Art students – wearers of mad fashions, owners of tie dye posters, buyers of kitsch ornamental owls and studiers of some of the maddest people to have ever lived. They’re oddballs so you don’t have to be.
But maybe you want to get right into the thick of it with design. Looking at art without knowledge of its process can feel like staring at the tastiest chocolate cake in the world through Perspex glass – no matter how many times you try to reach for it, there’ll always be something obstructing you.
With the right art school MA, you’ll break through the membrane stopping you from honing your artistic prowess.
It’s not an easy path, however. You might look at a Jackson Pollock, for instance, and think he duped people by splashing some paint around – but even the most abstract forms of expression takes years of honing.
Dangerous Dali
Let’s take Salvador Dali as an example. While he seemed to burst onto the scene fully formed, his photorealistic surrealism was, in fact, the culmination of years of study and a variety of art styles. His earlier paintings are like a tour of art history – a Matisse-alike here, a Renoir-alike there.
Only through the process of knowledge, experimentation and undiluted craft could those melting clocks and phallic crutches finally spawn from his mind.
And never forget the social aspect of university life. Studying at the Fine Art School in Madrid, Dali didn’t just make a few friends – he happened upon fellow surrealist Luis Bunuel.
Together they made the first truly surreal film, Un Chien Andalou, featuring eyes sliced open, dead horses in pianos, somnambulist men obsessed with dreams and a whole host of other oddities.
When it premiered in Paris, Un Chien Andalou sparked riots – and it altered the art world forever.
Be the change you want to be
The design landscape is crying out for artists who can signal another monumental shift in design – and it’s only in an art school that you can become the Dali or Bunuel of your day.
Looking out over the art world, there’s Shrigley’s scribbles, Hirst’s skulls, Emin’s mad confessionals – but it all feels a bit safe.
An art school can expose you to new ideas, left-of-centre designs and artists with their view askew. It could be the proverbial grenade in your hand, ready to be flung into the art world and blow it wide open.
There’s a good reason that art students wear make such mad fashion choices – they’re trying to look at the world from a new perspective. If you want to do the same and perfect your designs, join them.