Art Electives: Pros and Cons

Art is awesome, and you should involve yourself in it whenever you can. Even if you're pretty terrible at it, and just wind up making a mess, you'll still learn to appreciate the good stuff, and it makes you see the world in a different light.

But which art elective is right for you? If you're not particularly drawn to one in particular, consider these pros and cons:

1.) Photography
Pro: By virtue of the fact that a darkroom is, well, a dark room, there is perhaps no better place to nap, preferably while the teacher is rambling on about f-stops and the rule of thirds. Snoozing is only fair; every single student, everywhere, is criminally tired all the time anyway.
Pro: Carrying around a camera and a stack of model release forms gives you the right—no, the responsibility—to approach attractive people and ask to photograph them.
Con: If you have no in-class darkroom, sleeping may require more creativity.
Con: If you have no photography elective, repeatedly trying to sign up for one will merely result in concerned phone calls to your parents.

2.) Jewelry
Pro: It is physically impossible to refuse a gift prefaced by an enthusiastic "I made this for you!" Even if it's just a jaggedy, painful ring with something illegible carved into it.

Con: Clumsier students are not advised to spend their time flailing around with cutting tools and blowtorches.
(Also Con: Jewelry is hard.)

3.) Painting/Drawing
Pro: You can basically just do whatever and suddenly find yourself an avant-garde sensation. A blue canvas? By a French person?! BRILLIANT, HERE IS A MILLION DOLLARS.
Pro: Occasionally you will spend an entire class gazing at a hot person in order to draw him or her.
Con: This can be more awkward than it sounds for all concerned. Also, if you totally mangle the hot person portrait, that googly-eyed travesty will be stuck in your mind for the rest of your life.

4.) Pottery
Pro: You get to play around with clay like you're a little kid! This is fun.
Con: Unlike your unintelligible rings or pictures of someone's puppy, few people will want lopsided pottery.
Con: Everything you make will probably just blow up in the kiln. Even if it doesn't, someone else's droopy sculpture will blow up and take yours with it. Either way, the kiln always wins.

Related Post: I Wish I Could Take THAT Class