10 Things I Wish I Learned in Art School

Oh, art school…

In some ways a magical era of pursuing passions and meeting equally weird kids from around the country. In other ways, a dangerous mold of limiting beliefs and despair. I’ve grown a lot since graduating and I’ve had time to mull over my experience for a while now.

This is my personal list of 10 things I wish I learned in art school based on all I’ve learned since leaving campus. I know that I am who I am because of all my trials and tribulations. I just hope future generations don’t have to fight through the same unnecessary hardships. Let’s do better collectively.

There are always more choices

No joke, my options upon nearing graduation with an art degree were presented as:

A) marry rich
B) accrue more debt and go to grad school to one day maybe be an adjunct professor and make ends meet with a secondary job
C) become an arts administrator.

This was the pinnacle my education crescendoed to. Thankfully, I tried only one and a half of those options before figuring out my own path. As an entrepreneur, I get to decide what success looks like for me. It’s a restructuring of power that freaks people out. And the best part is I don’t care. I found a way to make art and be happy, which is a beautiful thing. 

I can reject and unlearn limiting beliefs foisted upon me

Everyone around me is just doing their best. We all inherit and learn limiting beliefs from our families, teachers, friends, and society at large. This is why representation matters. Seeing someone like you succeed is a huge deal. Especially if it bucks assumptions and expectations. Most of the time we are not aware of our limiting beliefs because they are fully baked into our being. Where do I end and my limiting beliefs begin? Gatekeepers are often blinded by their own limiting beliefs, which is why forging one’s own path is often more successful and fulfilling than playing by antiquated rules. Go make your own! Listening to Changing the Story, a podcast by business coach Lana Dingwall, cracked the foundation of my limiting beliefs.

Art is extremely powerful

I’ve had my share of moving experiences in museums, but I’ve also been moved by thoughtful ad campaigns. Do you know why? Because they employed an artist to give visual life to a meaningful concept. It’s cliche but it bears repeating: The world without art would be beyond dull. Art is ubiquitous and yet it never loses the power to create an emotional connection, change someone's day, or even change someone’s mind. In a world of toxic tribalism, art is the only way to bridge gaps and remind us of our shared humanity. A tool that powerful has incredible VALUE. 

I don’t need to ask for feedback

I’ve noticed that whenever I ask someone else’s opinion about something it’s a sign that I don’t feel strongly enough to make my own decision. Whether it’s about clothes or a person, outsourcing decision-making is always a bad sign. Once I started to find my footing with art-making, I found myself no longer asking for feedback. This puzzles other people. Don’t I need external validation? In fact, I do not! I trust myself and my intuition. I simply work on things until I love them.

It’s important to make bad art

Consistent creative practice is bound to churn out some stinkers and that’s all a part of the process. Not everything is meant to be shared with others. What you make one day doesn’t define you. Showing up consistently and trusting the process does. Dedication is thankless. Gratification lives in another dimension most of the time. Making something is way more important than being too afraid to make anything. So what if the thing you drew/wrote/made missed the mark? You’ve greased the wheels so the next idea comes out smoothly. And maybe that one or the tenth one down the pipe will hit on something.

External validation doesn’t matter in the real world

Our education system relies on one piece of structural support: grades. ABCDFU to coin a popular song on the radio! I’ve thrived academically my entire life, but man, the grading in art school was brutal. Grades drove me into a torturous frenzy resulting in crippling panic attacks. As soon as I left the toxic environment, my panic attacks subsided. Coincidence? Doubtful. I am so much happier never having to deal with grades again in my life!! Internal validation is leaps and bounds more satisfying. 

Lots of people make a lot of money doing what they love

The lie aka limiting belief about artists I absorbed is that it’s a lifelong struggle to maintain your integrity or you can sell out and make money doing graphic design, which is a sort of half-life. This is total and complete bullshit. Only years after leaving art school did I break free of this lie. Despite the downsides of social media, one big positive for me was seeing lots of artists doing really cool work and making lots of money. They had found a way to pursue something they loved in alignment with their interests and skills. By carving out a specific niche, they offered something unique and leveraged that with their target clients. It seems obvious to some, but this was a radical concept. Now I can’t unsee it!

There is a spectrum spanning fine art to commercial art and I can be somewhere in the middle

Despite what I was taught in school, fine art is not in opposition to commercial art. They are merely two ends of a spectrum. Binary systems are overrated and inaccurate. Like so many things, a hybrid approach often makes more sense and is more sustainable in the long run. I’m still tweaking my spot on the continuum between fine art and commercial art, but I at least know there’s room for what I want to make and accomplish and share with the world through visual art. Sometimes I want to block print shirts to sell. Sometimes I want to deep dive into mythological symbolism through monoprints. They are both valid.

Contracts contracts contracts

Never make work (or sketches) without a signed contract and deposit. Clients can use an existing portfolio to determine whether they want to work with a particular artist. Unfortunately, people will always try to take advantage of naive artists because, frankly, they can. I learned this lesson the hard way over many years, but I was told that “a complimentary sketch is just how it’s done.” Sigh. Now I know better and I make sure to talk openly with other artists about this issue. Just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean it’s right.

The traditional system is rigged, but I can make my own system

Did you know that artists generally receive 50% of the price of a piece sold in a gallery or store? The store pays for overhead and marketing. The artist pays for supplies and framing. Once you tabulate an hourly rate it often approaches minimum wage. When my drawing teacher in college walked us through that equation, I balked. She was very successful and represented in galleries and museums in major cities. From an outside perspective, she had “made it.” But that is an insane upper limit on how much money artists can make. Why are we taught that that is what success looks like? That is a damaging story to pass on. 

Things I’m glad I did learn:

Investing in myself will always be worth it

My interests are valid no matter how odd or random they seem. Only by exploring my interests have I learned what I do and don’t like. I’ve tried taxidermy, glass blowing, basket weaving, roller derby, dog sledding, and more. Each experience was either rapturous or extremely disappointing. Either way, I’m glad I took a swing and tried. Only by listening to the rumbles have I learned to trust my intuition. 

A community of like-minded creatives is a beautiful, precious thing

What a magical sense of camaraderie bubbled up in the hallways and studios! Late nights, weekends, or honestly any free time was easy to spend in the art school because there’d always be other art students working away. As an adult, I lock onto communities of like-minded people like a male angler fish biting onto its mate for dear life. Finding “my people” has been easy in the sense that I am myself 100% and so people are either repelled or attracted. Kind of like the corpse flower whose smell of decay is the best-smelling aroma to its designated pollinator. I’m so glad I compared myself to a corpse flower…haha. Three that I’d like to shout out are The Musery, Wonder Wander, and the Inkygoodness Collective. They have all been extremely life-affirming!

Self-exploration is a lifelong pursuit

Exploring ideas takes time. Enjoy the process! Another way to say this is “Embrace the suck.” I am a one-of-a-kind specimen who has never existed before and never will again. That is remarkable. We all are capable of mining ourselves for inspiration, but most of us do not. It’s challenging! I often don’t know why I’m compelled to make something, but I put in the time to transcribe the message. I’m happy I can hear the phone ringing. The lines are open and I am heeding the call. Let the road be long and the target be blurry, my friends.