Well, in some ways nothing is not a total waste if we learn from our experiences. You've learned that the academic art world sucks. It's given you a fire and an edge you wouldn't have otherwise. And you're in a credible position to guide others into not wasting their time with that crap.
It certainly doesn't take the place of four years of training you would have gotten in an atelier or the equivalent--it's four years of your life you'll never get back--but sometimes experiences like that can drive you to a passion you can't get any other way.
Mark the Pseudo-psych
On the subject of academia and "waste", I wasted 4 years, but have always reassured myself that my degree would have a purpose: to enter academia as an influential instructor. Well my mfa proposal was rejected. It may have been a tactical error to include representational work in my application, but I couldn't bear to hide it from them. Maybe I'm just too stubborn. I think its all for the best. I imagine that was the last time I apply for post grad -all the wasted time and money on those applications, visiting campuses etc., all for naught. not to mention my undergrad! - the four years of time and tuition money I could have spent travelling to Europe to copy or study. I know that I had to see all that crap though -to fire my engines in revolt!
William
EXACTLY
..and outside the classroom of captive audiance they would and do get it-verbally, visually as well as financially by working artists. How sad for the poor kids though.
And theose that step in line and march to the same drummer as the teachers get a degree they cannot use to find a job. WASTE WASTE WASTE
Tim,
Yes, there has been a lot of that, and it seems there still is, in art instruction or what is supposed to be art instruction. I think it indicates the insecurity of the teacher in his own abilities, which he tries to hide behind a mask of arrogance and a masquerade of intellectual superiority. These people have no business being teachers. They deserve a good thrashing for their rudeness.
Virgil
This is typical art instruction at universities. The man (teacher) said nothing helpful in the least. He only crushed his 18 year old student in the same way he had been crushed in his youth. Take away their goals and self worth-make them feel like nothing and they will produce nothing of worth. Very sad this & pervasive.
Tim,
As I understand it, much of how art "instruction" is done today, especially in university art departments, is based on how things were done in the Bauhaus. Give 'em a little bit of everything and not too much of any one thing. A student learned to become a jack of all trades, master of none.
Mark
