Need advice about career and degree

[Mischa Milosevic]

Mat, I think you received more advice here than you bargained for. There is much wisdom here and I hope you can benefit from it.

It has been my experience to see many a graduate student from all walks of life even art search for a good art academy. Mind you these individuals love art and art is their passion. What is your hearts passion? Is it art? Pursue your hearts passion life is short and zooms by so fast.

Sharon summed it up well you will do well to take heed. If you are thinking about the pension fund don't. What you personally set aside for your future is what will be your security nest. Why do you think there are so many agencies offering private health and pension.

When I was in the US and deciding which school to attend and get a degree Lyme was my choice. The NY schools were on the top of my list as well but I chose the Angel Academy. Today, you have many good schools in the US to chose from. In the corporate world the degree is important in art it is not.

Tough choice hmmm

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by Mischa Milosevic

Pursue your hearts passion life is short and zooms by so fast.

I spent two useless years at The Boston Museum School. I wasted my time and my parents money. I learned nothing. I was lucky if an instructor showed up. They were in the the full throws of the "do your own thing school of art".

Better you work those two years and save for a school that can really teach you something. You are so lucky to have so many options in the fields open to you. Take evening figure drawing classes.

Most of us who are older artists spent a long time trying to teach ourselves how to paint figuratively. It was a desert and many of us desperately haunted libraries to find anything we could about traditional painting techniques. There were no ateliers, workshops, nothing and except perhaps for PAFA, schools that taught traditional methods. You are very lucky to have these.

If you live near a "Whole Foods", that is a great place to work. They pay $9-10 per hour, if you work Saturdays, they will pay you time and a half for Sundays, plus you get 20% off on your groceries. Many Brown and RISD students work at the one near me. Waiting tables and bar tending in high end restaurants are great ways to make money.

Also, if you want a guarantee, that any of these paths will ensure success and security, I would not even think of going into the arts. It would be better to go into a more secure field like law, banking, accounting etc. and do it in your free time. It is always like working without a net.

A good friend of mine once said, "Art is not for sissies".

[Matthew Severson]

I

[Sharon Knettell]

[QUOTE=Matthew Severson]I

[Richard Bingham]

[QUOTE=Matthew Severson] . . . I make $18/hour, working 36 backbreaking hours on the weekend, trying to pay for a education I

[Sharon Knettell]

I don't have a degree. I never have been asked if I had one. My work was my degree. I am glad I did not waste anymore time in my school learning nothing of use to me to get a degree. The only person who regretted I did not get a degree was my mother.

A list of artists who did not have degrees: Sargent, Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Gauguin, Kollwitz,Frieseke, Klimt, Cassat, Degas etc. In the later 209th Century - Basquiat.

A degree has only become important, the BFA's, The MFA's in the latter half of the 20th century. They have certified a lot of Junk.

These artists have degrees: http://www.maryboonegallery.com/arti...lins_info.html
http://www.maryboonegallery.com/arti...muth_info.html
http://www.maryboonegallery.com/arti.../mir_info.html

It is a crap shoot.

Take some time to consider this.

[Judy Simons]

University art programs and art colleges today do not teach you to paint - they attempt to teach you to be articulate about your work.

Not a bad thing, really.

Some courses of instruction are more valuable than others, but even in the most valuable classes you still teach yourself to paint. You paint with your brain even more than with your eyes.

I don't think we can compare the historical Beaux Arts education to our present degree programs. Many of the artists discussed on this forum had at least some exposure within the Beaux Art system.

It's not where you learn something. It's what you learn. Anyone attempting a painting career should be open to all the culture around them and a university education is very good for that exposure.

As mentioned previously in this thread, just showing the tenacity to complete a degree program tells the world something about you.

For those reasons, I'd vote to finish the program.

Another suggestion: Talk to the faculty. Tell them what you want or offer to give a class. I expect any art faculty would be delighted to find a serious portrait oriented painter who wants to increase his/her knowledge of that subject. My recent experience in college is that figurative and portrait study is now accepted and desirable.

Also, I agree with many others here who have suggested you attend specialized portrait courses. You can do both, maybe not right now, but you are young. You have time.

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by Judy Simons

University art programs and art colleges today do not teach you to paint - they attempt to teach you to be articulate about your work.

As mentioned previously in this thread, just showing the tenacity to complete a degree program tells the world something about you.

For those reasons, I'd vote to finish the program.

The way an artist communicates IS his work. The reason we consider being articulate about our work is that much of contemporary art has to come with an instruction booklet. It has gone so far as there are some 'art forms' that leave out the oeuvre and are just books- theoretical art. I would agree, however, that being articulate is important no matter what is being discussed.

In looking at Tony Ryder's biography, I noticed he left RISD after one year to plow more fertile fields, where he felt he could actually learn something of benefit. I don't know whether he has his degree, but his search to learn what is valuable to him shows a great deal of tenacity.

Having been in a similar position, I opted out of finishing my degree and pursued the art I loved in my own quixotic way.