Tuesday, Bobbie and I had a good two hour conversation with a senior illustration major, Eric, the son of one of my high school teachers. For one, it was just really interesting to finally meet him after having been friends with his brother and a student of his mother, hearing his name for the past couple of years, seeing pictures of his work and shows, etc.
One the whole, Bobbie and I agreed that he was pretty repetitive in the things that he was telling us. Our opinions differed in that Bobbie found him very articulate and therefore his repetition wasn't useful, whereas for me I felt like he was trying to say something at times but couldn't quite communicate it, so it drew me in but took the repetition for me to really understand it. That, and he used a lot of metaphors.
I wasn't surprised to hear that he was somewhat disappointed by VCU's Illustration department, because that's what I've been hearing through his family members for the past couple of years. People bringing in projects they "weren't feeling" or had done the night before or just didn't care about, wasting their time and money, skating through, trying to figure out what they wanted. His community college experience was a lot more intense, professors who would literally toss late projects on the ground, "you wouldn't get the job," with students who wanted or needed the experience, the work, to get the job, who maybe didn't have the best drawing or designs but had the energy, the motivation. At the same time, he seemed to qualify or contradict (I'm having a brain fart trying to find the right word) his answers, stating all the reasons that, regardless of its downfalls, the illustration department really is amazing and totally worth it.
A lot of the things he said he had learned since coming to VCU didn't seem specific or exclusive to the Illustration department, and both Eric and his friend readily agreed with this. There was this repeatedly touched upon idea of work outside of class involving observation, problem solving things, analysis, being able to really see something and communicate it, knowing the entire picture so that you know what to include and what to leave out in your piece.
A lot of his time when he first came to VCU, and in a sense a lot his time now, was spent just drawing, even if it was just for 30 minutes a day waiting for class to start, really observing trees, or cars, or whatever, and being able to practice drawing, and understanding the entire object in order to communicate it even if you couldn't see the entire object, see the steering wheel in the car or the axel that the wheels are attached to. This idea of the technical, of a foundation for really understanding things as a whole and how they work, of observation, comprehension, communication (I feel like a lot this doesn't necessarily make sense unless you were there).
Both Eric and his friend, again, agreed that college or illustration as a major was something that was necessary, or a set in stone thing. They both knew guys who had dropped out and still made it because they did the things they could have done in college, that the things you do in school aren't exclusive to school but a matter of discipline, of wanting the knowledge and education more than most peers, of being able to work for it regardless of the class. They both touched upon the idea I've heard so many times in the past two weeks that one of the greatest things you can take away from college is the idea of a community of artists. Critiques came up, of wanting and needing a group that was really able to objectively look at your work and maybe hurt your feelings, and being able to take that and learn from it and grow from it.
Eric mentioned his professor Sterling Hundley repeatedly, an illustrator retiring into fine art at the age of 35, world renowned, etc. After our conversation I immediately went out and bought Hundley's book Blue Collar White Collar.
I'm really torn between the idea of going into Comm Arts for illustration to maybe yes or maybe no get a better grasp on all of these ideas when they essentially told me I didn't even need Illustration as a major to have them, that I could develop them on my own and their ideas really almost were developed independently, on their own; and yet they so endorse the idea of majoring in Communication Art. They didn't necessarily talk bad about other majors, painting or sculpture; they said that you could definitely apply the same principles to each. I think maybe they meant that wasn't normative; at one point Eric said something about painting majors "dipping their hands in paint and smearing it on a canvas" and talking about "liking shapes, colors" and such, and not really knowing how to draw or being too lazy or afraid of really learning how to draw.
What I want is a marriage of all of this. I don't want to have to major in Communication Arts/Illustration to develop these skills. I don't want to have to major in sculpture or painting just to learn how to "sculpt" or "paint," and I wouldn't want any major to be just about it's title - just painting without all these concepts they talked about as being part of Illustration, and yes still applicable to Painting or Sculpting, but hey, you should really major in Illustration. I don't want it to be a mistake, or missing out on these ideas, if I decide to declare a fine arts major; I don't want to exclude those ideas, that knowledge.
I've thought of the idea of double majoring in a fine art degree and then maybe Illustration, but how suicidal would that be? There's all this talk about really being hungry for it, and really wanting it, and being able to work for it, and then also the idea that maybe I don't need my major for either. Besides that, I'd like an influence outside art, an English or Anthropology major.
Again, Eric used a lot of metaphors that expressed things a bit more clearly for me, like the idea of being a boxer as being comparable to being an artist. It's one thing to get all oiled up and flex your muscles, but another to knock someone out.
He also talked a lot about "intellectual property," doing things differently in your field, for yourself, your own ideas. Right now he's doing these types of previews, in a sense, of a graphic novel he's working on, posting scenes or something from it on t shirts as a sort of partnership with this girl and her company. Basically it was the idea of being an artist beyond the portfolio you show your potential employers.
Interesting quote/concept: "Talent and skill are both just the ability to see things and make decisions."
Hopefully I'll come back and read this later and I'll be able to pick out things that make sense, because right now I'm feeling vaguely overwhelmed.
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