There is a reason that the top two majors in the College are Biology and Economics: students are attracted to the job prospects after graduation. Although these two majors are extremely popular, there are some students who after they arrived at the University, found their time was better spent in Fine Arts.
Marcus Tappan, a sophomore considering majors in Photography and Cinema Studies, came to Penn thinking about following the International Relations track. “In my classes, everyone was talking about how they wanted to go to law school and start their own businesses, but I didn't really feel like that was for me,” he stated. He found that his passions were elsewhere, but in typical Penn fashion, it was at a business conference. It was a speaker talk about her experience in photography, which ultimately ended with a job at a high profile magazine, that ultimately lead him to decide to pursue arts more seriously.
Harry Galiano, a sophomore studying Fine Arts with a focus in painting and with a minor in Architecture, came to Penn as an Astrophysics major. During high school he had a fascination with space and its mystery and decided to pursue it as a degree, but as he progressed through his freshman year he found that art was his true passion. “I just thought about what I was spending my time doing, which was drawing and painting. Freshman year I spent a lot of time alone and in all of my spare time I was drawing and painting and even in my classes I was always drawing.” He spoke of outside pressures for jobs after college as one of the reasons that he originally did not pursue arts at Penn, noting that he believes that this is not just a Penn problem, but one with our generation.
Dare Marcelle, also a sophomore, came to Penn as a Digital Media Design major, which is a major in the engineering school that combines engineering and computer graphics. He had created art during some of his teen years, but eventually the pressures of applying to college halted his creations. “I had to pull out some of my old stuff to apply to DMD,” he says. “You need to have a portfolio.” After taking some of the required engineering courses, specifically some of the CIS classes, he decided that it was too much math and science and he wanted to focus on just the design aspect, and moved into drawing and painting.
All three students agree that Penn is a great place to pursue art. “For one, Philadelphia is a great city, it’s very culturally active,” Dare states. “There are a lot of resources.” Harry agreed and stated that some of the smaller art schools don’t have the resources that Penn has and what they do have it stretched between students. They also agree that there are many aspects of the liberal arts culture that have affected their art. “I took a class on Egypt and I can see that some of the aspects from the Egyptian art were in my pieces. Even Math 104 influenced my art because I was looking at so many 2D figures that I needed to get away from it so a lot of 3D was showing up in my pieces,” Harry shared.
When talking about studying and learning about their practice, each student stated that although the ways that they study for art classes is different, they still have some studying techniques that are similar to other fields. “I watch a lot of Youtube videos and that’s really how I learned how to fool around with the camera,” Marcus says. Harry also shared that in his free time he watches Youtube videos, attempting to absorb as much knowledge as possible. They all also emphasized the importance of practice — going out and creating something everyday, whether it be big or small. This isn't much different from students studying finance who watch their stocks and news programs, read the Wall Street Journal and trade small amounts just to get practice.
When asked about the future, all three are unsure of where they will end up. They’re not too worried, though, unlike many Penn students, and believe that through hard work and a little hustle, they will end up fine. “I didn't want to end up in a 5 by 7 cubicle for the rest of my life,” said Marcus, which was a sentiment that was echoed by all. They all believed that Penn and their other experiences had given them the skills to succeed in the future. “There are always going to be ways to make money,” Dare said. None of the students showed any fear in being able to make a living after graduation and put their passions above the desire for material goods. Maybe other Penn students should take note of these students, who decided to put their passions ahead of everything else and decided if they care about something enough, their lives will turn out alright without the big name job.
