Matt+G’s+OpEd+Article

====Why would anyone bother majoring in art? It's such a pointless endeavor; it's as though aspiring artists actually think that having paper credentials actually matter in the realm of art. Just to be clear, I'm talking about a fine arts degree, which includes photography, drawing/painting/etc (whatever the technical terms for these are), music, any kind of applied design, and anything that involves the theater. The first flaw with getting a degree in art beyond the widely received notion that the major is worthless (it is), is the fact that artists are common. In fact, they're so common that all one has to do to find an artist is walk into a coffee shop at 1:00 in the afternoon, or even submit a meager craigslist request in one's local area with a remarkably low commission to boot, and BAM! A horde of artists await you. Take for example the fact that there is a gigantic surplus of graphic designers. So much so, in fact, that it's really not unheard of for graphic designers to do free commissions, just to get their name out, essentially meaning that they are paying money to give their work away. ==== ====On the subject of art education, majoring in art defeats the purpose of getting a four year degree. We get four year degrees to become highly educated and specialized in the fields we wish to go into, but with art, there's little room for this. Why suffer for four more agonizing years for a plaque that says one can do art. It seems like one's portfolio would matter the most, as it's the ultimate test of one's abilities as an artist. If given the choice between an artist with a degree from a top-tier university with a really mediocre portfolio and someone with something like an associate's degree from community college but has a splendid portfolio, the community college graduate is going to get a response back every single time, because one's art is all that matters in a commission. After all, it's art! Art is not a science, despite what all you interpretationists have come to believe. One of th e few things requi red for art is talent, which isn't exactly rare in the art community, in that either you're an amazing prodigy, you're average, or you're bad. There's little differentiation, and because it's mostly talent-based, going to school for a degree won't help all that much. ====

====As for being something refined, such as a musician, it takes an immense amount of work to get to a position whe re you can make even a livable wage if one can't make it into a well-known orchestra, in which competition is naturally fierce as one is competing with a horde of starving musicians just like him. If you aren't at the pinnacle of your specialty, don't even bother trying to improve. Naturally, many people don't see this, and choose to follow their dreams anyways, often resulting in a fruitless labor and shattered dreams. It gets worse. There are people majoring in an art history degree! It's as if majoring in art wasn't a useless-enough feat, so one decided he would combine it with another not-so sought after degree. It's great that people want to do something they love, but in many cases, trying to find any well-paying career in art is a daunting task to say the least. Majoring in art simply isn't a practical decision. To finish up this rant, I must say that I don't even care for art all that much; this is just something that I've been thinking for a while. The picture is related. It's what your average employer thinks to himself when he sees a straight-out-of-college art graduate's resume for a job that isn't at Mcdonalds. ====