<p>Good morning!!
cheating few views but there is this kid should come to Cooper (Nope, no Bard, Wes maybe, Cooper must!!) here is the epic 8,000 post. </p>
<p>report part 2
The Tour!!
current students as tour guides were introduced, about ten or so of them from all soph junior senior, all sort of shapes and shades from FL to CA, even New Zealand.
our guide was this skinny tall sandy haired boy with oh so chiclets-white-straight teeth with dangling mismatched earrings, wearing LL Bean’s classic barn jacket.
my entire NYC career, this is the very first Bean’s barn jacket I encountered. no, I am not kidding, I know that zipper, flop pocket double each side, the buttons. NE’s eternal favorite!!
thou obviously he is wearing it as twisted fashion statement. his black shirts, tight black pants cuffs rolled up just so to show yellow ochre socks that match jacket body, olive green shoes exactly the same tone with its corduroy collar. sharp!
We went up to 6th floor of the foundation building. no, not the top floor=Peter Cooper site. we don’t wanna wake him up.
no, we aren’ gonna go to the shiny building because it is basically an eng. turf. they (art and eng)aren’t friends, not know why, heard were in better relationships in, like,70s
I wonder why? hmmm rulings of pop-y to minimalism-ing (non) art practice? hardened SAT time limit=brain drain? war, immigration wave, civi rights, us VS them? all of the above? awww US history…</p>
<p>6th floor is painting studios. every upperclassmen get studio space albeit shared or clumped, messy and/or noisy with bad choice of music. many students were hard at work after five on Friday evening. studios are open till 2AM weekdays 12 weekends 24/7 final times
from here on I forgotten which was in which floor but printing and stuff, video photo labs, sculpture, shops- wood, metal, welding; at least once (or more) during foundation you get to cut, weld things. no, piles of lumbers you see aren’t free but can get them cheaper than retail prices here within.
then bit of foundation chaos, more studios, galleries (with awful students’ show on as usual)
back to the Great hall and wait for your number to be called to go across avenue to the shiny building to get your portfolio reviewed. owwwwww</p>
<p>report part 2 and three quarters ( anyone seen HP 7 movie yet? just how bad is it?)
The Snacks!!
Lincobama room is forever forbidden to bring in any food or drinks. refreshments are set outside and consumed there and there ONLY.
bottles of water, cans of soda in iced bucket, few coffee urns one hot-water for teabags (assorted variety) half gallon whole and low fat milk jugs each, so do not think of dunking cookies but for your coffee and those younger kids only. I saw a few, come with parents for older sibs. never too early to Cooper-nize young ones, or just visiting city for fun vacation at the same time.
trays of cookies - Pepperidge Farm assortments(always. maybe Cooper owns the part of the firm?) plus some Italian kind and some rugelach (fresh’n nice) to represent NYey tastes for them outa towners.
Have you ever noticed that in pepperidge’s chessmen cookies, the best one is the Queen? (shouldn’t always?) sugary top darkened area is just about best proportioned with each bites however you start. next time, no Knights, thou they are more common and cute, you should aim for the Queen.
thou I felt bad for obviously U-got be “O” instead nowadays in NYC -RM middleaged but tiny as some grade-schooler lady helper alone was doing all the lifting shifting serving for twice as big brats with entitlement-ed bottomless appetite, ironically in front of Cooper’s historical timeline display on the wall saying of “1827 New York abolish slavery”
If their roles are to be reversed, here lives true Cooper duper spirit in this great, Great hall, if Peter’d ever foreseen changed demographics of his city, now of millennia and plus.</p>
<p>report part 3
The Review!!
I was there, since sure about my kid aren’t around (thou bumped into few Cooper kids I know. rather awkward… ummm, came for the openhouse, er, only me, he’s not here, etc)
Thing is, believe it or not, I brought my “portfolio” to be reviewed!!
I got pile of academic drawings done in the Met out of naked mythical figures or massive Roman columns, few color landscape thing we do in the park when we felt like it, numerous animals I pet-sat which I drew from life Dürer or Beatrix Potter wannabe style. and let’s not forget, my very best stuffed bear I designed (work of art! work of art!)
I had covered my head to conceal few strands of gray as if that would hide my age. well, Cooper is not supposed to discriminate against age creed et-cetera.
while made to wait in yet again long line once we got to the basement of the shiny building, some kids started to open up to each other
" yeah I did Parsons summer. No, from Jersey."
" I saw, like three people here from my AP art class!"
" I did California College of Art and like, I saw my roommate here. and five more kids I know"
" I was… eh working and stuff, outa school awhile. my parents asked what am I gonna do here if get in"
" no, no major, remember? like, you get to do everything"
" I donno my sister goes Rhode Island School of Design (no “CCA” nor “rizdee” saying here, called by proper name) like, weird. don feel like, you know, doing thaaattt"
So was my turn, thanks to Ms. Day somehow identified me as prospective student (cough cough), not as one of many other parents/adult accompanists shlepping kids’ gigantic canvases.</p>
<p>whoever was that old gentleman (totally un-geezer) reviewer I met, I felt bad for him the moment he looked at my bear to my goody goody drawings, then to my face with puzzled magnified blue eyes thru his bifocals.
I was nowhere ready, but he did not say that; but come apply again, do more conceptual works, say, take photos of this bear, got digital camera? draw, paint on the photo. be abstract, be conceptual. narrative is everything. dialogues. what is it you want to say? why is that this bear is not like any other bears? (it really isn’t like any others but …it’s okay, I get it)
My scheme was, like, it could be done, if I get my decades old transcript forwarded half way around the globe and somehow skip foundation, work in between to pay bills assuming my kid’s life would be manageable one way or another. in few years of time, I could actually re-learn to be an artist.
I was joking but not really when I said to drae in the “squee”, let’s go to Cooper! (or something like that)
I saw few fake Yayoi Kusama-s again this year. in this country, people are allow to dream as long as you are able and not worry about being laughed at.
The reviewer grandpa chose his words carefully, tenderly, said I can be whatever whenever I want to be.
He himself is still learning, making changes every day, that’s what artists do.
what does that mean to teach at Cooper? he is not giving anyone any answers but be there to make them think.
what does it mean to graduate from Cooper? nothing. you are the one to prioritize, connect, make it to your own.
Art = life is never done, ever the finished process.
poopoo to Turner, Venice, Whitney, Guggenheim, MacArthur (…maybe shouldn’t poopoo on this one) no definition no limit.
talent, you might be born with, but could be never discovered or worse yet, wasted.
but also could be learned, nurtured. to do that, keep sketchbook, think, write, draw, paint, construct, deconstruct.
show us more about who you are, maybe next time?</p>
<p>cliche-ed?
yep.
will I do that?
definitely.
I did not know how to look at art until raised a kid who happened to show me that there are whole new way.
never thought till these few years, that he went ahead and pulled me up, and made me think that I could seriously re-learn art
I can not believe I got reviewed by Cooper!!
It’s OK the guy mistook my drawings (the one with bums’ critiques) stature of Peter to Abe Lincoln’s.</p>