ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL

Its not like I really go to Art School. Its not like I'm at RISD or MassArt, but this movie still hits home. The film Art School Confidential was released in 2006, at which time I viewed it at the REal Art Ways theatre in Hartford, CT. I decided to watch it again last night just for giggles. This morning as I was reading all the (insert sarcasm here) delightful emails from my online classes, I had to take a deep breath (in between gigantic sobs) and remember that college (like high school) is sort of a big joke. Yeah, I'm in debt like 40,000 in student loans and I've been working on my bachelors degree for like 9 years, but to quote Fred Armisen's Joy from SNL's satire of The View "So what, Who cares".

Anywho, back to the movie: My favorite character in the movie is John Malkovitch's Professor Sandiford. As always Malkovitch delves deep into the role, and I kinda felt like I very possibly could have been in his classroom at one point or another in my lengthy college career. I mean, the attitude that Professor Sandiford has toward the students is a completely realistic rendition of what you'd imagine a washed up painter, who is essentially a failure in the art world, to be. Although I currently am not struggling with any situations like this, because all of my classes are online, I still take comfort in the comedy of it all. So what if my Biology professor writes me insulting emails about my last minute efforts and singular posts to a group discussion which I thought only required a single post because he didn't specify otherwise. I guess since he's a professor and I'm a struggling student with like 8 jobs and a kid, i have to take the insult. So what if I don't give a darn about biology and its a huge waste of my precious time...

It seems like a lot of people in these higher learning institutions really believe all students have is time. Like if I don't do something on time its an automatic ZERO, but if the shoe goes on the other foot and the professor doesn't do what they are supposed to on time... then its still me who suffers, sitting in front of my computer all weekend, hoping that I didn't miss an assignment, hoping that I used the proper etiquette when emailing the instructor. I am so glad I watched Art School Confidential again, it gave me back the perspective I so desperately needed.