This past month has been a personal revolution. I have delved into a world completely new to me, even though I have thought about it a lot. This world--the world of the art student--is inviting, challenging, exhausting, titillating. I have learned that I am really not the only one who listens to Andrew Bird or is obsessed with Renee Magritte. I have found more people who, like me, are willing to break convention because they are unconventional, who wear what makes them feel comfortable as an individual. I have learned to see the world not for what I think it is, but for what it truly exhibits. In short: I have learned a lot in the past month.
Perhaps the most important thing I learned in relation to my journey into hipsterdom is the difference between making art and what the average hipster (who isn't an artist) thinks of art. Before I started taking drawing and design classes, I thought that art was the portrayal of "individual truths" that need not be derived from reality and didn't need to be understood by anybody but the creator. If I am correct in saying so, I think that's the off-mainstream/hipster view of art. Each piece of art is intended to make a message held by the individual; no one needs to actually get what's going on. The whole process is personal and completely introverted. I could be really wrong, but it seems like that's the prevailing philosophy among those who claim to be indie and believe in the power of one.
However, my extremely brief exposure to art has taught me that art is about portraying the world around us. Regardless of whether or not the finished piece resembles anything in nature, each and every piece of art portrays a human emotion, and it's not the subject matter that determines the emotion, but rather the way the artist renders his subject. Even a box, or a chair, or an onion can have emotionality if an artist is emotionally attached to it and exudes that attachment while creating his artwork.
Even though I am probably wrong about my assumptions of the hipster philosophy of art, it's an irrefutable fact that hipsters love art galleries and modern art. Thus, I am glad to know more about art so that I can pretend to be knowledgeable about it in front of other people in public.
And when I get people to notice that I am deep and can interpret art abstractly, I'll be a hipster off the mainstream.
...right?
I guess I'll find out by the end of the year, when I can actually call myself an art student. Until then, I'll just keep drawing chairs and boxes.
More updates to come as I tackle some do-it-yourself projects!
Much love,
Tucker
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