MADELINE CARROLL
Editor in Chief
My high school’s curriculum required every student to take either an arts or music course in order to graduate. This requirement meant there were some rather unwilling students in my freshman art class. I didn’t realize at the time how much of an impact this had on the atmosphere of the classroom and how different it would be when I took a ‘real’ art course. My junior year of highschool I took my first drawing class and I can confidently say it changed my life.
What was different about this drawing class was that everyone had chosen to be there. This was an elective and because of that there was a more focused and willing environment to grow as students and artists within. Since then, the knowledge I have gained is indispensable. The art teachers and professors I’ve had have shaped who I’ve become as a person.
I saw people who struggled with every other subject in school come to life inside the walls of the art department. What I found different about visual arts is it gave me the opportunity to create something that wasn’t there before. I’ve learned technical skills, principles and theories which are all very important to my understanding of art as a whole. The most important thing I learned however, was how to see things. It doesn’t matter if you have the best technical skills if you don’t know how to see the world around you and create something from it with meaning.
When I was deciding what I wanted my major to be I considered pursuing a BFA degree. I chose a communication degree and a minor in Visual Arts and New Media instead, not wanting to be a cliche, struggling art student. I’m ultimately happy with the choices I made as they led me to this very newspaper but I often wonder how different my life would be had I chose the former.
I always had the idea that the arts were not a wise way to make a living, and in some ways that is true. One of the most valuable things I have learned in college however, is how to take something you’re passionate about and make it practical. Passion, and knowing where to put it, will take you farther than any paycheck ever will. So this is my shameless plug. Go into the arts, whether it’s writing, acting, singing, painting, sculpting. Whatever it is, pursue it endlessly. As Kurt Vonnegut once said, “The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.”