I’ll just come right out and say it. Graduated life is freakin’ weird. I find myself clinging on to my alma mater like it’s the only thing in this world that’s going to protect me from the doubt, the sideways glances, and the overall confusion of ‘Hey, Art Major! What are you doing here?’
My background is (almost) purely creative – so I understand the misunderstanding. What’s a painter doing if she’s not in a studio all day painting? Well, how many people do you know who are buying art? Please, introduce me to them.
A colleague of mine – a mentor and friend whom I trust very much – told me that I was going to need to survive, and I had to use my brain to do it. She said I couldn’t wait tables, or custom frame, or bartend for forever (although the tips would be grand). At some point, I was going to have to hurdle over the poverty line and start making a comfortable living. But how? I thought. How am I supposed to do that?
And then I remembered marketing. I remembered philosophy. I remembered calculus. I remembered all of the skills I had worked so hard to master in college. I remembered writing, critical thinking, planning, developing, and all of the administrative skills college had etched into my brain. True – I can’t use calculus on a daily basis, but I can tell you that it taught me how to respect processes and that some processes will always provide the same result – an answer.
What they won’t tell the art kid is that while they’re planning a series of paintings and while they’re writing their artist statements and prepping for the senior exhibition, they’re actually preparing for life. A soccer coach of mine used to say, “You cheat in the game, you cheat in life.” How you treat your art, the closest thing to your soul, is how you’re going to treat your life. So if it’s sloppy, consider your first entry-level job to be equally sloppy. If it’s had its ups and downs, but maintained an overall sharp appearance, then that artist will survive.
What they also won’t tell the art kid is that all of the rudimentary things our professors have us do are actually preparation for skills we absolutely have to have in the working-world – like punctuality, time management, writing, great communication (I mean, we’re artists! We are masters of communication!), critical thinking, and about providing solid, concrete ideas. These are all valid skills to put on a resume when applying for a job.
Art school is great for preparing the artist with an art resume, but when it comes to acknowledging the other skills that will actually feed them, they’re a little lacking. It took me weeks to realize that employers were actually looking for people with excellent time management skills, that I had that skill, and that I could say that on my resume. It also took me forever to realize that an art degree is actually amazing in how many skills it lends to its students – it’s just a shame that many of them don’t know how to verbalize them.
So why aren’t we telling the art kids more about the non-art world? I could blame education and professors, but I think the catalyst should instead begin with the art student. I encourage the art student to take extra courses – even if they feel like they don’t need it – specifically in either business, computer science, mathematics, or writing of some kind. There has to be a supplement to the art world, and I think it lies in education about other fields of expertise. It could be administration, communication, nursing, what have you.
Look ahead, artists, and think introspectively!