Wow it's been three weeks already, I can't believe I missed 3 journals in a row. I seriously hope none of you noticed, sorry
This week's journal will be shorter and far less fabulous, simply because I want to ask a question to all of you:
Is a formal education for art effective and useful?
More specifically, I am asking if schools and universities are able to effectively produce prepared artists.
And more importantly, is it even worth going towards further education to learn art.
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Let me talk about my thoughts before you give me your informative answer (feel free to skip this and just comment or de-fin some fish) :This question came into my mind after a uni interview, I've had quite a lot to think about since then... Hmmm...
The first thing I've noticed is that people never study art in school for the qualification, it's almost always for the experience since a portfolio for artists works like qualifications for other jobs. So the most important thing for teaching art is to literally teach and not just become a gateway for qualifications.
I do think that schools are able to teach the techniques and so called "secrets" to becoming a good artist, I really don't have anything against secondary/high/whatever schools. But the problem really starts when the topic turns to universities.
Pretty much all I've done at school is research on artists and experiment with different tools. There seems to be very little actual drawing probably because schools teach the basics. This is all fine and dandy, but it seems like universities seem to do the same thing (at least for the first year or two). This would be fine, except for the fact that prior to university the last 4 years of my life was the experiment and research, there seems to be a lack of preparation for work in the real world.
Anyway, what I am saying is that unis and schools are able to teach and provide experience, but do very little to prepare for actual work in the industry. It just seems a little meaningless that I would spend all my time trying out 10 digital programs, 19 types of paint, 15 ancient drawing tools and god knows how much traditional printing. The time spent "trying" everything could be spent mastering just 2 or 3 tools. Especially since hardly any artists ever rely on a large variety.
In conclusion I think that schools and universities do well, however the vagueness of the teaching and the lack of preparation will hurt a lot of artists. My main issue is that university will be so much different from the real world, I can just image getting thrown out into the world and not knowing what I want to do.
Of course I have not attended university yet, I'm just going by what I know from tutors I've spoken to and what I've seen.
So these are my rough thoughts. Sorry if this was a little long winded, but I am in a dire situation where I am doubting if university is a good choice.
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I'm really looking forward to hearing your answers to the question, I hope that not only will this help me but it might help others too. Thanks as always you awesome deviants
Sorry if this journal was far more serious and straight forward than usual
I usually don't switch to "intelligent mode" often, don't worry I'll go back to "quirky mode" soon enough