hilitehead

There comes a time in every student’s life near graduation when you must find a job, ideally a job along your desired career path. I’ve always thought about this day since middle school and even at the time I knew more what kind of situation I did not want to be in, jobless and hopeless, versus what exact career path I would ultimately choose. Well some things have changed over the years, but I still have the same ambition only with a more realistic outlook on life, and an assurance in becoming an illustrator. The fact of the matter for me is that graduation is around the corner, and life will come knocking. And when I hear that door I want to be prepared and employed. Even better, I wish to be self-employed and running my own illustration empire. Now, in order to fulfill this plan I must finish the school year strong, and utilize my resources to its utmost potential.

But my mind is still at a bit of crossroads today, I’ve actually been in a ‘career funk’ lately as I try to assemble a reasonable class schedule for the semester. I feel as though the difference of one wrong class can ultimately impact my career since whatever I take will undoubtedly influence the direction of my art. I know that I have no more time to lose, but I’m still a bit conflicted as to whether I should continue pursuing a more experimental direction with my art, or take more illustration specified classes, which leaves little room to experiment but a larger room to develop my style. As much as I think it would be fun to experiment, and test how far I can integrate painting and drawing, I feel that now is the time for me to stop branching out and focus in on my strongest points, not only for the interest of my career, but for my artistic virtue.

Art colleges always encourage experimentation, and to a degree I completely agree with this, but if you spend your entire undergraduate year experimenting, how will you ever transition from the end of schooling into the job circuit? So my question remains, would I ever regret not diverging into abstraction or painting? I’m not so sure, but I would be happy knowing that I always stayed true to my heart, true to my passion in drawing. A wise man once told me that in order to succeed in life with whatever we do, we must be realistic, we must be able to differentiate our dreams from that of reality, thus it is essential to make yourself a valuable commodity.