Paint the Town Red, Yellow and Blue: How to be an art student

Your folks weren’t too keen on your decision; your friends are mildly jealous that you’re the ‘creative one,’ but secretly smug about their career track. The more practical among you will have gone for graphic or web design but you, my friend, are a fine art student. Never fear – The Skinny is here to give you some pointers on the whole crazy experience/psychological experiment.

Make your studio your home, nest in it. Remember this is probably the nicest studio you’ll have for a while. In three years you will be freezing in a derelict building, having your sculptures eaten by mice or, if in London, sub-letting half a cupboard that’s only available on Tuesdays between 5-8pm. Make your studio the centre of the universe, make it comfy, make it social – a place where your fellows want to bring their beer and Pringles and cook up ideas for shows, trips, magazines, websites, whatever.

Look around you. The Northwest is blessed with museums and galleries that are pretty much all free, including the biggies – The Harris, Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth, Cornerhouse, FACT, the Bluecoat and most of Tate Liverpool. Lucky you! There are, however, some memberships worth the bother: FACT’s £10 membership will get you money off cinema tickets and invites to the previews (previews = wine), and Tate’s £62/year gets you free entry to all the UK Tate special exhibitions, normally £7.50 a pop. Oh and you get a magazine. Which is okay actually.

Be connected. Sign yourself up to every mailing list going, especially the less obvious ones: The Grundy in Blackpool, Bury Sculpture Centre in, er, Bury, the Marburae Art Gallery in Cheshire. Go to their private views (did we mention previews = wine), see what’s what and who’s who. Register with e-flux for worldwide stuff, and Artsadmin’s E-Digest for opportunities from all over the UK. Keep an eye on Res Artis and Residency Unlimited for those horizon-broadening and fairly jammy art opportunities. You might want to escape for your Christmas holidays to a frozen lagoon in Lithuania and paint moose. A completely legitimate thing to do.

Beware the bullshit and chill the fuck out. It’s just art and the art world can be ridiculous. There will be times when those around you may describe something as ‘relational aesthetics’ when they are talking about eating dinner, or drinking a pint. Hanging a painting slightly off centre and two inches to the left of a pot plant is sometimes described as ‘curating.’ You will have times of despair when everything you produce is rot. This is normal and necessary. Don’t panic. You don’t work for the UN. Go dancing, do something else. When you’re an artist you can be a philosopher, writer, craftsman, scientist, musician, cook, anthropologist or spy; your practice could be lorry-driving or taxidermy. Try them all, we say. Onward and forward!