It’s been difficult to place the right value on my education since entering the workforce. Although art school was personally fulfilling in many respects, it did not produce the outcome I anticipated. I’m not sure what I expected, but it definitely involved more financial security after graduation.
However, after the distance of four years, and a solid (if very different) career-path ahead of me, I’ve concluded that art school is actually useful.
Please understand that I’m coming from the perspective of a little bitterness. Art is wonderful, and many artists do make a success of themselves. I did not. There is also a general stereotype of the ‘starving-artist’ that suggests an art career is extremely impratical. For a long time my personal experience supported this judgement, especially through the economic crisis. And I still do not have an art-related career. But after observing some of the behaviors and struggles of my friends and family, I’ve concluded that the creative process has helped develop my emotional maturity, endurance, and problem-solving skills, which I am thankful for. Here’s how:
- Taking Criticism Well (Through the Destructon of Your Ego)
If you’ve never sat through an art critique, it’s pretty wonderful, and you’re missing out. Imagine laboring whole days and nights over a painting that embodies the most moving, profound thoughts and emotions you’ve ever had. You’re eager to display it finally to your professor and peers on the due date, so you bring it in and carefully hang it with pride on the pristine white wall of the classroom’s critique wall. Everyone gathers around to study it, and you wait breathlessly for the awe that is surely to follow from this deep vision of yours, which is completely new and unique. And then someone pokes a finger out and asks, “What’s that smear in the middle about?” Which, of course, opens a floodgate of questions you have no idea how to answer, raises issues you never even considered before, and you realize there’s a million things you could have done differently, five trillion things you should have done differently, and you’re actually not as original as you thought but pretty average in talent, skill, and intelligence, so it was a good try but you’ll just have to keep plugging through art school in order to get better.
In all seriousness: when presenting an art piece to a group of people in a critique, you are required to recount your thought process and defend it; be open to suggestions for improvement and decide for yourself which ones to take or discard; confront people who disagree; and be honest with others and with yourself. After doing this continually over time, you are able to anticipate more factors to consider in a project, and take any criticism as a productive tool on the way toward your goal. (Sulking about your hurt feelings when someone points out a ‘smear’ only leads to more bad art)
2. Sometimes You Try REALLY Hard, and You Still Fail.
Let me tell you about a car kiln (which was roughly the size of a bathroom or small kitchen) that had 30 people’s worth of ceramic sculpture in it that overheated and blew up everything inside. And THEN let me tell you about cleaning it up.
Super fun.
Sometimes intentions don’t matter. Sometimes the universe doesn’t give a crap what you want, need, or care about, so it just dumps a load right on your face. What are you going to do about it?
Just move on.
3. Experimentation, Risk, and Problem-Solving
This is related to #1. You know that amazing painting you worked so hard on? What if your grand ‘vision’ isn’t quite so crystal clear, and you paint a giant shape in the center that is definitely awkward (in an awful way). Now how do you make this ugly painting work well again?
I may add to this list later. But for now, thank-you Art School, for giving me the life skills I needed to become an independant adult. I still can’t promise, though, that the next time I drive by a group of art students sketching around a tree at the Ringling College of Art and Design, I won’t roll down the window and yell out, “It’s a traaap!!!”
Poor Hannah 