10 Art Secrets they Never Told Me in College
Now that my BFA degree will soon be in my rearview window, I feel it’s time to get out my thoughts on the many, many secrets that art instructors fail to impart on their students. As I discovered each of these tidbits, I found myself silently shaking my fists and wanting to yell, “why didn’t they bother to tell me this??” If you are a student of the arts at any level, I hope this list will save you some heartache and frustration.
- Every piece of work has an ugly stage.
That’s right, every single one. Even Leonardo da Vinci made sketches that ended up in the trash. Every genius artist you admire generated piles of trash. Every single painting or drawing you will make goes through a stage in which you start to think you’ve forgotten how to create. Some artists even hide these ugly pieces away for decades and pull them out when inspiration is lagging. The great artists push through to the other side.
2. “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working” is absolutely true.
This classic quote from Picasso could probably best be partnered up with Newton’s First Law of physics, “An object in motion stays in motion.” The concept of inertia really does transfer to the work of creation. As long as my brush is moving, ideas are flowing. I create my terrible art (and even a few times have resorted to…
