As kids and adults are all back to school this week, I ponder: “Is it necessary to go to school for art?” Personally, I haven’t had a formal education focusing on art, but I have taken art classes in my life.
In this day and age you can find just about any instruction you want on the internet with sites such as Youtube. Anything and everything is on there, from airbrushing to watercolor! The best reason to get instruction online, is that it is free with internet access. The last time I checked, art centered colleges such as Ringling, were over $100k. Is there any reason that an aspiring artist needs to get that deep in debt for a career that is notoriously difficult to make a living in?
One reason, perhaps, is the direct feedback from an instructor related to your own personal work. In my life, I can recall some hard to hear criticism regarding my photography (by a fellow artist, not an instructor). As hard at the time it was for me to swallow, I realized the value in it and my work did improve. You wont receive that watching a youtube video, however, you could upload your work to Reddit and receive open feedback from anyone who would like to comment. Ultimately, it is the buyer’s opinion that actually matters.
Not every piece of art we make is a masterpiece, and not every photo I take is a winner. At shows, I have included some of those less-than-best works which seem to still have someone come by and say “I love this!”, and buy it in a print. I think to myself “Really?”, and feel happy that our time and effort wasn’t wasted in creating it. Art truly is measured in the eye of the beholder and their experiences.
Art can be anything these days. A banana taped to a wall, for instance, or a robot dog pooping out digital images of billionaires. Do I need a $100k education to create that? No. Not at all. In my humble opionion, you can find what medium of art works for you online, and practice until you are happy with what you create.
What would benefit an artist is a degree in business management, marketing, or advertising. To sell your art to the world, to those that appreciate it, now that needs a degree! We were clueless in how much we would spend and have to learn in areas of non-art: website creation, business creation, tax accounting, printing….the list goes on. Don’t even get me started on how much you have to spend to enter a juried Fine Art Show event where zero sales are guaranteed!
We have been lucky, in our first year in the “biz” we have had a tremendous learning experience that brought us increasing sales. We went from our first event where some people, say 20% walking by would see us and appreciate our art, to our last event of the season where 90% of people would, at the minimum, pause and look at what we were showing. This was very exciting to us, as so many people would walk past other really good artists to stop, pause, or come into our tent. To me, that increased behavior said we are on our way! Watch out Sarasota, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, London, and Paris, here we come!
So, in short, no, I don’t think a formal education in art is necessary. An education in business and selling, is!
-Natasha Picofsky
P.S.- The featured image for this blog post is one of my very first water color assignments I received over 20 years ago from a Delaware County Community College (PA) watercolor class. I received an A- for this piece. A generous grade, because looking back, I probably would have graded myself much lower, now, just proving that art and its value, is in the eye of the beholder.
