Hello again internet world. Tim Gonzales (semi-certified bloggernaut) here, and I’ve some rather enticing news. As mentioned in the prior post, I have indeed graduated and received my Bachelor of Fine Arts. The entire, overtly arduous process took me three years and seven months to complete, but it was worth it. The things I’ve learned, the experience I’ve gained, but most of all, the people I’ve met were all worth it.
I can safely say that all those late nights, early mornings, and raging, stress induced panic attacks are severely outweighed by even the most minute connection I’ve made with every one of my peers. It’s undenying to note that despite my outward and blatant disposition towards general art education, my stay at the Art Institute was grand and now utterly bittersweet as I surrender my status as an undergrad.
That said, where do I go from here? Simple, what I do is communicate the world via creative endeavors. That is my trade (as so eloquently put in my Facebook ‘About Me’ section). The job hunt begins with personalized emails and such to design firms, marketing agencies, people I know in places, overall linking up potential employers to my website, a have at my resume, and a little spice and pizazz through cover letters.
This is all standardized though, of what is to be considered the most ‘logical’ step to take. While I do deem such a standard principle to be important, I personally feel that nearly four years of creative work, what with its ups and downs through trial, exploration, and error, can take its toll on the out of the box kind of mind. Perhaps mine might have been a specific case, but what I’m sure every art student, or any student for that matter, can attest to is that stress has the ability to surely break even the strongest of foundations.
After going through a rather traumatic experience during one of my senior level portfolio classes, I had to postpone my graduation another semester as my mentality as a designer had been unexpectedly put to a halt (long story short, my portfolio along with all of my prints, was stolen). My mind had even crossed giving up and dropping out, but something unknowing to me had urged a blind motivation to move on and pursue what I had set out to do. This digital age had saved me really, as I had proper revisions backed up to re-print again and complete a new portfolio.
Thus, a new philosophy of mine was born; when presented with a problem, you foresee and conceptualize a solution by whatever means necessary and using your talents and resources to the best of their abilities. You then create and shape this solution based upon absolute adaptability, meaning the solution would work in whichever way possible, and finally you complete the solution no matter what obstacles or hindrances you face. Excuses or pains and tribulations are nonexistent. The three C’s, a tri-angled approach to life that can be applied to any situation really.
So post-grad, I’m proposing to myself to lay low for a month or two, to sort of regenerate that creative charge inherent within every creativist. It’s vital to ensure that proper mentality and those creative juices, so to speak, are not pushed to an unnerving limit. Diving right into the working world is just something I’m unfit for. Saying that, leaving headroom is a good thing to note, which is actually something I’ve never done properly. Yes, I am indeed a hypocrite in that manner, but I say so only to prevent others from going head first onto a similar path.
For years my work ethic relied on the burst, or spur of the moment. Spontaneous and sporadic design, while risky, can be shine its brilliance but again it puts many things at risk. Not only the design itself, but personal health, relationships, and overall ethic among other things. Perhaps mine is a specialized case, considering the events I had gone through during my stay at the Art Institute, but I think it’s safe to say that removing oneself and surrendering constant creativity for a little while is a good thing. After all, had I not taken that semester off and postponed my graduation in an attempt to ease my mind and regain proper creativity, my work would have been, for the lack of a better word… shit.
Cheers.
