - I'm super NOT going to pursue a masters while these programs try to channel my work in a more commercial gallery direction.  Because that's what everything is looking like.

I could be wrong, and if I am, I don't mind being wrong in France.  I'll be in Paris for a week before I go to the arts center in the countryside.

btw-If anyone ever happens to read this and you've spent significant time in France, I would like to know your opinion about it in the comments section.  I've got quite a few French friends, and most of them hate Paris.  Some tell me Paris is racist, others tell me that I'll never come back to America because I will be so loved that I'll become a star or something.  What's the deal?