Rites of passage are a natural occurrence in everyone’s life. Regardless of race, gender or geography, rites of passage include rituals that symbolize and bring about a transition in social status, emotional well being or simply commemorate or even celebrate endings or beginning. Rites of passage in contemporary American society might include baptisms, bat/bar mitzvoth, pilgrimages to Graceland, graduation ceremonies, marriage, and funerals. From birth to death, through every stage of life and to different degrees of emphasis and significance, journeys of human evolution are part of the natural scheme of things.  The voyage may be subtle and fleeting and revealing only to the subconscious or it can take quite a cognizant and deliberate effort and encompass an entire lifetime of expedition. It is the latter that describes the art student’s rite of passage.

            To navigate the strenuous and complex rite of passage through the channel of art education is a lifetime endeavor that exceeds the four or six years spent to obtain the proper “credentials.” Engaging in the art-making process is not something that the artist does. It is who the artist is. It is only when this epiphany of self-consciousness is perceived that sustained development as an artist can take place. Only by striving to be autonomous with respect to art can the art student experience the real possibility of actually making art. It is through this comprehensive knowledge that the rite of passage for an artist can truly begin.

        Arnold van Gennep, (1873-1957), a French anthropologist, was the first to study and document rituals that symbolize and bring about the transitional and transcendental in ones life. A central theme to van Gennep’s work is the identification of a three-fold sequence that he believes wholly characterizes rites of passage in every culture: separation (preliminal), transition (liminal), and reintegration (postliminal). As a second semester junior in my undergraduate art education, the limin (Latin for threshold) or the liminal is where I believe that I am precariously positioned within my personal rite of passage.

            The preliminal stage of separation for an artist begins with an exit from the comfortable village and an entrance into the wilderness of an exclusive group of art students, artists, critics and professors. This begins the transition from a state of training into a state of being trained. The ritual of training artists has varied more or less throughout the centuries but always involves an integration and investigation of the well-worn path of those who came before. This journey involves the arduous process of mastery of technique and skill to the fullest extent within a student’s ability.  The intended result of this process is so that the student can one day actualize their full aesthetic, one that speaks not only to and through the soul of the artist they are to become but also to the public. The main goal of the art student in the preliminal stage is to not only learn fundamental skill but also to deconstruct expectations of art, question the act of making art for the sake of art, and to attempt to answer this question through an autonomous and visual language. To quote the art critic Donald Kuspit from his 1984 Artforum essay entitled “Forum: Art Students,” “Art is not presupposed as an answer, but becomes a question. When it becomes the question that creates a self, true apprenticeship begins; the future is conceived, even if never to be delivered in an expected form.” The realization that art is really a question is a painful process resulting from the preliminal, which requires that the art student stand alone in failure and own it for what it is. The misery, embarrassment and exhaustion of failure, the exposing of sub-par work to peers and instructors is an intrinsic part of the preliminal. This also speaks to the obligatory process of separation fundamental to this stage of the art student’s rite of passage. Ultimately, however, if one looks at becoming an artist through the lens of a question, then the faith for the journey itself becomes the art. The arrival becomes unimportant. However, when – and if—one does arrive, the results will always be meaningful, authentic and sincere.

            The process of my education so far has given me the intellectual capacity to see beyond my immature, unpracticed and yet unrealized skill to a vision of what can be. My mind’s eye is confident and sees the intended completed image. I believe that it is only through a practiced manner of mastery of skill and technique – a lifelong pursuit – that the vision and the outcome will be fully integrated. I wish to succeed on purpose: to paint the image in front of my eyes as I see it from behind them.

Despite the inexactness and incompleteness of my project to be an artist, I have worked hard to secure the concrete and practical knowledge of art making. My commitment to and passion for the process has not wavered. In addition, I have gained a keen awareness of the absolute value of art, and from where within my consciousness I can look for the answer to the question, “why make art?” It is only through this question that my true apprenticeship has begun. This is the hard part and where the liminal stage of my rite of passage begins.

The liminal stage of a rite of passage is a threshold, a no-man’s-land, betwixt and between, a marginalized space that holds a possibility of potential forms, structures, desires – a virtual storehouse of possibilities and promise. In much of the liminal stage the significant modes are visual, tactile, visceral, kinetic and an absence of critical tools in which to interpret this extraordinary signification. This place for an artist goes beyond the formal language of education; the student is neither one thing nor another. Choices need to be made on both a conscious and subconscious level in order for the natural order of the passage to be completed. It is on this threshold -- this local at the edge of what is possible -- that I am precariously positioned.

As I stand up to the threshold of possibility, ready to jump, I have no earthly or even transcendent idea of where I will land. However, it is within my commitment to follow through with this journey. Wherever it may lead is where I place faith. I am prepared to remove all of my expectations of art and to arrive to it through a genuine exploration. I will continue to tune into the drive and the intuition that speaks to me, and hopefully through me, to others. It is my greatest desire to endeavor to interpret the outside world’s emotional and spiritual underpinnings so that I may bring to the party a euphonious dish of what works and what is possible.

Copyright 2003-2008 Judith's Table. Content found at Judith's Table may not be copied or reproduced in any way, or by any means, without written permission from the site owner. The artist, designer, or author owns t he copyright on all artwork or creative writing at this website and these may not be copied or reproduced in any way, or by any means, without the written permission of the copyright owner.