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As I’m writing this, there are about three weeks left of the semester. It really doesn’t feel like there is enough time left to get everything done. Each day I check something off of the list. It’s a long list, but it is getting shorter. This semester, however, there are a few additions. At the end of your first year, there is this portfolio package that you have to submit to the faculty. It contains a self-assessment letter, two sample of work, artist statement, and a list of all the classes that you have taken. The self-assessment letter is probably the hardest thing you will have to write in your first year.

The Self-Assessment Letter:

Essentially, what they want are your strengths and weaknesses, what you’ve done, and what you are planning to do. If you are anything like me, you feel like you have to sell yourself. I guess that is sort of what you have to do with this letter, but I am probably way over thinking it. It’s the weaknesses. No one wants to talk about their weaknesses.

Everything else is just a matter of refining. I’m reworking my artist statement for about the thousandth time this semester, and I think it’s almost at the Goldilocks stage: just right. The funny thing is that it’s now much shorter than it was at the beginning of the semester. So far it reads like this, but will most likely be edited again by Monday:

“My work is a memoir told across two realities. On one side, I am exploring my experiences of the married life of a post-punk father. The other explores the comparison of fatherhood to that of a creator god and mythic hero. This duality is something that I call “Dadness.” Fatherhood is both an acceptance of mortality and a statement of omnipotence, literally a creator of life. The work brings together the graphic language of comics and punk rock aesthetics with two bodies running parallel to each other: a blog that connects fatherhood to my punk rock past and a visual narrative that explores a fictional version of those events.”

Once I get this package put together, I can cross off a huge chunk of my end of the year to do list. Then it’s on to finishing a huge writing project for Art + Science Collaborations and finishing up some projects. My goal is to finish up the portfolio today so that I can hopefully enjoy C2E2 this weekend, and don’t have to spend it in the corner of the convention hall typing away.

Just three more weeks, and then a little time with family and hopefully finding a summer job. I cannot believe summer is almost here. Have fun at the MFA thesis show and/or C2E2, true believers!