professionalism.

So I was fortunate enough to get a photograph of mine accepted into a juried student exhibition at the Cress Gallery on campus, which is on display and will be for a few more weeks. Although I did not place in the competition, it was really a great experience to have a professional take a look at your work and feel that it is worthy of being installed in a gallery. For that I am humbled.

The juror for the exhibition was Patrick DeGuira, who attended Parsons in New York and Memphis College of Art where he received his fine arts degree. His experience has taken him from gallery director to visiting artist, to curating solo shows along the east coast. Patrick has a really great personality. He actually took the time to sit down and give a lecture on professionalism and the art world. He hit a few main points that I found to be particularly interesting. One of which is breaking the rules when you have to. The world of art is not as fundamentally analytical as the accounting world. The driving force behind art is community. For a while, Patrick co owned a space that operated for quite some time while breaking every fire code in the book. It was a successful gallery space and housed some exceptional work until some articles were published and a fire codes official just happened to stop by. The space was shut down soon thereafter.

Another point I found interesting is (and we have all heard this a million times) “It’s not what you know it’s who you know.” Knowing information is extremely important, but it is who you know that will get your foot in the door. Knowing things helps initiate conversations with those people, so it is really striking a balance between the two. This leads me to my next point however. Networking is probably one of the most important things one can master to become successful, especially in the art world but it applies to the business world in general as well. How else are you going to get your name out there? The internet helps, but face to face interaction is crucial.

I will soon be attending a student/professional mixer at tubatomic studios, a local web design firm here in Chattanooga. The Idea is to meet local professionals to create relationships and possibly land an internship or even a j-o-b. As part of the AIGA Chattanooga chapter, we met recently to discuss the upcoming mixer and speak to a few professionals about what to expect. It is a little nerve racking but I believe it is going to be an exceptional experience.   Here are a few notes I took to prepare myself.

I am looking forward to it. Just Remember that everybody poops and everything is going to be okay.

Filed under: Uncategorized, cress gallery, graphic design, networking, Patrick DeGuira, professionalism, tubatomic, web design