When it comes to college finals, everyone is stressed, everyone is complaining, and everyone is cramming for something. While most students have dreams of business degrees and text book oriented classes on the mind, a student of the arts is covered in glue, paint, fabric swatches, monologues, and has a head spinning with key words to validity their work during nerve wracking critiques. Sorry text book heads, this one is not for you. This is for my all you insanely talented art students ready to go to war for your art form.
1. You Wish It Was As Easy As Studying For A Test.
Final projects are no joke. In the seemingly endless time you spend on it, probably over 10 hours, you will contemplate if you really love your craft enough to continue on.
2. 95 Percent Of It Is Rubbish.
Not really, but you think so. You see all the imperfections, all the maddening tiny flaws in your work. It hardly ever turns out exactly how you envisioned. The worst is when you realize you hate your concept.
I know that this one was already mentioned, but it is so prevalent in our lives as student artists that it needs it's own category.
"We literally don't get one minute of sleep for six days straight. My eye bags eat my face and my fingers turn raw and bloody from pins," said Jenna Leigh, a fashion design student at FIT. "Basically art students get much much uglier than regular students during finals."
5. Crying.
At first, you feel weak for crying so much. But by the time you have been through one finals cycle, you have accepted that your body is simply trying to relive some of the pressure that you are under. Sewing through the tears baby, this is getting done!
6. Subjective.
When asking a variety of art students "What is different about finals for an art student as opposed to standard majors?", this one thing rang true.
"Art and grading are subjective and you have to put in a lot of time and passion for art projects. In other majors, you have to study terms or make flash cards. It's a lot less time consuming and is kind of mind numbing" @larkengillian (Fashion, Kent State University)
"The grade is not based on facts, it's based on one professor's opinion." @ninageers (Fine Arts, MICA)
"Most of mine are performance based. Grading is 100 percent subjective. Almost no written assignments to grade from. It's stressful not knowing your grade until it's final." Jack Lavey (Musical Theater, Boston University School of Theater)
"It's stressful! [It is about] having to make sure you have everything entirely memorized and ready and what not. For grading they check for how prepared you were, if you made choices and actually were in the piece, how much progress your voice has made that semester, etc." @bobbyhogan (Musical Theater, Belmont University)
7. We Have Normal Exams Too.
Even though we would like to simply always be using the creative sides of our brains, many of us still go to schools that require us to take 'normal' classes like science and economics. You know how terrible it is to be a painter and have to go to calculous class? I'll tell you, it is actually hell on earth
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8. Praying You Do Not Get The 'Suggestion'.
This is the absolute worst case scenario. You are pulled aside by a professor and it is 'suggested' that you explore other careers. If this happens to you, and you truly love and have talent for what you are doing, then let that moment fuel you to be better and show the ominous 'them' that you deserve to be here.
9. The Incredible Feeling of Accomplishment.
When the final bell rings and it is time to turn in your final piece, you feel incredibly proud in yourself for living to see this day. No matter that that professor's opinion might be, you can't help but smile that you completed something, on time, that you are proud to sign your name to.
10. Self Summer School .
Most majors leave class behind until August comes again. Creative majors continue their craft during the summer. Some of a student artist's best self-exploration is done in summer while they are taking the techniques they learned in school and putting it into their own context and concept. It feels so good to create work that is purely you own, not for a professor or for a grade.
Get that project done, smile at how kick-ass it looks, and then GO GET SOME SLEEP!!
