The Benefit of Your Wisdom

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Slice of life: This and other unpleasant truths at eageageag

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I teach a course to last-semester painting majors on how to find (or create) a place for themselves in the art world. It’s the course I didn’t have when I was in art school. If you graduated from art school before 2000, it’s the course you didn’t have either. But as the art world has gotten larger and more complex, art schools and colleges have rightfully decided to address the issue of how their students will build and sustain a career in art. God knows, especially now.

Experience and some professional success make experts of us all, so now I teach what it took me 30 years to learn. The course is not about “success” per se because you can be famous for your art and still not be able to pay your bills--or vice versa. Rather it’s about how to navigate an uphill terrain that has plenty of roads but few maps, where superhighways cross paths with barely marked trails, where there are high tolls, many forks in the road and more than a few dead ends.

Recently there have been some good posts offering advice to emerging artists:
. Dawoud Bey's Advice to a Young Artist
. Franklin Einspruch's Unsolicited Advice

. Deanna Wood’s “Helpful Posts” (on sidebar) at Artist Emerging

. Jackie Battenfield's The Artist's Guide website (precursor to a book that will be out shortly)

. And, as always, Edward Winkleman’s inside views and valuable counsel

My post today is a question:

What advice would you offer an art student who’s about to make the leap?

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