No Art School? No Problem. Create Your Own.

View Show Notes: https://hyperluxmagazine.com/curated-muse-podcast-no-art-school-no-problem-create-your-own/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Thank you so much for joining us. by creating your own art school. So with everybody being at home more than usual this season, people are searching for things to do. People are also being more creative. They're making art. They're doing home improvements. They're writing. And I have a friend recently who published his first book. So there are so many different things that people are doing. And overall, we are seeing a lot of people being more expressive and coming up with creative things to do and entertain themselves because Because during these times, we are often home a lot or isolated. So we're needing to fill those gaps. But it's pretty excellent. The things that I'm seeing come out of people. I'm seeing some of the most amazing creativity, amazing writing, amazing film, different ways that people are connecting to the community and giving back. So as much as it has been a difficult time, I think a lot of really beautiful things have come out of it. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who are feeling a lack of motivation, and they're feeling stuck, and they're uninspired, and that is totally okay. There's nothing wrong with feeling that way, and it's okay to swing between both of them, feel really inspired, and then feel very uninspired. These times are difficult, they're challenging, they're unprecedented. They're not something that we are used to being a part of or used to understand, so we have to a lot more thinking and a lot more adapting and we're doing the best that we can. So for those of you that are inspired or those of you that are not inspired at all, I know that a lot of people that listen to this are artists and most everybody who's an artist wants to improve their art. They want to become better or they even just want to get started in a new medium or exploring something different as an artist. And many artists feel that art school is the only way that they're going to get an education. And as interesting and rewarding as art school might be to numerous people who have gone, which I know plenty of people in the professional world who have gone through art school, it is not the only way to improve your skills or even become a professional artist. There are so many different ways to do that. Now I'm not knocking art school because I think it can have value, but some people aren't made for art school. I wasn't made for art school and I also didn't have the finances to go to art school, so I had to create my own. And I'm still creating my own art school all the time. I am always trying to find a way to learn. And I want to let you know that I listened to the Draftsmen podcast recently and they had a great episode. Actually, they had a couple different episodes. One was called Benefits of Going to Art School. The other one was called Benefits of Not Going to Art School. And then another one was Create Your Own Workspace in Studio from Home. Listening to that series from them really inspired me. inspired me to want to do this podcast episode and encourage you guys to do the same thing if you so were inclined to do so. So as a professional artist, I have had no formal training, and I don't like to use the word I'm self-taught because I'm not self-taught. I have read books, I've watched videos, I've taken classes, I've done a lot of things on my own solo, but I learned a lot from other people who are way more informed than I was. If I was 100% self-taught, that would mean that I pretty much learned by myself in a basement and had no access to anybody else. So if you're not creating in a basement all by yourself alone for the last 10 years, then you are not a self-taught artist. You are somebody that has no formal training. And I think that sounds better. Saying that you're self-taught really doesn't call back to the people that you have learned from. Because we've all learned from amazingly We have all picked up skills by looking at different YouTube videos or finding artists online that we love and we check out what we like about their work or the mistakes that we don't like so we can change our work. Many of us have been a part of Facebook groups where we have done critiques or even in-person critique groups. So really, no one is a self-taught artist because you are just a self-directed artist who has learned from a lot of people. lot of other people. And that's what makes us great. The more people that we have in our life and the more resources we have, the more able we are to expand ourselves and become the best version of ourselves. So if you don't want to go to art school or you don't have the resources, you can still give yourself a pretty stellar arts education, almost free. Actually, you can give yourself an arts education completely free. But no, there are also very excellent resources that are also inexpensive for you to And I want to take this quote by Abraham Lincoln because I feel like it's very valid. The best way to predict your future is to create it. And as artists, aren't we creators? That's what we're trying to do. So what are the ways to create your own art school? First, you need to define all of your resources. So I'm going to give you a comprehensive list of resources where you can build your own curriculum. Number one, educational books. I picked up a list off of Goodreads, and it has so many amazing books on that list. I'm going to put that link in the show notes, as well as those episodes of The Draftsman I just mentioned. Those will also be in the show notes on the website. So there's a list of books, at least 50 that I would definitely give a thumbs up to, that I've heard about or I've read myself, that I know are excellent resources. Number two, YouTube videos. Tutorials, how-tos, do's and don'ts, lessons learned, advice from artists, all free. There are tons of different artists giving out content for free that is valuable. There are so many artists in so many different genres and styles that you can learn from and learn almost anything you want to learn for free. YouTube is a wealth of educational yumminess. Number three, teaching sites. Udemy, Domestika, Skillshare, and like MoMA. MoMA actually has free classes. So Udemy and Domestika and Skillshare, they have all of these independent classes that are taught by various artists. I have taken classes from them for different things, for my design business, as well as for art things that I love. And I think that they have excellent, excellent classes and you can get a lot of value from them. And they're also not very expensive. You can buy them in bundles. And often if you just sign up, you can get them from really cheap. So for example, when I signed up to Udemy, Udemy's classes can be anywhere from like 30 to like 60 and even higher than that. And I was able to pick up for my design business for somebody who was working with me about eight classes of various interests for about$1,000.$90. And so that's on average around$10 a class, which is really, really reasonable. So I want you guys to check out those sites. I think they're excellent. They're a wonderful resource. Check out MoMA's site as well for their free classes. Number four, artists on Patreon. Patreon has become a really big thing for creators. But one of the coolest things that I've noticed is that creators are often giving away educational content. And you can get it often for a very minimal fee. There are artists that are asking for$2 to$5 a month, and you have access to all of their tutorials and all of their information. So number five is finding a mentor. Get instruction one-on-one from an artist. I do that. There are tons of other artists that do that, that do one-on-one instruction. All you have to do is reach out, email somebody, and ask them. Or you can Google online and find somebody even local to you. Support your local community. You You can work with somebody one-on-one to get where you want to go and do what you want to do and be more focused. So number six is Facebook groups. A lot of people really don't understand that there isn't just groups on there where people get together and share things they like. There's actually groups on there that help each other. So for example, there's a group called Animal Artist Beginners to Advance, and people give each other advice. So you can actually get on Facebook, join a group, and And become active so you can get information and also when other people are posting their art and they're getting feedback, you can learn off of that feedback as well as you can give feedback and also you can get feedback on your work. It's a great way to learn and it's also a great way to have a sense of community. And right now we all need a sense of community. Number seven, there are local opportunities. So where I live, there's Lane Arts Council and there's Oregon Art Supply. And there's other things too. There's quite a lot of resources here. But Lane Arts Council offers classes and mentorships and they have a lot of really great things because they're our arts organization. So they have a lot of wonderful offerings that are very reasonable. As well as Oregon Art Supply. It's a smaller art supply store here. It's beautiful and lovely and I love the people that work there. And they offer classes as well. And a lot of these places are doing things online. So remember, we have a lot more opportunity to do Number eight is find or create your own critique group. And what this is, it's a group of people that get together, even writers do this, where you guys get together and you work on certain projects and you bring it back and forth to the group. Some people meet once a month, other people meet once a week. There's often projects or sometimes it's more free and open, just like, hey, whatever you create this week, bring it back and we'll share it and we'll do critiques. And it is a type of group where people give feedback and support one another, where you get to share what you're doing, but you also can have feedback if you'd like, as well as you can give feedback to other artists, and it creates a camaraderie. I have been a part of numerous peer critique groups in various aspects of my life, and I have found nothing but great value from them. So that is probably one of the coolest and most interesting things to do. Plus, now you can do it online. There are a lot more more people that are meeting online. So you could start a Zoom group and do something like that where you guys create projects and you guys critique each other and you guys support each other. And it also creates, again, a sense of community and also a sense of continuity. Meeting with people weekly makes you accountable or meeting with people monthly also makes you accountable. And being accountable and showing up and do regular work will help you improve. That is is number nine. It's not all about other people. It's also about you and what you are willing to do. Are you willing to do the work? Are you willing to come in and practice, practice, practice so that you can improve and you can learn? If you're not willing to do that, arts educational books and YouTube and mentors and Patreons aren't going to help you in a way that you might like them to. But if you're willing to show up, you're willing to do the work, you're read the books, do your sketchbook, do the art, and continually hone in on your craft, then you will get better. And you will start feeling better and better about what you're creating. And remember, it is not easy. Even myself, who has been doing this for 15 years on a public stage, obviously doing it longer prior to, I'm still super hard on myself. I still make three things and throw two of them away and decide to keep one because I know that I'm not great at everything I do. And if I was, I would be a robot and not human. So that's what I'd like to encourage you to do is to show up and realize that you will grow. Time, effort, and consistency. Showing up. And so for you, dedication is important. You don't have to be dedicated, but I'd like to encourage you to be dedicated. I'd love for you to take all of those tools and skills and opportunities and use them to your advantage because you have them at the palm of your hand this is the first time in history you can go to google and ask google anything you can go to youtube and ask youtube anything and they are going to have hundreds of answers hundreds of good answers for you about learning how to do whatever you want to do so don't let those resources go to waste there's also hundreds of people out there who have a ton of content that So I hope you guys have an absolutely wonderful week and I will see you in the near future.