Do you ever visit the Louvre and think, I could do better than that? Do you scoff at Van Gogh when you compare his work to your doodles? Does drawing, painting or illustration feel like an itch you can never quite scratch?
You’re not alone. Deep down in all of us, there’s a creative urge fighting to break out. But some feel that calling more than others – and that’s how careers are made.
That striving, that straining, that desperate need to craft something verging on greatness is something that only those with real creative energy bother to shoot for.
Back in the days when tellies didn’t exist and gout was still a fashion accessory of the upper classes, the struggling artist lived in scuzzy attics in Paris, their only meal some bread and brandy, their only satisfaction the perfection of the next brush stroke.
Art schools were, generally speaking, the preserve of rich dukes and duchesses, the type of people who could barely flick their dainty, quail’s egg-fed wrists to move a paintbrush. You just need to look at the genteel artwork popularised in Victorian times to see that.
A new age of creativity
But we live in an altered artistic landscape.
Tracy Emin rocks up to galleries with her sodden bed and sells it for a couple of million quid. Damien Hirst chops animals in two, dips them in formaldehyde and wins the Turner prize. The rise of postmodernism has flung the doors of inspiration open and millions of new and vibrant ideas are flooding in.
All this new creative energy makes it that much easier to cry, I could do better than that!
Whether you’re a graphic designer, children’s book illustrator or fancy yourself as the heir to Monet’s throne, an art school MA could be exactly what you need to make your aspirations a reality.
A beautiful partnership
More than this, art schools can help you build up your connections within the creative community – you could even find the perfect design partner.
Let’s look briefly at one of the great art collaborations of the 20th century to prove the point.
Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel, who would later become master surrealists in their own right, tore the art world in two with their stream of consciousness films Un Chien Andalou and L’Age D’or. They even sparked an art riot in Paris, such was the veracity of their work.
And where did they meet? You guessed it – art school.
Like a moth to a flame, those with the light of creativity are drawn to art schools, bandying together to produce work that is truly special. After four years in a course, that cocksure artistic urge to create will be fostered into full bloom.
Who knows – your arrogance at the Louvre could be well-founded.
