Sunday, March 28, 2010

Brain Overloaded

I've been having difficulty getting to sleep for the past few days. It's not that I'm not tired, it's just that I have these...ideas in my head. Lately, one idea in particular seems to be bugging me, so perhaps I'll try and work on making that idea a reality...you know, so I'll stop thinking about the thing.

Very vague...okay, I have an idea for a project to help kids develop art portfolios. I remember back in high school, Art was...not a taught or serious subject ( in forms 3 and 4 we had "Art and Crafts" in which I learned absoloutely nothing. Well, alright, I learned how to make an ornamental toilet roll holder, but I don't like flaunting this skill). This didn't used to bother me, until my sister started going to a new school ,where they do teach Art. Then it struck me, that there are kids in her class that might not even want the opportunity to learn Art, but take it because the freaking class is available to them (and perhaps, for easy grades).

I am pretty sure that out there are kids who have the potential to be great artists, who might even doodle regularly, or sketch things. But they probably wouldn't even consider applying for an art college after high school, because hey, Art's not a real subject they teach you in school. Granted, I know that if someone really wanted to, they'd find a way to get into an art school. But for every one of those, I'm sure there are at least a couple more who just didn't have the time or opportunity to develop a skill set. Who, if they knew how, could put together an impressive portfolio.

It just ticks me off a bit, when I think about kids who go on to become mediocre lawyers or accountants when they could be fucking fantastic designers, concept artists or illustrators.

I guess personally, I just want somehow to provide a chance to someone that I would have taken if it were available to me. I never really learned art, you know as a subject. I just kind of learned as I went along, and sometimes I don't even know if the stuff I do can even be classified as art.

This is turning into a TLDR post, isn't it? I guess I'll leave it there, and try and go to sleep.

Anyone have any thoughts on the subject though?

2 comments:

John Michaels said...

Me thinks main reason it's not taught in schools is that there isn't that much demand for it locally. Well, compared to lawyers & accountants at least.

Unknown said...

Whatchoo talking about fool? Demand for Art? There will always be a demand for artists in advertising, natch.

Also, shame on you for putting down the dreams of these kids who want to be artists.

The demand for art comes in many forms, and I know that you've seen enough crappy websites designed by people with no artistic sensibilities to agree with me. Perhaps if they had a couple of hours of color study under their belts they'd know a little bit about presentation? No?