The Art School Chronicles

(Written in 2021) 

Despite only going to my local university's art school for two years, it was a very eventful time in my teen years. 

For starters, I found myself in my very first relationship in my first year of art school. And aside from that, I formed a lot of friendships. Which is what I was hoping for since we were all there for the same reason -- we were the weird art kids, after all. Luckily for me on orientation day, I reconnected with an old friend from elementary school (I'll call her Hannah). Hannah and I were considered 'the art kids' at our old school and we were both painfully shy and our birthdays were back to back. It's like we were meant to be friends.

Once I'd found Hannah, she quickly introduced me to two other girls (Kim and Riel) and in no time the four of us became a group. I loved those girls, I still do. Kim and Riel were very outspoken while Hannah and I were more reserved, we were an equal mix. I also met other students who shared in my shyness, 'Keith' and 'Holly'. Keith was very laid back and kept to himself, but seemed to be enjoying his time there. And Holly became one of my closest school friends. We were both painfully shy and nervous so we stuck to each other like glue. I remember I was the one to initiate our first conversation and boy am I glad that I did. I'll never forget staying after class with her to work on our cardboard projects and listening to Christmas music (in the middle of May). She also bought a copy of my book and said her neighbour loved it! 

Aside from the students I met, the teachers were equally as interesting. A prof I had in both years looked like a Walmart Josh Groban, while my graphic design/illustration prof was the one who convinced me to switch schools (forever grateful for her for that). We also had a prof who was obsessed with...anatomy. I mean, he would practically beg us to incorporate groins and chests into our projects. We had to go to his office one by one for end-of-year evaluations and his entire office was covered head to toe in...'anatomy books'. He also ended up losing all of our final grades on the last day of class and everyone reported him to the dean.
We also had a photography prof who became pregnant in our second year. She taught us how to make cameras out of cardboard boxes and produce film. I still remember the Dark Room, the pitch black walls, the black lights and the microscopes. Being in that class, especially the dark room made me feel like I was living in Life Is Strange, just without Mark Jefferson. I loved that class, it was so chill.
There was also one prof that everyone feared, additionally because she was the dean's wife so she was like the Final Boss prof. Everyone called her the Dragon Lady because she never approved of anyone's work unless you were a goody two-shoes or you were lucky. I was...semi lucky. I think she cut me slack when she saw how lost and nervous I was. I didn't know how to function when she complimented me, I thought it was a trick. She also almost blamed me for plagiarism after our first year trip but I'll touch on that next.

Yes, aside from band camp in grade seven, we had to go on a mandatory trip to Minneapolis in my first year. It was my first time leaving the country without my mom so I was very nervous, but Hannah and I watched Shrek on the bus ride there (so that mellowed me out, lol). The hotel we stayed at was super sketch but it was connected by skywalk to a really big mall and I vividly remember walking through that mall with Hannah, Kim and Riel to get to Panera Bread and Barnes and Noble. We also took a sketchy night walk around the neighbourhood and saw old cathedrals. Luckily when it came to staying out late I always ended up with the mom of our group, Riel. She and I called in early every night and would be half asleep when Kim and Hannah came back with their Harry Potter books. 

Each day of the trip we went to different museums. I really can't remember the names of most of them (I only remember Walker Art Center and Weisman Art Museum) but we went to a ton; it sometimes felt like we were in Europe from the look and design of these places. We also saw the Sculpture Garden which was beautiful. Our homework for the trip was to sketch and then discuss the structural and conceptual elements of the pieces we chose to include. I remember going back to our hotel room late at night and early in the morning, nestling into the hallway closet and scribbling out my assignment notes. Everyone was scrambling to finish theirs on the bus ride back home. 
The assignments were due the moment the busses pulled back up to the university and we all handed ours in. The next day however, Kim and Hannah were called in by Dragon Lady because she suspected them of plagiarism and warned Riel and I that we might get in trouble too. Apparently the four of us had the same taste in artwork because we all (unknowingly) picked nearly the exact same pieces to put into our assignments and that made Dragon Lady jump the gun to wave the plagiarism card. Luckily we didn't get in trouble, but we all left with a warning. 

Despite how scary Dragon Lady was though, presentations were the worst. I felt ill on every single presentation day. Everyone was very nice and didn't want to insult one another but it was still terrifying. Having to hang up your work in front of everyone and then discuss why you made it/why you chose your subject matter was horrible. Keith, Holly and the girls always said nice stuff about my work which I appreciated but if it weren't for them, no one would've said a word. Which was probably a good thing but it was painful.

Despite choosing to leave art school and switch to design college, I really appreciate the courses I took and the friendships and memories I made along the way. I miss all of my uni friends, and I learned so many things. I learned how to make paper, how to produce film, how to sculpt cardboard, the names of paintings I may never see again in my lifetime but still cool info, how to draw the human anatomy, how to make a frame and hammer in the canvas by scratch (thank you 'Hank'), hell, I even learned how to sew in art school (thank you 'Kim'). I took so many memories away from my time there but I like to think that if I hadn't left art school, I would've never ended up where I am now with my illustration job. So thank you art school for being chaotic and fun.