Written by Dani De Angelis

Last year, I realized that the issue that a lot of VISA students – nay, AMPD students – struggle with is that we don’t give ourselves enough time to connect with our own art styles. We’re often feeling stressed and overloaded and trying to manage our lives within the “College Triangle Diagram.”

For many AMPD students, I would argue that this should be a square, since we often neglect giving ourselves free time to create what we want to explore creatively. We stifle the brilliant ideas and moments of inspiration that pop up so that we can focus on whatever grade-related task is at hand. That got me thinking, and it led me to I develop an important reminder that I personally try my best to live by:

Do what made you want to come here.

Experimenting with your creativity outside of class time can be difficult as far as time allocation goes, but even if you find two minutes to doodle, you’re engaging your otherwise neglected inner artistic passions. If you can manage to reserve an hour to cultivating your creativity in whatever manner and medium you choose, you’re even better off. This is super critical, and I feel as if I can’t adequately stress how critical it is. At the end of the degree, you’ll have developed the skills, techniques, and familiarity with the arts to keep you going, but there is no professor or assignment telling us what we should be doing with our art and ideas, is there? There are no grades, there is no GPA to maintain. It’s all up to you. So where do you go with that muse that you’ve suppressed? How can you make sure it’s expressed – loud and proud?

Use your assignments as stepping stones in your own art. Maybe a particular technique doesn’t have much use for you, but every class you take changes the way you think about art – your art – and how you wish to express yourself and your unique style. Even if it’s not your area of interest, you’re still being tested and pushed from your comfort zone, which I find inspires crucial creativity.

As art critic John Ruskin put it, “When Love and Skill work together, expect a Masterpiece.” At the end of the day, it’s your passion for art that keeps you here. What will you do to nurture it?