College

[Lonely Angel]

So, it's now the end of my third semester and I just got through with finals. For what I ask? Everytime I tell people that I'm a Visual Fine Arts major they either laugh or seem to pity me. So far so good with my grades, but everyone always wants to know What am I going to DO. Just wondering if anyone else out there has any similar frustrations.

 

[Elyd]

I graduated in May 2011 with a German Studies degree. Yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing with my life and it's frustrating. But dammit, I don't want life to be about DOING something. I want it to be about living and enjoying what I have. It was really frustrating when I was jobless and not sure what I was doing, but lately I am picking it up. I like to console myself with the fact that I'm still too young to know everything, and probably always will be. :)

 

[Super Cat]

I had a problem in college where I had just decided my current major wasn't for me and I didn't really know where or what I wanted to do. It was kind of frightening because I also didn't have a job, luckily I had just come back from a deployment and had a nice sum of cash built up so I wasn't in a terrible situation. But just not knowing where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do was not fun at all. I had friends that suggested doing this or that but I wasn't really interested in what they wanted me to do. I came to realize that I really had to find out what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. I ended up turning towards Network and Information Security. I've always been fascinated with computers ever since I was young my father told me stories of how I would just sit there and wiggle the mouse around when I was barely old enough to walk.

Either way I was happy with my decision even though some people thought it was a drastic change from dental hygiene. Almost none of my 3 semesters of credits transferred and I was stuck in a position where I was going to try to finish four years of work in 2.5-3. I don't know where I will be going from here but I am looking at heading towards a masters degree and it feels nice to know what I am going to do with my life again. I've at least traveled enough and done more than the average person that no one can tell me I have done nothing with my life, but I didn't do those things for other people. I did everything for myself and because I wanted too.

So if the people that you are talking to are just mocking you and asking you why you are doing something that you like it might be a good time to tell edge them out of your life. I certainly wouldn't want to talk to people that question my life decisions at every turn.

 

[Lonely Angel]

Yeah I know what you mean. Art has always been a huge part of my life and it will always be at the center of it. Everyone just assumes that since I'm in college I'm looking for a career, but I'd be happy with a decent job here and there. Money is not the goal of my life.

 

[Zen]

Art can actually get you quite a bit of jobs, depending on the field you go into. You should punch the people who give you odd looks or laugh at you. A part of me actually wants to go into art simply because there are more job opportunities in art than writing.

So what are the job opportunities?

Well of course you could always go free lance and work off of commissions and the like. People set up websites and make a living that way. Granted this is probably one of the hardest thing to do. You should work on getting your art showcased in galleries near where you live. It's a wonderful learning experience and it gets your work out there. Two of my friends (they're twins btw) got theirs showcased and they're only 20. I don't know what exactly you're going to focus on with Visual Arts because it's such a broad topic in art, but you could work for animation like Pixar or Dreamworks. I have tons of friends whose aspirations are to work for one of those companies. Game companies also hire concept and environmental artists, where their sole role is to make the world come alive. Keep in mind that these companies are VERY cut throat and you MUST MUST meet their deadlines. (Blizzard recently hired concept and environmental artists for their new MMO Titan and Assassin's Creed definitely uses concept art because their games are historical.)

There is seriously a LOT you can do as an artist.

 

[Rika-Rosen]

Personally I've had a few issues going to school myself. I had some health issues, as in finding out I'm freaking Diabtic over the past summer, I nearly flunked out of school. Now here I am on probation trying to get myself back on track. I'm still struggling a bit with all the normal stuff while trying to get back into my major classes. I'm an elementary education major. So I have to a certain gpa to take the classes... go through a lot to get the grades in the classes only to go out to a job that really is underpaid and gets to deal with people who blame everything on teachers.