In class today we had some healthy discussion about how Des Moines, Iowa, and the midwest in general is not the most fertile soil for conceptual art. Great for corn and soybeans, not so great for modern artists. Rachel talked about how she was so excited to return to Iowa, was so pumped up and filled with ideas to start producing some conceptual art and rock the world between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Although she was able to secure three shows at once, nothing came of those shows. Des Moines is just not ready to support her art.
It reminded me of the time when I was a teenager graduating from high school and thinking about making college plans. I always knew I wanted to "be an artist", although I did not really know what that actually meant. I knew it would be my major, I just had to decide between Fine Art and Commercial Art. My biggest problem was that I really enjoyed both. I ended up declaring Commercial Art, because those are the people who stand a chance at making a living with their art. I wasn't too drawn (no pun intended) to the life of a starving fine artist, struggling to pay bills and being forced to take a "real job" while I painted when I could.
I also had to consider the fact that sports scholarships were going to help pay my way. Believe it or not, not all schools that have a women's basketball team have an art department. This was a very disturbing discovery for me. Also, like most teens picking life after high school, I wanted to get as far away from Iowa as I could. Distance was not in the "con" column, the further away from Iowa and the midwest, the better.
I was fortunate to have many basketball scholarship offers, and as a good student from a poor family with 5 kids (none having been to college), I was also going to qualify for academic awards, financial need, and art scholarships if they were available. In the end, I was able to work out full-ride offers at four different schools. My choices boiled down to New Mexico State, University of Alaska, Drake, and Grand View.
Alaska - out of the question. COLD is a four-leter word in my vocabulary, and not in a good way. Didn't even really consider it. The only thing in Alaska's "pro" column was that it did qualify as the furthest away from Iowa. I desperately wanted to go to New Mexico State - simply for the weather. I liked the coach, I liked the team members I talked to, and one of my high school teamates had already accepted an offer from them. The coach could tell me nothing about the art program. I couldn't get anyone in admissions to call me back and talk to me about their art program. This was long before email and websites were prevalent, so short of making a campus visit (which I could not afford to do), I just hit a brick wall in gathering information. I finally got one of the coaches to admit that they didn't really have an art program there. Huh? A state university in the United States of America without an art program? Again, I just assumed all bigger schools would have it. I guess that was not the case. I thought for one second about declaring a different major to be in a warm state, but it was gone like smoke in the wind. I had to be an artist.
I could have gone to another state and start digging the deep hole student loans, but I grew up poor and did not want to start my life tens of thousands of dollars in debt. I wanted to finish college debt-free.
My only choice was to keep telling myself that I had to pick a school for their art program, not for their basketball team's record. I was not going to play basketball professionally, but I was going to be an artist the rest of my life. I was going to have to eat some serious crow - I had been blabbing to anyone who would listen for years about how anxious I was to leave Iowa far behind. And now I had to choose between Drake and Grand View.
So I visited both campuses multiple times to see the art departments and talk to the instructors and see the students' work. I knew some of the students at both schools, and knew that if I lived on campus I could always imagine that I was a million miles from home on a new adventure in a large metropolitan city where things were happening in the art world.
This is what I saw at Drake: It was fine work. Technically proficient. It was clean craftsmanship. And every single piece of work showed the stamp of influence by their instructor, Jules Kirschenbaum. Every piece of art had a shadow or glint of his style. Some of them were close enough to look like knock-offs.
This is what I saw at Grand View's final student show in the spring: It, too, was fine work. Just as well done. But there was a major difference - it was all unique. They had a huge variety of style in all mediums. They showed a huge range of influence - and none of the student pieces looked like they were trying to emulate Dennis Kaven's or James Engler's work.
I knew the day I went to that student art show/competition that I needed to go to Grand View. It wasn't about how famous or successful the instructors were, it was about whether or not they could instruct. Kirschenbaum, Kaven, and Engler are all terrific artists in their own right, but Kaven and Engler were clearly the better teachers. They were clearly able to nurture the individual artist in every student. So despite my best efforts to get out of Dodge, I picked the school with the best art instructors, and they were right here in Iowa.
What I am trying to share with my young classmates, especially now in our internet-based world is this: don't be so quick to discount Iowa as a place to be an artist. You can't beat the cost of living and housing. You can be anywhere on the planet in a virtual capacity.You can sell world-wide online. You can use social networking. You can apply for grants internationally. FedEx, UPS, DHL - think world-wide, don't constrict yourself to the midwest. You have the ability at your fingertips to be successful at being creative right here.
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