Where Do All The Grad Students Go?
What is the impact of living in Paradise on the “creative process”?

 

Where have all the grad students gone? They’ve gone to the mainland every one! It seems that every time I’ve made it over to Honolulu from Maui to get my fix of inspired art, one of my stops, if I time it right, is to see what the Honolulu Academy of Arts has to offer in the annual Artists of Hawaii exhibit.

Most of the time I’m delighted by the number of fresh new works of recent graduates of the university. For the most part the pieces are thoughtful, introspective, and well crafted. A sign of good teaching and programming? What ever it is, seems to be working. They grace the walls of the new wing and, like so many flowers, they fade away. Where do these promising minds go and why is it that after the show, few of them remain to pursue their futures here?

There are the obvious possibilities; living space, art market, isolation from direct access to major art centers like Los Angeles, New York or Chicago (to name a few). I could take each one of these items and deal with them in great depth. Would they lead to the “answer” to the question? Is there something more to consider? What am I overlooking?

It takes a fair amount of money to live here, but the big cities aren’t that much cheaper. The art market/ audience is an illusive thing driven by the “Paradise factor”. We live in a tropical fishbowl attracting spenders from all over the world. But who are they really? And what do they expect or encourage from us? I think it’s fair to say that grad school art is not at the top of most outsiders’ lists of art to buy, collect, or support. That’s just your average tourist/visitor. What about the serious consumer/ user/ appreciator of things other than post card art? Some artists have found niches in mainland collecting markets, but often times these are not home grown artists, but transplants who bring their support sources with them. They may live full or part time on Maui, Oahu, Kauai or Hawaii, but the museums, collectors, buyers come to them. (Lucky artists!)

If we look to our university system to produce the bulk of these promising souls, the questions can take another turn. How many art students are from the home front? How many are from out of state and will return to the mainland/main stream?

While these questions and comments may explain or address the issues relating to the comings and goings of grad students, they lead me to thoughts about the other artists in Paradise and the artist in the real world. If we confine our discussion to contemporary “fine art”, can one produce and sustain a level of world class competitive art and afford to live here without a day job. But the big question is still “is work done here comparable to work done in Metropolis. Based on what I’ve seen over the years, I’d say for the most part, Yes, but….

Will we ever be able to say there is a legitimate Hawaii “scene” that’s the equal to the California; or New York scenes? I think its here, but fractured and on a fairly small scale by comparison and, for some of the reasons I hope I’ve addressed.