<p>yep…look at my pseudonym. I have come to embrace my fears rather than run away and your mom may get here too. </p>
<p>I am the mom of a boy who is doing art/computer animation and it has been painful to hold back from saying “what? are you nuts? do you plan to starve?” Yes, I also confess I am an immigrant and so is my husband and we are both PhDs and where the hell did this love of art come from? is a question that we ask ourselves repeatedly. We are both proud and frightened of his determination to pursue art and, frankly, his artistic “voice” is a little weird…it would be easier if he would paint landscapes or bowls of fruit or design LLadro style sculptures…we could see the commercial potential. Instead, his inventions/art creations are fantastic, bizarre and disturbing but oddly compelling. We are told he has talent…I have no idea. I don’t think he cares. He has wanted this since he was a tiny boy–he wants to create things that engage/entertain/awe/terrify/sadden/uplift other people–he once came home grabbed his sketch pad like he was starving and said “I NEED to draw” and that sort of sums up who he is. </p>
<p>We closed our eyes, apologized to his grandparents, wrote the tuition check and he seems to be thriving at his art school of choice. One thing that has surprised me and helped me feel less anxious about his future is that art education today can provide a student with a huge number of skills–in one year my son has learned basic welding, carpentry, sewing, film editing, sound editing, animation, computer programming, drawing, drafting, set design, as well as art history, writing, …ok, his grandpa pointed out that at least with the welding he can go into plumbing if the art thing doesn’t pan out! </p>
<p>In all seriousness, an art degree mixed with some solid academics in liberal arts can be the foundation for a continous learner --a flexible, creative, smart and curious person who, hopefully, will be able to live via his art but also should be able to adapt and pick up new skills in an alternative field if that is necessary. Now if he were doing premed, I agree I would be less worried about his long term financial security but what would that do to the soul of an artist? We did ask the following of him…please take advantage of your university to pursue a minor or second major that can enhance your art but also provide you with a back up plan…so he is doing sculpture and animation with a minor in robotics (moving sculptures, ya know?). It seemed odd to us at first but he has been persuasive in showing us why it is the perfect combination for him</p>
<p>OP you may be interested in some of the very new animation and computer learning systems that Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon are developing for training medical doctors. My son says they are making animatronics so that doctors can practice operating on them (sort of like the operation game but a wee bit more sophisticated?). Don;t throw the biology and science out with the bathwater quite yet there may be a perfect combination that will fire your mind and soul…</p>
<p>OP I am only slightly further along than your parents in the 5 stages of grief in having an artistic child…be patient and understanding. Of course I still think S would have made an excellent engineer, computer programmer or physicist! Sometimes I sigh and think of the Nobel prize that he is passing up…but…life goes on. Your parents probably have pretty strong ideas about your skills and aptitudes. The hard part is convincing them that you may be all that they say you are but you also might be a more interesting and complete person because you had the chance to follow your artistic instincts also. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>