I Hate Art!

I've never had much respect for art people. I acknowledge that what they do is difficult (the talented ones at least), but ultimately I see it as worthless. After all, there is a reason for the idiom, "starving artist".

When my daughter was born I vowed she would major in something like mathematics and then branch out. After all, with mathematics she could become anything by acing the standardized tests we use to gauge "intelligence" and tertiary prowess. She could get an MBA (GMAT), become an MD (MCAT), be a lawyer (LSAT), or even revel in the social sciences (GRE) - all of these are easily mountable with a strong quantitative background - forget the arts, they are for touchy-feely people who won't amount to anything.

I used to think this, but I was wrong.

You see, the future belongs to right-brained people (i.e., artsy people) because they are irreplaceable. Left-brained people? They are a dime a dozen now (e.g., computer scientists, engineers, and MBAs). And as for those that can fuse quantitative and qualitative endeavors? They will be a hot commodity indeed.

The sad thing is that I am innately a right-brained person, but because I never wanted to be poor I decided to do endeavors such as math, business, and technology; and while I would never divest my background, there isn't a day that I do not sadly and quietly sigh within myself wishing I could draw, write, or compose.

Perhaps the largest realization of this came with the creation of Super TwinBear (my business). Currently, our greatest need at Super TwinBear is a graphic artist: someone who can design Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and purvey 2-D and 3-D animation. Programmers? We have too many.

The good news is that a) I'm a great learner, and b) my wife and best friend are both amazing artists (I guess this should have tipped me off!). Ergo, instead of bringing someone to staff who can do these things for us, how about I figure it out? At least part of it. After all, it is a skill of the future.

(By the way, the future belongs most to those that have a strong foundation in both the quantitative and the qualitative. I still want my daughter to do math, but I want her to pursue the arts just as earnestly!)



If you'd like to learn more about Scott McCloud, I recommend reading Understanding Comics, checking his TED profile, and visiting his online journal.

Image: savit keawtavee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net