Day 1: Antman

Day 1: Antman

When I was in grad school, we were asked to make around 30 or so paintings in a week. That sort of thing is hard to accomplish even when you are a full time student and when you’re working while studying at night and on the weekends that sort of assignment will really push you towards questioning the sanity of your instructor.

At the end of the week though, when we were asked to place our “rushed” paintings onto the floor by the order by which we painted and try to look for patterns in our work and identify what we were feeling at the time that we were making them, I understood why our prof made us go through that hell of a week.

The activity taught me that mood is no excuse to make art, specially when it is our job. No matter the mood, if you need things to get done, you will get them done. It also made me realize the things that help put me in a groove that I am comfortable with so that I can at least make decent work even when I do not feel like doing art. The activity made me realize how important routines are, how the things that you do on a daily basis will help you survive the surprises that life throws at you. It made me more aware of what I am going through internally that is affecting my work and helped me make adjustments as needed.

I did not finish my MA. By the time I was in third year the landscape of digital art has changed so much that having a post graduate degree will no longer help me get where I wanted to go. There were more opportunities for illustrators outside of the academic (which I had initially, and still would want to be a part of one day) and graphic design professions that were the only viable options for me when I graduated from college. I hated my third year in graduate school, to be honest, for reasons I’ll share later, but the first two years there really shaped my approach towards work and art.