Is Higher Learning Enough?

You know as well as I do that we are confronted with many contradictory circumstances throughout our lives. Many of which we have no prior experience in. 

Our struggles handling these circumstances after we graduate from formal education merit this question almost always: Is higher learning enough?

Is higher learning enough?

I started my college education my junior year of high school through a credits-in-escrow program through my college, which was 15 minutes away from home.

I envied those who got ahead in life. 

Truly college education should be desired.  It meant a thorough career in your area of study. It meant that my creative dreams would come true. But I did not see the danger in this way of thinking until later. I simply bought what society sold without questions. Now I am learning the other side.

My dreams of accomplishment in art had little to do with a college education, but some of the experiences could not have happened anywhere else.

Within the academic system

Here you will see some brief observations of the best of what academia has to offer. Most of my examples come from college, but could also come from primary and secondary education. There is often little difference in format these days.

1. Teachers who are knowledgeable about the subject/topic that they teach
2. Students from a variety of backgrounds
3. Potential for one-on-one tutoring as a part of the system
4. Liberal arts help you have a broader scope of learning
5. Isolated learning experience
6. Great social melting pot
7. Higher potential for achievement
8. Ability to work with other students and be exposed to their learning styles and experiences

Workforce training

Post graduation from high school or college you have to learn a lot of things. 

Most of which you cannot learn under your parents or even independently in a college experience. A majority of these can be learned inside of the academic system, but I would argue that it is neither encouraged nor ideal to do so during that time. Some people get both worlds at once, but many still do not.

1. Interviewing skills
2. Money management
3. Networking
4. How to adjust to demands of different jobs
5. Empowerment to pursue your great dreams
6. How to quit in the right context
7. How to plan for the future
8. Change and growth is inevitable
9. Personal habits can cause conflicts
10. Quality of life matters more than quantity of experiences
11. Relationships are often the difference between success or failure
12. Control over certain variables in life makes life easier
13. You cannot control everything

By following these links: Quitter by Jon Acuff and The Dip by Seth Godin, you will learn about alternative ways of thinking about your career. Both of these books provide a framework for personal challenges in pursuing a different careers. 

Stuck In Time

There is so much that needs to be done. Lord help me to build new disciplines into my life. Help me win the battles against the sins in my life...

This was my journal entry from Friday. This is a hard prayer to pray. Often I look to earthly systems to solve my time management problems. Often times they fail to address the problem accurately. Being candid about this is hard. Even harder on the internet where everyone can see it.

You Are Not Alone.
I know I am not alone in trying to find time for everything. Its just not possible. I have many dreams and goals. Many you won't hear about for a long time. It's just not time. But really I want my friends, family, co-workers, and fellow artists all over the world to take solace in this: Priorities are hard to figure out. Because we just don't work, eat, drink, and die there is no straight path on this route.






Consider These Ways To Manage Your Time.
This list is what I have figured out so far. Hopefully these lessons will help you evaluate your situation.

1. Journal daily if possible as a record of accomplishments and failures.
2. Don't put off today what needs to be done today.
3. Ask for help as often as possible.
4. Don't overburden yourself with creative goals that are well beyond your reach at this time. Write them down, draw them, and come back if God allows.
5. You won't always know your limits, but you can tell at the end of the day if you overdid it or not. Try not to go back on that road if possible.
6. Stick to your plan. Refuse to let others distract you if you have a goal in mind. Take criticism of your plan with a grain of salt.
7. Try time management tools, but don't sell out to just one. They all have their benefits and setbacks.
8. Pray and ask God for help.

Conclusion.
You are a unique individual. Let your life form organically. No one can really understand all that you are trying to accomplish. Keep getting back on the time management horse as often as you fall off. In the end you will find time working to your benefit instead of against you.

Reference Your Imagination

Creative ideas swirl all around us every day, all day. This is true, but sometimes we do not have a reference point for a preexisting idea. Sometimes our personal experience is so limited that we have to refer to other sources to drive our picture-making or creative endeavor or even to solve one of life's wealth of problems.

Violin And Violinist Sketch click: Here

This task of conceptualizing is often time-consuming. There are many rabbit trails and often we can be so enraptured in this task that it takes away from time to solve the actual problem.


The important thing is that at the end of this time you can come to a conclusion that is based on reality and not on your mental image of it.



The hard lessons learned by understanding this result in a spirited piece of art and a growing visual vocabulary. Practicing understanding the mundane will pay off in dividends when under a deadline. This practice is grown through drawing multiple versions of a subject from multiple angles and sources. This has been my primary drive for mastering the quick-sketch and has been the foundation upon which I am building my inking skill.

Consider your discipline. Are you taking every possible measure to understand your subject? What techniques do you use to learn for the sake of the end result?

Name Your Triumph

"When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed." - Paul Klee

"The best artists make the most mistakes." -Andrew Kish, III Watercolorist

Thinking of physical failures as triumphs takes a lot of courage. It makes more sense to just call something a failure and laud it as that to everyone you meet. But, does it really help anyone? 

I am not talking about an honest acknowledgement that the pieces of art you are concerned with do not have flaws or lack the ability to communicate the message you want to get across. I am talking about a piece of art standing on its own as a piece of art. It is no less valid to laud a child's simplistic crayon drawing as art as the work created by a person with a PhD in oil painting. Communication is one thing, beauty is another. 

In my pursuit to create good art I have learned the value of sacrificing my longing for perfection for the greater good of communication. The truth is I have created some pretty amazing works that had to meet their death at the end of an eraser or a swab of a paint brush. I have to count on this to sustain me as I create. Mistakes are necessary. Mistakes, you could say are the life of art. The further I go into this process the more I see that it is vital to my growth and the easier it is to decide what to keep and what goes. 

We have to consider our "failures" as fodder for growth. We have to celebrate the whole of the process so that we can perpetuate our movement toward the creative end we pursue. It is well worth it. So, I share my triumph with you. I have accomplished 17 hours of work in the 5 day span from 1/23/12-1/27/12 in the midst of a part time job and other responsibilities, challenges, and events. Praise God! I will do much better this week. 

Granted not all of these pieces were a beginning to end process, but they are all part of the process and therefore qualify as art. In the mainstay pieces I will share with you the final products in the months to come. Hold tight to your work and consider every victory along the way.