It's March, which means May graduations are just around the corner, so we speak with Cinamon

It's March, which means May graduations are just around the corner. On campus, this is always a time when some seniors feel the panic of oh-my-God-I'm-going-to-have-to-get-a-job! It's a feeling many of us have upon graduation of high school but today's college experience is one that includes for many heavy student debt incurred via loans and credit card fees.

As the semester winds down, many seniors start to wonder, "Is it worth it?" as they face down the repayment of loans in the near future. With this in mind, we interviewed a recent graduate (last May). Cinamon, not her real name ("I sound like a porn star!"), offered her reflections on art programs, what works, what doesn't and what she'd change. With a real world perspective of someone making a living in her chosen field (art), we found her insightful, questioning and frequently downright hilarious.

What do you think the biggest problem with arts programs are?

Well the fact, it's a very old tradition, of having the professor's think they are creating a legacy. We'll use David as an example. He was typical of his time. You trained under him and you learned his style. So he could claim credit. He didn't do all the work but he gets the credit. The professors are often tyrannical and they act as though this system still exists and it doesn't.

They don't seem to be very well infomred in current art and as a result the students don't get information on that. The BFA people do a lot of studio time but not enough art history but you have to have the background in both past and present art forms. That's the only way you can stand up to criticism once you're out of school and someone's saying "It's crap."

What sorts of current art form weren't covered in your program?

You never hear what's on the outskirts. They want you to push the boundaries, they say they want you to, but only so much as they can handle.

I'm sick of lower forms of art versus high form. Animated cells, tatooing, those can be areas in art but they're not being treated as such. Even some of the murals, but murals are traditionally better accepted, aren't getting the credit and attention they deserve.

And regardless of what accepted area they do inform you of, you never hear about female artists unless it's "Now we're going to hear about female artists." It's never integrated into the program. You don't learn much about women past or present except in a "Look, there's a woman!" kind of way and you don't learn about current artists. For instance, all those people have no idea, unless they studied themselves, who Damien Hirst is.

Here these people are famous in their local areas and in the art world but you don't hear about them. Kids need to hear about them and be prepared for the real art world.

And I won't even go into how graphics is seen as a tech class, not an arts class and I think that's crazy.

What would you recommend?

You need an internship and you need to know the work of some artists who are critically acclaimed now. How's that going to help you if you are having a show and you can only reference artists from older periods?

The professors are living in their college years. They haven't kept up. Yes, you can go to museums and yes, some teachers encourage that but that is only about five percent of it because you have to be contemporary and look forward.

On the one hand, there ought to be more competition among the professors for their jobs. They should have to keep putting their stuff out there.

At the same time, I think they need to put all the energy into teaching and their students. I have no idea on that but they're out of touch with the real world and something needs to be done.

But the art world itself needs to take more of an interest in buddying artists and nurture them -- not in a touchy-feely, Hillary [Clinton] way.

Let's talk about pushing the boundaries. It's a valid approach?

Sometimes. But sometimes what gets attention . . . Look, large pieces of a bowl outside a building, they're just copying. Marcel Duchamp. He had at the Guggenheim, he had a urinal sitting there. And it was revolutionary and made sense at the time because it was unexpected and made people think.

But it could also be beauty which is also making people think. The professors could be more open to the students who aren't into pushing boundaries but instead I heard too many professors pooh-poohing someone's work and saying, "That's pedistrian." But often it was about beauty and not pushing a boundary.

Joseph Albert's work looks like blobs of color but if you look at it, you get drawn in. And that's what art is.

Our friend Kat, who reviews music for The Common Ills in her Kat's Korner, has spoken of how music reviews strip music of all meaning as the reviewers ignore any emotional response to the music and instead attempt to toss out a factoid or two. She argues, and we agree, that you're discussing an art form in a very clinical and cold manner. Did you observe anything similar in your classes? Were students addressing the power of a piece of art or were they going into some sort of historical, factoid based commentary.

Wow. That's a really great observation. And art and music have so much in common.
Some students do rise above it. But some just repeat what they've learned and not what the piece makes you feel. It's such an unexact science, how something makes you feel. And it can scare some people. But yeah, art's meant to cause a reaction and you can't capture it or convey it if you're saying "whereas in . . . however, it must be noted that this was done first by . . ."

Okay, say we are a 17 year old passionate about art and trying to figure out what to do with our life? We know we want to create art but we're not sure what route to go. What do you tell us?

I don't know. I don't think they need a BFA degree, it's so hard to say. Take the basics the first two years and see where it takes you. If you like it, take the full BFA thing.

Is it so important to go to school for four years if you can afford it, to have a liberal education, get the education, it is important. Get all the knowledge because then you're imagination can go wild. You need more than drawing classes. It's like the business people who only take business classes. You end up only knowing one thing.

It's irritating that so many people out there only know about the one subject they studied. Everyone should have a good liberal education, a good liberal education. If they can afford it.
If they can't, they need to get the education on their own which is a lot harder but it's not impossible. But a BFA isn't the answer to achieving your dreams as an artist.

Same question only we're a third year student in a BFA program. And here, we're questioning whether or not we should continue. Or, let's change it, to you are now in your third year only you know then everything you know now. What would you do differently?

I wouldn't have graduated. I would have kept getting my pell grant and then go back and get something else instead. Double major. Get a BA. Get a well rounded education.

That's the honest truth, let's see what kind of 'truth' I can make up.

I would stay in the program and start looking around for freelance books because unless you're getting a corporate job, you'll be a free lancer.

Get tear sheets because you need them even if you're not paid. You don't have to be paid to be published. And you have the tear sheet for your portfolio. That's what people want to see and they want to know that you're published. And there's a whole new world opening there where for the web or for new magazines just starting up, people need art but they aren't able to pay you for it. You're not really taught about that or the importance of the tear sheets. Instead, you're encouraged to do these slide presentations.

But in your third year, that's when you do it. That's when you should be attempting to get as many tear sheets as you can.

[Laughing] Don't do the sixty dollars send off your art work professor thing. [Laughing] Do what I say.

What's the slide thing?

You take photographs of your art which you then have developed into slides. You have to send your slides off for a juried competition which you always have some professor advising you to do. [Laughs] Don't do that, do the thing that I say. Now if it's for a grade in a class, and sometimes it is, then you gotta do it. But do that because it's an assignment but on your own time, work on getting those tear sheets.

Okay, let's talk resources. What should an art student be looking at?

Great topic. Look at Decor, ID or The Face because, not because it's fashion, "Ew, it's fashion!," but because it shows you what are the modern colors. Believe it or not, you do need to know what the current colors are so some dumb ass will put something you've done in their living room. "Oh, it goes with my sofa!" They'll put a painting of something as ridiculous as a cow exploding up on their wall if you've got the right colors.

Juxtapoz -- The more extreme and the Danish one, I know it's very expensive so just look at it in store, don't buy it. Wallpaper, it's full of ideas, same with game magazines.

Get your eyes totally overwhelmed and pay attention, just pay attention to everything around you. Everyone's trying to do the same thing, don't do that. Do what I tell you. Be different and, if you're trying to sell your art, know those color schemes because people do buy based on them.