So, I graduated from college... Yay America... I got my BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and double majored in Painting and English with a minor in Writing; but I took a year and a half "off" to go crazy, date interracially, and go to a real, all-art, all-the-time Art School, SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design. While there, my boyfriend Esteban (above) and I decided to hi-jack a car parked and stalling in our dormitory parking lot. I remember it was his birthday (5/8) and I wanted him to think I was cool, so when he said he'd bet I wouldn't do it, I ran to the driver's side and got in, he hopped in the passengers seat, and we took this crap car about 100 ft to the school parking lot. Then we freaked out, hid, got caught, went to jail, and went on with our lives. All this happened in Fulton county, Atlanta and if it had been anywhere else in Georgia, we would have been very, very fucked. But the point of this story is I learned things, like: don't try so hard to be cool, get in with Security, and, while a good lawyer costs $5,000, cornrows in jail are free!!! Sooo, while I am crazy and I have done a lot of fun, interesting, whack-ass stuff, I do feel Art School allowed me to do these insane, classless things (or gave me the wherewithal, or the opportunity, or at least a picturesque background for all my misdeeds and shenanigans) and I appreciate everything I learned in the process.
The first thing you learn in Art School is the human body: everyone's naked and pissing and spitting and cuming and molding parts of their body or doing nude performances or making sexual films. You learn to come to terms with your own body through art and you learn that every body has beauty. But the main thing I can think of that I learned in Art School is to keep your dick sharp. Like when you're drawing with charcoal (your mark-making, doin-stuff, dark phallus) it gets used as you go. The ash gets put down on the paper and wears your charcoal stick out and you have to adjust often. The best way to do this is to generally work to keep the erosion in your favor, a.k.a. make a fine point of the column of ash while you shade with it, and then use that point for detail, and then build it back up again once it wears down from use. So in life, when you are trying to be effective (technically a "phallic" [active] action), remember that your phallus wears out, and the best way to keep sharp is to control the fallout, the burnout, the inevitable end that begets whatever is next. Or else you're just a jackass, going around always hard, just trying to impose your mark, getting your ash all over people, without even realizing how blunt your tool is (TRUMP). The key is being very aware of where you go, how hard you push, when to use your tip, and when you're done. Responsible mark makers map out the whole process, including the waste and the clean up and even the emotional/cultural/energetic impact that the work may have. In this way, you keep your dick sharp and ever sharper as you go.
The other side of this is to keep your pussy clean. Say you have a studio: that space is akin to your body, specifically a vagina as it's a contained, "cavernous" space; a sort of blank, empty, creative canvas where you make art. Keeping things clean and labeled can practically save your life with all the sharp shit and toxic paint and flammable liquids around. In your studio you'll have shelves, drawers, tables, cabarets, cabinets, pots, boxes, and bags full of regular art supplies like paper, paint, and brushes as well as crazy shit like buttons, glitter, hot glue, thimbles, probably condoms, and feathers. Keeping all that organized and maintaining your space can make or break your studio practice. So, keep your "pussies" (containers) clean and you'll be saner, have room for new stuff, and just have space in general to make more art. If you're the type of artist who can't make art because of all their stuff, their mom's stuff, their husband's stuff, whatever...then you'll just never make it. Integrating and assimilating space well is part of art itself, as well as a well-run, clean studio; and these spatial skills pay off and sharpen every time you make the decision to organize your space by clearing the "field", and therefore your mind, and so calling in greater creative capacity. Keep your pussies clean and you'll have the space and sanity to go far.
Another good thing about art school is what you learn in the way of timing. My painting major was spent two years in the studio, 6 hours a day, three days a week, and every other morning, noon, and night you could get in there was considered Studio Time (where hopefully more work than play went down). So you get comfortable with the idea of the long con as well as producing "fast works". You have a studio for a year, there are two semesters, two critiques a semester, so about a month and a half for a body of work to be produced. A cohesive, worked over, polished and prim exhibit of your work to your peers and teachers is a critique. These are super intense, emotional, and can straight up feel DIRE. When you work for weeks pouring out your insides, insights, and personal information into your art and then someone says it's ugly, dumb, and pointless and you used to sleep with them, it can hurt a little. Plus it's so public: your teachers, classmates, and sometimes heroes, hear that shit and then see your reaction, all in real time. Plus, you're all cracked out from pulling an all-nighter, your thumb hurts from where you hit it with that hammer, and you're a gooey, tender, emotional artist to begin with so... Let's just say we keep tissues handy at critique time.
But in terms of timing, there is show after show and critiques never end and there are time frames associated with all of this. You get into timing or your don't survive art school. You learn to work fast and to take your time, and how to do both for different projects, certain times in your creative cycle, and specific areas of your studio practice. You get over stage fright in Art School, and you learn to cope with the endings and beginnings of things because shows and grades and critiques and studiomates and teachers and, really, college itself come and go, so you just adapt; and eventually, you learn to go at your own pace, and to the beat of your own drum. You learn that good stuff takes time and a good oil painting takes at least 10 to 30 layers and 30 to infinity hours to make. Plus, you don't really ever have to be "done"; you can rework a piece whenever and into perpetuity if you want.
Sculptures and installations and wood block prints all take forever, anyway. Bookbinding and metalsmithing and figure drawing all take practice and error and blood, sweat, and tears. Films can take years to shoot and editing them can be straight up endless. Of course you can do an amazing work in no time, but either way, you end up with magnificent, epic, original art that you can keep forever or sell for whatever. But appreciating the time it takes to make something amazing as well as knowing how to manage time well are all wonderful side effects of the life learned in Art School.
The next thing that is awesome about art school is how it demands schmoozing and social skills, self-promition/marketing, and business savvy...just because that's the medium, the ether, the vibe of ART. Being gregarious makes you friends, connections, and money; knowing how to sell yourself is essential in the art game; and almost all art functions have wine and cheese if not more fancy feasts because, really, art is all about enjoying oneself. Art is liking what's on the walls, ground, and ceiling; being entertained by what's floating around in the air; loving what you're tasting and hearing and talking about. Beauty is usually present in the art and the presentation: there are lovely drinks in sparkling glasses under pretty lights and everyone wears nice clothes and hip accessories and good shoes. You have to keep up and you have to learn to think and talk about it all, with an eye towards sales.
You learn how to talk about art, then how to talk about talking about art, then how to rag on talking about art as well as when all this is or isn't appropriate; then you learn who to talk to and how to approach them and what to say to win their favor. You sort of figure out how to make pitches, to your collogues and higher ups; you learn the language of persuasion and persistence; and you learn how to go about guaging your art's worth in the context of ALL art, past and present, by pricing your work. In the social life of art school, you start to look at the larger world and your potential place in it; and in the process, you discover what you really dream of, for yourself and the world, where that path actually leads, and those who will help you achieve your desired resolution. Art school does all of this in more ways than one: plus you end up knowing the Greek and Roman Gods, so that's fun!
The next thing you learn in Art School is who is a friend. Then you learn that this is a very mutable idea and that people, as well as yourself, change all the time. But generally, the people who share space well, who are considerate in their timing and criticism, who speak softly but still know how to have a good time, these are the good guys, the ones you can trust. If someone gives you a bad critique because you said one small thing about how they might do something differently in their critique, then you know that person is a dick. Learning and growing together in the same space for two years, grinding it out against the teachers and each other and yourselves, falling in love with all the wrong people then making art about that that they see and then breaking down during critique because it's all too much...ugh, it just such a magical time.
Art School really is a crucible for so many things: relationships, love, sex, your body, your mind, your spirit, your good side, your bad side, your past, present, and future, your culture, your generation, your city, nation, world, and how you feel and think and see all of that: it all comes up in Art School, and within viewing and hearing distance of people who both love and hate you. Not to mention that the constant critiques of your heart's work in front of everyone can really put things in perspective. Plus, when you're sleeping on the studio floor and not eating and pushing your limits of conviction, creativity, and sanity, it tends to draw you together as a group, and not just because there are only like two blankets in the whole studio. Going through that much stuff together, it binds you, collectively transforms you, and as a community, you just never forget it, kinda like the Marines. Similarly, Art School also makes you think and feel like you can sort of do anything: I guess it's just a side effect of being able to reproduce reality, use a chainsaw, and effectively translate your inner concepts, feelings, and perspectives into aesthetically pleasing representations and then convince somebody to buy that.... All I can say is, if I had to do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing because I LEARNED so much, FELT so much, and LOVED IT ALL. XOXO Bixby painters!! Catch you on the $$$flip$$$ side!!
All art done by me.
