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I plan to leave tech to pursue art

liamhz.com

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Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#91
OP I read your text. As an teacher of VFX in an (european) art university let me give you a few tips:

You are only 20. You should not worry about your age at all.

Art school is ¼ about the skills and tricks you learn there, ¼ about being forced to put something in front of others who won't be wooed by fancy eye candy, ¼ about creating and finding a network of people and ¼ being exposed to other styles of art. Some of those things are influenced by the size and location of the art school, some of those are influenced by how much time you can spend with your collegues and at exhibitions or similar. Make sure to go to a school, where people are better than you. Going there just to learn the handywork is a waste of time. You should go there to learn the skills AND to create a network that can help you get jobs after. Feel free to take on work during your studies.

Also: The things that matter when doing great art are mostly about the brain. And the ability to see the right way takes time to develope. Make sure to do something daily. Maybe a daily comic strip, a daily drawing or whatever. Put it online so you are forced to never skip a day.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#92
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try not to be presumptuous- as I honestly have no idea what art is because I’m too old to keep up- so maybe you can give me some examples that buck the trend? If not I’ll just assume you’re offended because you’re old. And honestly, if you think art is as easy as retiring and doing it; you deserve to be assumed to be presumptuous. You have a lot to prove and nothing to lose. Suck it up. Prove yourself or deal with…

So if you have no idea what art is because you're too old, why do you presume you can gate-keep art for others? > I’ll just assume you’re offended because you’re old. I very strongly suspect I'm younger than you. And I've no personal interest in artistic pursuits, to be explicit. The only reason I took offence was that you were, in short, acting offensively. Even shorter - you were an asshole. In the longer - you wer…

You’ve read too much into what I’ve said and taken too much offense. Text is hard so I don’t blame you. “retiring and doing art” is an absurdly simplistic path to point someone towards and it’s not helpful to anyone who wants to actually create anything at all. And it probably doesn’t work in most cases.

“It’s what I’ve done!”

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#93
post #90
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that by the time you are retired you are most likely so unplugged from the cultural zeitgeist that fuels art that you can’t possibly be good at it. You can’t possibly create anything meaningful that would speak to people who really consume art, because those people are young. They’re a few examples of outsiders who buck this trend but it’s a little presumptuous to think you’re as good as them. So now y…

What you describe is not art, it's derivative commercial products that use "art" skills. True artist almost by definition does not care about audience, or tries to predict what they will like.

And yet if you don’t have an audience, what is the point? Even the most outsider artists managed to gather a following some way or the other. It isn’t just happenstance.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#94
post #61
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are 20 and talking about a career change. You are going to do great! I learned to program in art classes at USC and UCLA. While you may go analog, it’s likely your tech & art skills will blend somewhere down the line. Check out UCLA MFA Design Media Arts program [1]. Casey Reas [2] teaches there. He co-created Processing at MIT [3]. Arduino programs are called “sketches” because the Arduino IDE derives from Proce…

Don’t worry about all the people going negative and saying AI will replace you. Those people aren’t artists. You can’t be blind to AI… it’s coming and you’d be foolish to ignore it. But, AI is like any other tool artists use. Great artists use new tools and methods to push their ideas & work forward. No one expects you to mix paint or make your own clay. Banksy isn’t making paint cans. No one cares about those skills…

Who the f is this... making a downright suspicious amount of sense.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#96
post #29

Hi! I'm the author of this post -- it was an unlisted draft that I shared with a few friends, was planning to rewrite most of this before publishing. Please forgive the rough edges Main changes I'd make to this article - Agreed with others that I might be naive, but I'm 20 y/o and now's the right time to shoot for my dreams rather than settle - I'm applying to animation school soon (Sheridan). I started coding when I…

I wish you the best man, fucking awesome.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#97
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stood at a fork in the road, so to speak, when I was kicked out of the house and had to decide whether to pursue art or tech (I enjoyed both). It was clear to me tech would pay the bills — the art I could do in my spare time. Retired (am I?) now, I can do all the art I want.

This is the way I plan to go! I love coding and I have my own dream projects. My plan is to earn enough to be independent and follow my dreams. Not retired yet, but collected some nest egg. Since then, I stress less, only work on what I find interesting and speak up when I want to. Funny part: I only got raises faster this way.

For me, "following the dream" is a failed concept. It means I know what I want, which might look true but it isn't. Currently I try not to dream. I try to be awake, and open to whatever comes my way. Some things that come to me I never dreamed of, and they are much better than anything I could imagine.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#98
post #29

Hi! I'm the author of this post -- it was an unlisted draft that I shared with a few friends, was planning to rewrite most of this before publishing. Please forgive the rough edges Main changes I'd make to this article - Agreed with others that I might be naive, but I'm 20 y/o and now's the right time to shoot for my dreams rather than settle - I'm applying to animation school soon (Sheridan). I started coding when I…

I like the idea of doing what you love. As long as you can live like that, it is the best thing for a person.

The only caveat: at 20 years old is not difficult at all to have a relation with potential to transform into a (happy) marriage. However women are, in general, smart enough not to marry someone that cannot provide a decent living for the potential children, and that tolerance for low income partners is decreasing with age. This is just an information to consider, not to discourage you.

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