Sometimes, we all need a pick me up. With midterms behind us, moral is lacking and most students I have talked to have all said the same thing: “I just want to go home”. While I cannot automatically send every person back to their parents, I can give you some advice on how to push through the last four weeks.
It is incredible to think about how quickly quarters go by here. When I go into my major building, the sun is setting…and suddenly when I come out, it is 12 hours later and the sun is coming up. It is a tiring process, and the occupation of having to constantly create things gets taxing. We are art students. It should not be that hard; but, what happens when there is literally nothing that gets the creative juices flowing and all we want to do is call our parents and tell us to come pick us up?
Clearly there is the tired answer of wait for inspiration to strike and be overdramatic until that happens. Unfortunately, the future for those who wait are dim. Sometimes it is possible, but most of the time putting off a project only leads to further disappointment…and a possible nervous breakdown. By disappointment, of course, I mean having to stay up throughout the night to be able to turn in your assignment on time. Nothing pretty comes of rushed work. So this theory is obviously not the answer to the problem at hand.
What is the answer, then? To be completely honest there is no good answer. For me personally, I sit in my room and binge watch TV shows until my brain is overloaded with ideas. If that does not work, getting out of my house and into a different environment always seems to do the trick.
One of my professors said something to my class at the beginning of the quarter that did not really make sense until I started writing this article. She told us to change our perspective. When she first said it, I wrote it down but it did not really click. This is how I interpret it: in order for us as artists to succeed, we need to constantly expose ourselves to new things. Sure you may be really good at photography, but what if you go and work on photography in a different building? You are getting yourself out of the same stupid routine and exposing yourself to something different.
Being surrounded by other artists makes an artist better. Not necessarily in the talent way, but it drives us to do more. Seeing someone come up with an amazing concept can get the creative juices flowing. Chances are, if you are out of ideas, bouncing ideas off of another person could bring forth some spark of light at the end of your uninspired tunnel.
With the workload only getting heavier and our brains quickly turning to mush, I can only say to stay strong, make sure to get plenty of sleep while you still can, and call your parents when you are feeling sad. Force the uninspired you to do something amazing. If you do not try, then there will be a one hundred percent chance of failure.