A lot of interesting changes happen to an individual when undergraduate study comes to a close. When considering creative practice, a graduate might discover euphoria once removed from the structured restrictions, schedules, evaluations, and challenges art school provides. On the other hand the popping sound of that comforting university bubble, full of prompts and advice, can simultaneously lead to horror. For myself, the end of my college career marked roughly 30 seconds of bliss. In this short-lived period, I gleefully made work that seemingly celebrated the act of celebration. Those 30 seconds ended swiftly however, and were followed by months of unnerving stagnation. I suddenly became aware of the extent to which academia had grown on me as a codependency. How it had manifested itself as a mental crutch that was suddenly yanked out upon graduation. Gone was the ease of a studio setting. Gone was the community of creative minds who filled that space.
This realization offers both pitfalls and rewards as key questions arise. Can I manifest my own work? Where can I find an environment to conduct the investigation? How will I gauge my level of success or failure? Answers to these questions are never concrete. But the raw reality of that self-imposed evaluation, in my opinion, yields authentic and ambitious creative output on a far more tangible level, something art school simply cannot simulate.
One key element that helped me get through those dragging months was to find employment as a studio assistant. I began working for Professor Poskovic in his printmaking studio during the summer following my graduation. In working for Endi, I had the opportunity to take part in a professional practice completely devoted to studio investigation and output. By focusing on labor, a much-needed void of productivity was filled while I spent time creating my own studio space, reading on other artists, and discovering my own subject matter. In addition to staying sharp through the work, the atmosphere of Endi’s studio also offered rich conversation on future possibilities as well as research recommendations on other artists. While the nature of the job remained formal as an act of employment, this more relaxed type of dialogue proved highly useful in comparison to more rigged academic conversations.
This entire narrative of employment and self-discovery was conducted under the umbrella theme of the print. Working on prints offers highly unique lessons if you pay attention to the nature of what you are doing. Unlike painting or drawing, the workflow is conducted in more distinguishable steps. Due to the completely unchangeable nature of work done at each step, an individual is forced to slowly perceive the process of approaching a goal. I like to think that methodical train of thought helped me build up my own amount of success and get me out of a dangerous rut. Always working toward an upward trajectory as opposed to stagnant apprehension.
-Evan McLaughlin
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