When last I wrote in these fine digital pages, I had recently moved into Mad Oyster Studios, was gearing up for Somerville Open Studios, and was generally excited about art things….and then I got a new consulting gig in my former professional life and things went back to a holding pattern here for three years.
So, where am I now, in October of 2025?
I’ve officially closed up shop for my consulting business. My primary client base was academic libraries, and given the current political landscape, I could hustle a lot and get nowhere very slowly.
Instead, I’m going to focus entirely on my art but in a different way than the last time. Last year I started a Studio Arts Certificate program at MassArt and I’m about half done with it. The classes have been fun, but what they’ve taught me most is that I work best with some kind of structure rather than a vague sense of “Go to studio. Make art. Go home.”
As I recovered after the end of the consulting gig, I thought more about what this structure might look like. First, I thought I’d get an MFA in 3D art from MassArt, but the more I looked at the program the more I felt it wasn’t a right fit for right now. I expanded my search to other MFA programs and while BU was shockingly the best value for money (and it’d be funny to have a BS, BA, and MFA from there!), none of them felt *right.*
At the beginning of September, I had some quality-of-life-improving surgery, and while I was recovering from that I realized that what I wanted to do was design my own MFA program. I’m a professional trainer/curriculum designer after all, why not?
So I did! The DIY MFA deserves its own post, but in short it’s a four-semester program of four classes each. One large studio time block each week to work on current works in progress and eventually a large “thesis” project, and three classes each semester of studio and non-studio electives. I’ve got this fall started and next spring is half-planned, and I’m already more motivated and involved with this work than I’ve been with my art in a long, long while.
I’ll go into more details about the overall curriculum and the fall semester in the next post, but for now – I’m going to chronicle my work here so you can follow along and maybe get inspired to try your own DIY learning program. AMA!