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Re: College--Auditions, double majors, etc.

Author: clariknight
Date: 2009-01-17 23:40

Everyone wants different things. Some people want to make lots of money, have a nice house and car a family. They want to support them and give them everything they want. They want to retire early and be able to take their kids to their first day of kindergarten; they want to be there when their kids need help on their homework. And, to an extent, everyone wants this. But there are those who want something more. Something so incredibly fulfilling that to not put everything into it would kill them. These are the artists. They spend hours each day in the practice room or in front of a mural of with a pencil in hand because the reward of their work is something akin to winning the lottery, only they get that feeling every time they perform, or finish a book or a painting or a photograph. A photographer by the name of Ken Rockwell who writes beautiful articles on photography wrote one about the seven levels of artists (in the photo world, but it really applies to any sort of art). The final two levels are something like amateurs and artists. Amateurs are those who do not get their income from photography but still love making photographs and often make very beautiful ones. This level is equal for amateur musicians: they love to make music but not enough to give up the safety of a day job. And they can still make wonderful music, but they will never play with the NYPO. Artists are those who, as Rockwell puts it,
"An artist is a complete master of his tools. When creating art an artist transcends common existence as his spirit flies up to meet that which he is capturing. He may practice and learn his tools while he is not creating, however when creating the camera becomes an extension of his mind. No conscious thought is expended on the technical issues with which he is a virtuoso while creating photographs.

To make a musical analogy, a musician may woodshed his scales, but when he's jamming he's not even thinking about fingerings. He's lost in the passion of the moment."

Insert music for photographs and you get the idea. Now, if you put yourself in the artist category, go to school for music. And you won't ever look back. If you don't feel like that is you, minor in music. Continue to play you whole life with chamber ensembles and local orchestras/bands and any other performances you can find time for. But look out for your needs first, if those truly are a nice house with a brand new car in the garage, a golden retriever and a family who you can spend the weekends with.

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