28 Things I Didn’t Expect to Learn From a Photography/Art History Degree

1. How to count seconds without listening to a clock.

2. How to hold really really still.

3. The movie “Ever After” made no attempt to be historically accurate.

4. Belgian chocolate isn’t that great.

5. Belgian waffles are that great.

6. Modern art = I could have made that + yeah, but you didn’t.

7. Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso were two of the coolest people ever.

8. Light becomes boring and feeble without a little darkness.

9. Ansel Adams and Anne Geddes are the only photographers most people have ever heard of.

10. Contemporary Art History class will introduce you to a whole new brand of nightmare.  Good luck sleeping later.

11. You have to love Frida Kahlo.  And if you don’t you have to pretend you do.

12. Art can change the world, so be careful what you produce.

13. Costa Vida is yummy.

14. Every projector in the world will make your best work look like $#!+.

15. Sleeping bags can fit as many people as is necessary. 

16. Every great idea is eventually subjected to the bounds of pragmatism.

17. A nice camera doesn’t make you a great photographer.  A crappy camera can’t stop you from creating amazing work.

18. You actually can spend half an hour staring at a painting that’s all one color.

19. Even if you spend thousands of dollars getting formally educated, there will always be someone who picks up a camera and instantly starts making more money than you do.

20. The terms “starving artist” and “starving college student” weren’t coined for no reason. 

21. Visual art is one of the top three college majors to cause existential crisis. 

22. Don’t destroy your work in a fit of anger.  You might want it back later.

23. Respect the muses, whatever form they take for you.

24. You probably are invincible.  But it might be good to get enough food and sleep anyway, just in case. 

25. Inspiration can come from anywhere, even things you don’t like.

26. You can appreciate art you don’t like, even art you hate.

27. There will always be someone to tell you that you aren’t good enough.  Ignore them and work harder.

28. There will always be someone who doesn’t “get it.”  But there will always be someone who does.