#ididthisinclass

Step 1) Decide to be an artist (extra points if it disappoints your parents).

Step 2) Spend a lot of money that you could be using to sustain yourself in the future into art supplies and classes.

Step 3) Pretend you know everything in class where in reality you don’t know the difference between secondary and tertiary colors.

Step 4) Always make art that ‘challenges the norm’. You can’t really call yourself an artist if you haven’t angered anyone with ‘controversy’.

Step 5) Forget everything you’ve learned in those 4 years of art school and claim that everything you do is an artistic statement or you are going for a minimalist design.

Step 6) Be prepared to drink nothing but coffee, smoke everywhere, and dye your hair to stand out among your peers.

Step 7) Always speak condescending to your friends. Remind them that you’re so deep and misunderstood.

Step 8) Never accept meaningful criticism from your professors or fellow artists. They’re just jealous that they can’t paint a pretty elephant like you can. Who cares if it’s ‘anatomy is off’ or ‘scale is out of proportion’.

We don’t really think of how we get them,

they just sort of appear.

We don’t really notice when they show up,

but they do anyway.

It’s funny isn’t it?

Something so specific just showing up on your face,

on your neck, on your arms and legs.

Fine but deep they are.

But what are they?

I think they are your memories,

your experiences, your thoughts.

The longer your mind thinks,

the more you get.

Your wrinkles are your proof;

proof that you have lived,

even if it wasn’t what you wanted.