Hillsdale College’s art majors are thinking of new and creative ways to pursue their dreams while creating a lucrative future. The senior class of 2012 will graduate 16 art majors this year, and these students are considering everything from a small business to a foray into the political arena.
Senior Natalie Knudsen already has an art business she runs on and off campus. She works on private or large scale projects and often personalized gifts.
“I have an arts business now and would like to grow it. I do T-shirt designing, airbrushing, and make plaques,” Knudsen said.
While the field is seen as limited and, art majors tend to pursue other fields, students strive for a variety of options for their futures in the art world.
“I would also like to be an art therapist — like if someone breaks their hand you can get fine motor skills back or use it [therapy] to express emotions,” Knudsen said. “There are graduate schools for art therapy, so I’m going to look to those and experience therapy in general.”
The field isn’t limited to professional artists and professors, but reaches into many other fields such as therapy, technological advancement and politics.
“I’m not going to be a professional artist, but I know I can use it in my professional life and within the conservative movement to help the aesthetic appeal,” senior Laura Wegmann said.
Rather than pursue art as a career, she intends to use her background in art to help her work with the conservative movement and to improve their aesthetics.
“We really do a disservice to the truth if we can’t package it in the most appealing way,” Wegmann said. “As a movement we’ve failed to understand that ideas need to be made attractive and we need to draw them in for better or for worse. That’s the way it is.”
Similarly, senior Bonnie Cofer intends to improve her knowledge of graphic art through work experience and eventually use it to improve conservative aesthetics.
“I feel like the left, more liberal groups have a monopoly on arts and aesthetics, but there are good conservative organizations as well and I would like to work with them to update them and get them more branded,” Cofer said. “A lot of conservative groups have really poor aesthetics. I would like to work with them to improve them so they’ll be taken more seriously.”
Before she can pursue competitive jobs in the graphic arts field, Cofer hopes to strengthen her skills and add more to her portfolio.
For senior Natalie Kerner, the first goal out of college is stability, which may involve putting goals in art on the back burner.
“I hope to become a professional artist. I’m not closed off to the idea of teaching, but teaching art is really complicated because you have to see it differently for each student,” she said. “For the first couple of years I’m probably going to teach, I’ve contacted a couple of schools in Virginia,” she said.
One of her dreams is to go to an art school to study under Jacob Collins in New York and to be able to make a living off of portrait commissions, but for now her upcoming marriage and living comes first.
A select few, such as senior Nell O’Leary, apply to art schools and seek to further improve skill and technique to better prepare themselves for the professional arena.
O’Leary is still waiting to hear back from her top-choice school, Studio in Camminati, but intends to work to hone her skills and make a name for herself in the Philadelphia area one way or the other.
“I heard about it from Dr. Knecht, he told me to check it out. Two years ago I checked out the high school program in the summer,” she said. “It was a week-long intensive program over the summer founded on the portrait. I went back the past summer for the advanced portrait and figure drawing. I learned a lot and found I think it might be the place for me.”
Very similar to a masters program, the Studio in Camminati is a very selective school which only accepts around 12 students each year and significantly increases the likelihood of an artists art career being a success.
While not each student may be pursing a career in into the field of art, they will all use the skills they have learned in their Hillsdale art classes to further their careers and for personal enjoyment.
“I think it’s all about promoting yourself and it’s hard for artists to get that mindset,” Knudsen said. “Be brave! Be bold!”
tsawyer1@hillsdale.edu