My essay includes hyperlinks to images and video from my portfolio when I mention a specific piece. If you wish to view these items use this link.
drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Jp12j2ezkJS2tMUzZ4U08zcW8/view?usp=sharing
Otherwise the text follows.
Jack Vogel
Application for Graduate Admission
Statement of Purpose
My ultimate goal in the Studio Art Graduate Program is to teach art, preferably at the college level. For much of my childhood the idea of becoming a teacher was appealing, despite my academic difficulties. I enjoyed school and derived satisfaction from learning new things. Both of my parents were teachers at the time so the importance of education was always emphasized. However, when I was in fourth grade I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and dysgraphia (a disability affecting handwriting and fine motor skills) and the prospect of overcoming it, much less becoming an educator seemed unlikely. My focus shifted towards music in which I showed aptitude and continued into a year of college.
For several years I tried to find a career path I was passionate about. Eventually I determined to return to college to complete my Associate's degree in the hopes that a return to the academic environment would illuminate a path to success. It was during this time that I found that, with the aid of a laptop, not only could I keep up with my professors but even had time to assist my fellow students. It was through this that I rediscovered my interest in teaching, most particularly in the field of art. After being accepted to Bowie State University this interest expanded to include cinematography, mixed-media, and installation art. My desire to help others learn was further fueled when I was often able to help other students grasp concepts of technique that allowed them to succeed in projects that had seemed insurmountable to them.
Not ignoring my own art, I continued my interest in mixed media by creating works in such disparate media as polarized light, paper shredder scraps, and augmented reality applications. These works and others earned me four "Best in Show" awards (along with several best in categories) from the Student Art Exhibitions each semester at Bowie. I've been admonished (tongue-in-cheek) by some of my fellow students for setting an unreasonable level of expectation for the Student Art Exhibitions but I've always replied that my philosophy is "the project isn't done until I've wrecked the grading curve for everyone else."
Light as a medium in and of itself has been a focus of mine during my studies. My first major piece, Luminocity, was based upon a high school science-fair project on polarized light. By itself, a polarizing filter (commonly used in high quality sunglasses) has only a minimally noticeable effect on light. However, when one or more overlap or are placed both behind and in front of certain materials the effects are dramatic. One such material is cellophane tape. Combining florescent ceiling lights, glass picture frames, and a cylindrical vase wrapped in tape on a rotating pedestal I was able to create an effect that had the appearance of stained glass but changed as the vase rotated. This won me my first best in show award and the encouragement I received from my professors and fellow students motivated me to continue pushing the envelope.
One of my proceeding best in show awards included an 18" by 24" portrait of a young woman. The piece was composed entirely of colored construction paper that had been run through a paper shredder. Each piece was an inch or less in length and 1/8th of an inch wide. Its success in the exhibition was satisfying as the work was very time consuming and labor intensive; my family was very kind to not request I clean up the paper scraps until I was done. I ended up giving it the title "Death by a Thousand Papercuts". Another best in show piece made use of augmented reality. Entitled "Ocean View," on first inspection the work was simply a large poster of a fish in black silhouette with a few bubbles and wavy blue lines to indicate water. Placed about ten feet in front of the poster was a tablet stand with a ten inch Android tablet locked in place with its camera running, showing whatever is behind the tablet. The stand itself rotated on a Lazy Susan and had instructions which encouraged the viewer to turn it so the camera faced the poster. Once the poster came into view the poster would be replaced in the screen by a video of an animated ocean scene. The video would stay over the poster so long as it was in view. Additional instructions were present which encouraged the viewers with smartphones or tablets to download the app which would give them access. I was fortunate to test this technique in advance in that semester's cultural festival by presenting six individual pieces of augmented reality. Three of individual students demonstrating their specialties, music, print, drawing, and three teaser clips from the vignettes of that semester's production of The Colored Museum. I was particularly pleased with this work as it was prominently featured in a Gazette article about my Senior Exhibition.
Visual Art Students at Bowie State University are required to present a Senior Exhibition in their final year. This is intended to be a culmination of the student's work at Bowie and must make use of a particular theme that must be approved at least a semester in advance. I chose Light and Illusion as my theme and included video works using animation, digital print pieces in which models had been turned into robots and even abstract, linocut prints of stained glass and flames.
The center of my exhibition however resided in the secondary room of the gallery. The gallery of the recently build Fine and Performing Arts Center at Bowie has a high ceiling which has windows allowing students to view the gallery from the upper floor and above that, windows the entire way around which allows natural light into the gallery. The secondary room however has no windows and its lighting is on a separate circuit. Normally it is used to display the University's permanent collection of donated art. Having asked for permission to use it over a year in advance I was able to move the collection into storage and it was there that I placed the three pieces most central to my theme. First was a large scale version of my polarized light piece entitled "Music of the Spheres," this time using bubbles of acrylic plastic on a mobile. The front filter was created with gaps to allow viewers to see what the bubbles looked like both with and without the polarizing effect. The second piece, a kinetic mobile simply called "Projection Mobile," held a series of acetate gels which passed in front of a pair of mini spotlights projecting onto the far wall of the gallery. While the gels were only red, blue, and green the projected light also included glimpses of cyan, magenta and yellow in a constantly changing arrangement.
The final piece was a wall sized video projection of another gallery wall in a picture frame. In it performers enter, one after the other, and alter the framed art on the wall. Some exchanged pictures on the wall with pictures the brought with them, other's flipped or shook the frames causing the contents to change. This of course was filmed on a homemade green screen and art was added to the empty frames in post-production. To my mind the best part of this piece was not the content itself, though I was extremely pleased with it. Instead, the best part was my ability to include nearly a dozen other students from the performance disciplines of the school. Theater students were the most heavily represented but it also included participation by music and dance students. The students were encouraged to arrive on the day of filming with a core character concept and/or costume and I would find a way to incorporate it into the work. Getting to collaborate with other artists and encourage them to experiment was easily my favorite part.
In 2014 the documentary Tim's Vermeer was released. In this film inventor and engineer Tim Jenison is inspired by a book by the name "Secret Knowledge" which prefaces the theory that Johannes Vermeer (along with other renaissance artists) may have used optical devices like the camera obscura to create works which have so often been described as "luminous." With no painting experience he begins to experiment with lenses and mirrors that will allow him to mimic the style of the Dutch master. It has become one of my favorite films because it speaks to me as an artist. When Professor Lang, the Director of Galleries at Bowie State University, introduced me for my Senior Thesis address he affectionately referred to some of my work as "contraptions." I've taken that very much to heart. As an artist I've often considered myself to be less a Bohemian and more of a Technocrat. Not that pure creativity isn't of great importance when making art but it isn't something that can be taught. Alternately, technique and the use of artistic tools can be taught and as a student I've often tried to impart what I know to my fellow students. Whether it's an advanced technique for utilizing green-screen footage or simply a method to streamline the manufacturing of dozens of identical pieces for a sculpture, these skills allow an artist to focus more on the art itself and less on the hard work that goes into it. To see a student's face light up when I make a simple suggestion that turns a tedious assignment into exciting project is something I value very much and I'd like to keep seeing it. That is why I would be so pleased to be accepted to your graduate program and why I think I would also be an asset at College Park.
John, I'd like to share my thoughts on your essay.
First of all, I think it's quiet long for a statement of purpose. However elaborate you may want your admission essay,
you also have to take note that you don't have to write an entire portfolio on this particular essay, give out information
that is called for in the essay and not your whole bio.
I understand that you would like your essay to be "the essay" that will get you the admission and that is what we also want,
now, I suggest that you revise the essay by streamlining your sentences into the purpose and cut a few sentences or a paragraph
on the part where you explain about your portfolio and your art. Remember that if the admission staff will see that willingness
of you continuing your graduate program, they will ask questions and more information, this is where you build up and
engage the staff to your purpose and further interest of the program.
I hope my insights helped.
(slaps forehead) D'OH! I should have posted their guide along with what I wrote.
static1.squarespace.com/static/516d98fde4b0f84b63148a3b/t/53e38cc3e4b04b5e1eef3027/1407421635706/umdstatementofpurpose.pdf
Thanks for the feedback. I'll look into streamlining some of what I've written. I will never argue I don't have a habit of over explaining and writing run-on sentences.
I'm not so sure about removing whole paragraphs though. The requirements are 1,000 to 2,000 words and my essay (minus the header) is 1622, so I'm just over the middle. Also the guide specifically asks me to talk about past research, how I developed my interest in this subject, initiative and ability to develop ideas, and a lot of other topics which kind of require expounding upon my artistic endeavors.
Separate from this, I actually have to present 20 images and/or up to 10 minutes of video from my portfolio, so for this specific degree they really need to know about my work. This is kind of why I dread these kinds of "self promotional" essays. I feel like I'm bragging. Give me an obscure research topic over this kind of essay any day and I'll research and reference the heck out of it.
