What Art School Actually Taught Me
This isn't a post about all of the painting and drawing or design skills that I have learned about through my semester in NESAD. No, this is a post about how I've grown not only as a student, but a person through the time and effort I put into my artwork.
For those of you readers that don't know, I am a rising Sophomore at Suffolk University's New England School of Art and Design majoring in Interior Design and (hopefully) minoring in Psychology. I went into University thinking that I would major in Psychology since that was a main interest and focus in High School. But as I began studying, and spending time in my Psych class, I realized that I was bored. How could I do THIS for the rest of my life? And I know that there are many different paths you can take with a Psychology degree, believe me, I know & have done my research. But I knew deep inside that I didn't belong there.
I began to see the art students work, and attended their open showcases. I saw how much they enjoyed their classes and thought about how much I missed making & creating things like I used to do in High School. So, I started thinking, and planning, and researching different art degrees. I have always been infatuated with design and decorating, I blame HGTV for a lot of that. But in all seriousness, I somehow felt connected to the design world, and saw a future in it. I wanted to jump right in, re-do houses, completely reinvent a room for function & aesthetic. I was so ready to enter this new world.
After lots of emails & scheming to convince my family that I could have a successful future in this field, I switched my major to Interior Design and haven't looked back. A lot of people see the arts and especially the design field as being something that you don't need to go to college for, and if you do, you're wasting your money. However what people don't realize is that there is a lot more that goes into designing a room or house than just picking out pretty pillows or re-organizing things. Since Interior Design is such a modern and rapidly growing job field, some people aren't as up to date as they should be about all the effort and skill that goes into design. Even I had no clue what I was getting myself into, and I was blown away. I heard things such as "You're too smart for this" & "I don't think you have to go to school to pick out pillows all day". But design is so much more than what you see from the outside or from the TV shows. I didn't know that along with design came all the architecture codes, floor-plan drawing on and offline, and mastering the basic art forms such as painting and drawing. There are so many more skills and ways to apply a person's brain in design than I imagined.
Moral of my story is, go for it. Your Freshman year of college should be about exploration so that way you have the rest of your time to dive deep into what you truly and passionately want to study. So, without further delay...here's what I learned over the semester!
P.S- most of these photos were taken while still adding to the work, and not in its finished state. So, if it looks a bit unfinished, it is!
If at first, you don't succeed, try try again...and again...and again...
In other fields, you do a project once, or you complete a test, and that's it. You did your best the first time, so you don't have to do it again. But that isn't the case in Art School. Sometimes you have to propose ideas or completely re-do assignments based on if you truly fulfilled the criteria to the best of your ability. In the real world, designers re-create ideas and plans numerous times to satisfy their client and the brief. This was one of the hardest things to learn because I'm such a perfectionist, and I always want things to be done correctly. This painting in the image above took me about three or four tries. It may not look too difficult in the end result, but getting there was a painstaking process. Making sure all lines were crisp and the overall design remained cohesive were the overarching tasks, but it took mixing several colors over and over again and repainting to get the perfect matte texture. Even in it's finished state it had a few chunky spots, but it got chosen to be placed in the Foundation Studies Showcase, and I was so proud of that. I had to learn that just because I didn't get it right the first time, it doesn't mean I can't ever get it right. This happened a lot throughout the semester as well, and I realized that to find the perfection I was looking for, you had to practice and re-do things to uncover exactly what you need to do. Nothing comes easily, or without hard work and determination.
You can't be the best at everything
This was another skill that really took some time to learn. I always want to be the best, and if I'm not, I get discouraged and want to give up. But Art School is all about finding your niche, finding your style, and running wild with it. This semester I learned that drawing is not really my strong suit. I love to do it and love creating things, but it isn't as enjoyable and rewarding as a field for me to pursue. There were times where I could just tell I was giving it my all, and still not getting to where I wanted to be. But my issue was that I was comparing myself to everyone else in the course, instead of seeing my own improvement as an individual. I ended the drawing course with a B+, which I know is not a BAD grade in any sense, but it wasn't up to my par. At first I was embarrassed and ashamed that somehow I didn't try my best or give my all in the course. But in fact, I did. I drew to the best of my ability and worked by tush off to make everything as good as I possibly could. So if my best in drawing was a B+ than so be it. I learned that you don't have to be 100% perfect at everything to be good at it, to enjoy it, or to even do it. I have my set of skills and talents, and I have my flaws and imperfections. The true key to being successful though is to embrace them all.
Think about college as your future, not just school
This one is a true mindset skill that I learned. For me it sometimes feels as though I spent my entire life working up credits and the grades to get into college, that since I'm here I don't know what to do anymore. But that's not truly the case. College is the bridge between leaving your hometown and high school and submerging yourself into the real world. It took my changing how I see learning and how much I value going to college and getting an education to realize that the skills I am learning now in my courses are actually going to benefit me in real life. The photo below was a project that I created in my Digital Orthographic course. It was all about creating floor-plans and building layouts (measurements, dimensions, details) online through AutoCad. I found it interesting & it was actually my favorite course this semester but what I didn't realize was that we would be doing this kind of stuff so frequently in the design field. I did a Job Shadow program at a company named Stantec in Boston, and I saw them doing this same exact thing of creating digital floor-plans and layout, and printing them just like we were. it blew me away to see that the same skills were being taught can actually be applied. So many times, in High School particularly, you have to take courses that in no way apply to what you want to study, so you memorize information just as easily as you forget it after the test is over. But that isn't the case in college, and it makes learning so much more worthwhile.
My personal style
While I was in Art School, or maybe this one is a more general "college" happening, I let go of all the fears I had while in High School to truly express myself. I wasn't under the small and encasing umbrella, being scared to be seen as an outsider. Instead, I was in the heart of Boston, where everyone dresses with flair, and I became obsessed with it. I started wearing...
High Heels almost every day
shirts with huge puffy sleeves, because why not!!...
super cool stripey high waist pants...
and, jumpsuits!
Long story short, I truly jumped into the world of fashion, and started exploring with how I dress. I always loved clothes, but now I am choosing clothes that make me proud, confident, and they make me feel as if I'm expressing myself.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this, and if you're going to college or art school, expect to learn these things too!
Happy learning- xoxo Sophie Kay