The Conventions of the Art Student: Part II
You wouldn’t know this but when I applying to become your Feature Editor here at Massive, I submitted a feature I wrote a couple years back titled: The Conventions of the Art Student. Which, in essence, was a four-page rant on the misconceptions and stereotypes surrounding Art students. Keeping in mind this was written four years prior to studying design full time at Massey. With that in mind, I’m writing this with new, but let’s face it, tired eyes as I near the end of my degree. Does my previous assessment hold up? What can I add from my experience studying? And has almost four years of study broken me down? I’m kidding, it absolutely has, financially if nothing else.
I remember coming out swinging with this hard ass line; “The Art Student? Oh, they’re just jobless lazy smart people that dress like nerdy — albeit cosy — Tumblr kids.” In hindsight, I’m not sure about the fashion, I’ve seen some awesome ‘fits the Tumblr kids would have only dreamed of. Following on, my comment on coffee addiction and sleep deprivation still stands up. Only, I’d stretch the coffee to any caffeinated beverage. Last year, I distinctly remember purchasing two cherry flavoured energy drinks before buckling into an all-nighter and then violently shaking at presentation the following morning. Wouldn’t recommend.
Over the last few years, my stance on the conventional artist still stands. I stand by the fact, like many other professions (I speak from my own bias as a student here), us artists put some hefty expectations on ourselves. It’s ironic that we still find the time to undervalue and underestimate our abilities. How can you expect to do better and at the same time think you can’t? A puzzle for the psychology students, perhaps? In my understanding and from personal experience, this feeling of disappointment whilst studying is simply because your expectations don’t align with your current set of skills. Before you think I'm saying you’re a bad artist, I mean it’s only because the skills are developing at a rate not yet in alignment with pre-set expectations of self. It takes time, chill. Despite these conundrums, I’ve seen some spectacular work – whether you (yes you, art student) agree with me or not – you humbly delusional idiot.
Do you paint your feelings? This was a big argument in my aforementioned manifesto. I distinctly remember being well pissed off when I wrote that. Frankly I was sick and tired of that stereotype. Ooh you’re sad and frowny, all you paint is your trauma, you must be an artist. To be perfectly clear, listen in, paint your feelings if that’s what you want to do. It’s your inspiration, and no one’s bloody business. I only was a bit scratchy about having ‘all artists are sad’ bullshit painted over a whole sector with such broad strokes. I don’t know if you have ever sat in a room of art students, but you’d realise: no two artists draw inspiration from the same source. Anyway, unless you’ve tried to communicate (and I will quote myself) “the mosaic spectrum of human emotion … that both utilises established artistic practice, and techniques, whilst simultaneously exploring a unique, individual and compelling perspective through a wordless medium,” I think you should sit down.
Moving on. . . before starting my Concept Design degree at Massey Wellington I had felt almost alienated from my peers in high school. I felt as though I was almost a different species. Sure, I did live like a vampire, look like a Tim Burton character and have paint brushes stored in my blazer seams. My pencils tore through the pockets okay, I didn’t do it on purpose. Now, things are pretty much the same but with friends. That’s a joke, I had friends. It’s just that I also had another 25 dickhead classmates who had no idea what the Art Panel stress felt like but felt it was okay to judge my dark circles. Now, all my classmates know what the impending doom of Exposure feels like. You can’t buy that kind of group bonding, aside from the fact we absolutely did at enrolment.
I have found that question: What are you going to do with an art/design degree? Has morphed into the: what are you going to do after study? Now it’s really looming. Now us art students may feel it’s really time to prove to the doubters and pretentious-stuck-up-condescending-assholes that our degree isn’t completely useless. I said it once and I’ll say it again; “Young artists have been conditioned by others to fear unemployment and failed dreams.” I don’t think fear of unemployment is strictly for artists, correct me if I’m wrong.
On a lighter note. Even back then I was referencing Mean Girls. Shocking really, if you have been following my features each week, this whole year, you may have spotted this trend. This isn’t unusual, I’ve been Janis Ian for longer than I care to admit. The art kid in media only bothered me when I felt personally victimised. Now I find it laughable because it’s just a cheap joke. ‘Art kids are losers’ — bull. You don’t have to be an art student to be a loser – I checked, not a prerequisite.
Also, not a prerequisite: painting. I’ve moved on a lot since the first version of this feature, in the sense that I have moved into some other media. I learned to digitally paint and create art for game, animation, film, and locations-based experiences. I taught myself to 3D model in Blender, and I’m less afraid of InDesign (still a little afraid). If anything, the longer I’ve been an art student, the more I have come to recognise the fluidity of art and how many doors it kicks down. Of course, you already got the picture, you can’t really put a definition on what it is to create art. Very cliché I know, but some things don’t belong in a shitty little box. Not bad for a wordless medium huh?