Artist Insights: What They Might Not Teach You in Art School

What They Might Not Teach You in Art School: For the struggling art student, enthusiast, hobbiest, entrepreneur, etc.

Ever wonder how you can improve your artwork or get yourself noticed in the art community and no matter how hard you try: watching videos, reading books, trying to follow step by step guides from your peers, nothing really seems to work?  You’re not alone.  I went through a liberal arts program where I was told to just paint and see what I created.  This was after I took my foundation courses and felt pretty confident in myself because of the success I’d had early on.

I was very lucky to have some great art professors in the beginning steps of my student career.  They gave me a great foundation to build on.  But sadly, that foundation was never looked favorably upon by future professors. My new professors didn’t want me to paint or draw well.  They wanted artwork they liked and vibed with their styles. No one knew how to cultivate my interests and focus because they didn’t know how.  They weren’t classical painters, they were modern artists, some of the lowest caliber of artists. They didn’t know what to do with me.  They were just fun peers who loved everything everyone else did…until they saw my work.  I was just beginning to figure myself out and desperately wanted structure and direction.  Instead, I was given opinions and said “do what everyone else is doing” in terms of experimentation in the creative process.  Meaning, how you use the medium is what makes the art, the artwork is not just a finished product but the result of your artist performance and message.

Modern art has become a performance.  A deeply narcissistic performance of the artist to reel in the masses with a story of themselves and their creative process.  The way we make art now, is a performance.  You see this in Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, etc… Art is entertainment, but now the artist is no longer the creator, but the dancing monkey with the advent of social media. The process is now entertainment. The final product: an Instagram-worthy post. And now, to understand and connect with the art, we must first understand and agree with the values of the artist.

Social media is becoming a way to screen the values and beliefs of pretty much everyone online.  It’s not enough for the artist to create stunning works of arts, they’re required to foster a personal connection through their presentation and biography:

“Do you like to eat fish? No? Ok, we can’t be friends because I love to eat sushi!”

This is the mindset that eventually damaged my self esteem and allowed me the excuse to put myself in the lowest caliber jobs because I was embarrassed that I had pursued art and had suddenly found myself without the opportunity of a career in 2021.

There are some amazing art programs and colleges out there.  I just didn’t go to one of them.  So I went along naively thinking that having degree would help me pursue my passion with a career I loved.  During my last semester, I took a class on artist career development.  To summarize the content they taught: there are essentially no job opportunities unless we submitted work to galleries and hoped to be selected, worked for free installing the artwork of other artists to foster personal connections with collectors, gallerists and other upcoming artists. 

I felt gypped!  Four years of frustration only to be told that we needed to have an online presence, a following, connections in artist galleries and a studio to give tours in so we could be successful!

Where were all the classes on online marketing and building your social media?  How could they wait until the very end to drop this on us? And why did I need an artist statement when I hated everything I had made for the last three years?

This was the final blow to my self esteem. It took me almost four years to regain the confidence to paint again.  There were days I tried to throw everything out and ban all artwork from my home trying to erase my identity.

Art is a form of expression, it shows our deepest desires and secrets, hopes, wishes and dreams.  It reveals to us our deepest, truest selves, the parts of our hearts that sometimes we don’t even consciously understand.

The whole abstraction of finding a deeper psychological meaning reflecting societal failings and being intellectually thought-provoking with your artistic process, is based on trying to appeal to some higher mental standard of self-righteousness.  It’s about creating relevancy in a shallow world where nothing is real.  Your online presence is a marketing campaign to get likes and views on your lifestyle, importance, sex-appeal, success, etc. The online world is fake.  There is no honesty, it’s all a lie to make us feel less and like we’re failing in life when we see how well everyone else is doing on their profiles. 

This is a true societal failing.  Where there is no genuine human connection so we all scramble for recognition in a world-wide-web.  And maybe that’s why you’re reading this now.  You want to improve your art to be recognized online.  I’m in that same boat, the only way to exist in this new world is to be online.  And it’s frustrating because I do not value my online presence.  But it’s a necessity that I can no longer avoid.  

Galleries are closing, the online art market is bustling, but the economy is failing.  Even those with deep pockets are tightening their belts.  Competition is even more intense than ever before, especially now that we’re competing with AI.  These are variables I didn’t foresee when I started college in 2017.  Nobody saw 2019 coming, it triggered a world-wide reset and we’re living in the aftermath of that tragedy.  The world is changing and the art world is also changing with it.  My perspective and experiences may not be the same as other people however, this is what I wasn’t taught as an art student and I hope my insights will be of some use to others struggling with similar trials.

Here’s what you may not learn as an art student in college. It all depends on where you go to college and who your professors will be. The order of importance is going to depend on you. Rearrange and organize these points to fit your needs.

1. Have a career that can financially support you while pursuing your passion.  I was sold the lie that if you do what you love then you’ll never hate your job.  Starving artist is a genuine reality.  If you feel like you can live life on very little and are good taking the long, hard road to fame and fortune, do it. Prioritize what’s important to you.  I wish I’d dropped the art major and gone to pursue a career earlier in my life. 

2. You need an online presence.  Start as early as you can and put as much time and effort into it as you are able to without driving yourself insane.  Fit it to your lifestyle and needs, no one is going to be the same.  Be genuine.  Fakery will only get you so far.  It’s going to be a slow build up and you will need to pick up some marketing skills along the way.  Make a website and link it to your social media.  Begin small and grow.  There’s always room for improvement and it doesn’t have to be perfect from the get go. 

3. Practice! As often as you can.  Don’t just create your own works, copy master paintings and drawings.  Emulating artists you admire will significantly improve your ability to create artworks you like.  It’s muscle memory as well as technical refinement.  It’s not enough to just create your own style.  If you have many styles to pull from, your originality will start to show through as you gain experience.  Many artists pride themselves on having one unique style or distinct content.  It takes a lot more skill to have multiple styles.  Eventually, key aspects from each style will begin to merge and your own unique style will come out as your confidence grows.

4. Don’t think too hard.  Go with the flow, if you like mushrooms, paint mushrooms!  If you like sports cars, have fun designing works that show off your passion.  Meaning and understanding will come later, find what makes you happy and get comfortable with yourself. 

5. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.  You’re gonna create works that you either absolutely love or absolutely hate.  Or you’ll look back on an old painting and cringe with embarrassment.  Either way, you’re gonna look at your work and have a million negative thoughts running through your head.  Only listen to the constructive criticism!  It will push you to learn something new or break a bad habit you might have.

6. Study. Not just books, study other artists and their process.  Some people work well without a plan, others need detailed outlines from start to finish.  I am the latter but I was encouraged to pursue the former despite the failure it produced for me.  I need every step of the way planned to perfection or I can’t go on.  Find what works for you and refine it.  

7. Be patient. It will take time to build up yourself and your skills.  Think of it as career development, it can be a priority, but it shouldn’t take up all your spare time.  Have a work-life balance. 

8. Exercise, sleep and eat well! I cannot stress this enough.  So many artists are all about their craft and form maladaptive behaviors that indulge their obsessive pursuit.  Sometimes going days without eating real food or seeing the sun.  You will burn yourself out and cripple your mental well being.  Please don’t do that.

9. Have a life. This is a big thing that so many people, not just artists, neglect.  It’s not just about having friends or a social circle.  It’s family, personal connections, having pets or hobbies.  It encompasses a wide range of habits and personal preferences.  We live in a world of endless work that’s designed to break us down and wear us out like cogs in a machine. Some days we are too tired to even contemplate making dinner or doing something productive.  And that’s ok, we need to rest and reset ourselves.  This is part of being patient and having a balance in your life.  Find your balance and be with the people who bring out your best self, not the ones who make you feel good, important or liked.  They don’t have to be artists, they can be people from vastly different backgrounds that expand your understanding of the world or challenge your opinions in a constructive way. 

There are a lot of people who don’t understand the importance of this last point.

Many of my professors and peers were also obsessed with their craft.  They had no life, no meaningful connections.  Just their art.  They surrounded themselves with people who gave encouragement because they were also doing the exact same thing.  The best art professors I had that truly fostered my skills were the ones with genuine lives.  They had great stories, were encouraging and could talk about the things they loved beyond art and how they incorporated their personal lives into their work or how their friends and family could give constructive feedback because of their unique backgrounds and interests beyond art.

A typical modern art school might tell you to live, breathe and eat your art. Literally.

Do NOT live, breathe and eat art!

Live, breathe and eat while you make art!  

Don’t miss real opportunities in pursuit of passion.  Be passionate in your pursuit of life.  It will vastly improve your abilities to make art, improve your mental well being and improve your personal relationships.  Good luck and thank you for taking the time to read this.  I hope some of this will be useful to you.