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I Agree with Noah Bradley…to a Point
First off, let’s be real, I’m not Noah Bradley. He’s a primarily digital artist that creates fantasy-based landscape compositions with amazing depth and gorgeous figurative work. His work for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons are technical masterpieces. His work is, as the kids say these days, “goals.”
I paint oil paintings of abstract chickens for rich people that I reprint on tote bags, and am working towards a project focused on POGs. We are not the same, but we are both artists that have had decent success in making art a full time job.
If you haven’t read it yet, Noah’s 2013 criticism of the idea of going to an expensive art school (and resource guide for alternatives he has dubbed the $10,000 ultimate art education) is a fascinating perspective on the benefits and drawbacks of attending a top tier art school from someone who actually graduated from one. It’s a column that I have returned to multiple times for inspiration when I couldn’t see through my own barriers.
If you poke around the internet for critiques on whether art school is “worth it,” you’ll find page after page of diatribes by people who didn’t attend one. “Art school is all about connections,” they often say, as if there is a magic room of people waiting to give away careers in exchange for tuition money. A lot of it is bullshit. A lot of these…
