* sol⋅ip⋅sism  [sol-ip-siz-uhm]
–noun
1.     Philosophy. the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
2.     extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one’s feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.

Who are we? Lets examine the place from which we came.

Howard Singerman argues in Art Subjects: Making Artists in the American University (1999), art education no longer demands the acquisition of specific skills, but instead becomes simply a shortcut to an artistic identity.

Laurie Feindrich, a professor of art at Hofstra University explained it best by attacking the artists’ romanticism. She posits that art education “has become a hodgepodge of attitudes, self-expression, news bulletins from hot galleries, and an almost random selection of technical skills that cannot help but leave most art students confused about their ultimate purpose as artists.”

“…The first-year curriculum seems to promote a Web-oriented workplace full of computers, where students work antiseptically and collaboratively with others, behave like wannabe public intellectuals, and develop “concepts” that borrow heavily from the vocabularies of sociology, computer science, and government bureaucracy.”

She marches on to suggest a different approach - worth revisiting by every artist at any stage - or even a solution for emergence.

Read:  ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mess’ short essay (or download the PDF version).
(essay first published in The Chronicle Review, Volume 51, Issue 39, Page B6)