Seriously, it has been so hard to get back to work since spending a week and a half in Pennsylvania for the holidays.

With less than a month until my self-imposed deadline for the MICA application, there is a lot to do, especially factoring in a week-long ski vacation in late January.  I'm just glad I have a few things going for me.  In the past, I have always “worked on” portfolios, going out on a lot of shoots or spending long hours painting in my room.  The need to develop a portfolio in response to an application deadline has been the primary source of stress time after time, and it feels great to be able to draw from a strong pool of images I have already produced.  

I have enough photos for the MICA portfolio in each of my two primary bodies of work.  This means I can skim off the cream from both of them, drawing my descriptions from the artist statements I HAVE ALREADY WRITTEN.  Piece of cake, despite the tedious process of resizing all the files and assembling them into a powerpoint presentation.

The two-portfolio requirement – one must be a collection of images detailing community work – adds another fun twist.  My current AmeriCorps*VISTA assignment seems to have set me up perfectly for that portfolio, since community work is what I do for 8+ hours per day, every day.

Needless to say, this takes a lot of the worry out of grad school applications.  I can work with a fast turnaround on writing projects, so I have no doubt my essays will take fine shape.  I tend to abandon projects easily, but I have already committed myself by asking for letters of recommendation.  Everything seems to be working out in my favor, I just need to keep the momentum going.