Adjunctomania

A couple of years after moving to Cincinnati, I applied to graduate school at a local university. It was free. i was poor.

At that time the painting studios were in an old garage barn. Hastily built cubicles separated each budding artist.

One professor loved everything I did, which was of little use. Another wanted only to talk about non-art-related stuff...
similarly un-useful. The head guy blasted me for using too much color and scared me away from color for years hence. Fantastic.

The Senior Seminar consisted of looking at art and chatting. Nothing aimed at preparing us practically for the real world outside
of our little art barn was ever mentioned: e.g. how to write a resume, how to prepare for interviews, how to put a portfolio together. Little did I know that, once I started applying for jobs, each application would be competing with 4-600 other
applications. Fun.

I would continue to teach as an adjunct professor for eleven years. This job is the academic equivalent of the "sweat shop".
You work as hard or harder than full professors for about 1/4 the pay and no benefits and no job security. I entered this world at the forefront of the movement to replace retiring faculty with adjuncts and use the money instead for fancy new architecture, landscaping, and glossy mailers intended to raise more money for more fancy new architecture and landscaping. Hallelujah.