Degree Required?

All my life people have told me I was good at art. This can be a heady thing until you realize that art isn't exactly math. There is no right or wrong answer and it is totally based on opinion and emotion.

There are three levels of artist in my mind:

• The Non-Artistic-  This doesn't mean this person is totally incapable of art, but this is the person who is maybe better with a keyboard than a sketch pad. This person is good at stick figures and basic doodles (generally doodling the same 2 or 3 images).

• The Jack Artist- This person is your general "Jack of all trades, master of none". This is the one that maybe showed promise as an artist as a child but never pursued it, or tried all forms of art and only became pretty good at each (never really perfecting a specific talent). The Jack is also usually the person you find at most arts and crafts fairs.

• The Artist- Art not only defines this person, but oozes from their very core. This is the person that can sketch a picture that at a glance (or longer) seems to be a black and white photo taken with a high resolution camera. This isn't to say that you have to do realism to be an artist, I merely used it as an example. The Artist could make a living off selling their art (whether they choose to or not).

Ladies and Gentlemen.... I am a classic Jack Artist. Good enough to be considered "the artsy one" among friends and family, but not awesome enough to brag about it in good conscience.

I started college as an Art Education Major, and I was excited about learning and becoming a better artist. I discovered by my second semester that majoring in it may not have been the best idea for me. I was told that no matter what I did it looked like it was out of a Disney movie. I was also told by my teacher, "I don't believe your apple" even though I was quite proud of the shaded apple I had drawn. I changed majors several times unofficially in college and ended up with a degree in Recreation and Leisure Services with a minor in Dance. Turns out I didn't have to major in art to be a starving artist. I do wish I would have stuck with the Art major, but I would rather love it as a hobby than hate it as a major/career.