Is Your Heart In Your Art?
I know that it’s become harder to tell college-bound students to pursue their true passions. There’s much concern over costs and employment prospects during and after pursuing a degree. But what if your heart is in your art?
- Can a college student see themselves making a living by selling their art to people and organizations that will display it proudly?
- Or, does a student picture themselves in an allied field such as advertising, architecture, game design or user experience design?
- is it possible that there’s a yearning to teach others how to make art?
My friend, Barbara Paris, has taught art , She now makes a living through her art.
I’ve known Barbara since we were in the middle school grades in public school and Hebrew school. The daughter of a fashion designer and Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, Barbara’s heart has been in her art since long before college. Voted Most Artistic in our high school senior class, Barbara took classes at community college and a summer program at Rhode Island School of Design before pursuing and completing a B.A. in Art Education and a B.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Massachusetts.
I hope that you’ll llisten to my conversation with Barbara to help your student answer the question, Is Your Heart In Your Art?
There’s a difference between having a passion to put your best work forward versus to use your talents to become employable.
Barbara is still a teacher, and she paints and sculpts, but further, she makes art by reusing unconventional materials. This has been her niche while living in Austin, Texas, a community quite supportive of original public art. Those who are into fashion might relate, if they have seen the unconventional materials challenges on Project Runway. I dropped a couple of photos to show more details from Barbara’s art piece up top called What Goes Around.
For Barbara creative reuse became a developing skill for large installations such as this as well as smaller works such as making a Chanukah ,menorah.
Our convesation reminded me about how art students often begin their education. Schools such as Maryland Institute College of Art, Parsons, the New School for Design and Rhode Island School of Design evaluate talent based on portfolios. Students are expected to have experience with different media. This might be more important at an art school because the education is more studio based.
While an art student might enter schools like these with intentions towards becoming an illustrator, painter or photographer, they take a foundations curriculum where they learn to work with different materials, including some that they might consider unconventional. Click on the names of the three schools. You find information about the first first-year experience at each one. Barbara and I talked a little about this. It’s one of the major differences between pursuing an immersive BFA versus being an Art major at a more conventional college. .I provided a handout to help your students decide.
Listen to my conversation with Barbara Paris now!
