It’s what I’ve always been passionate about, but I’m honestly not technically skilled or novel enough to compete with anyone. If I can’t stand out, should I focus on other, more practical activities like debate and model UN?
Do you mean art classes/art club or independent? Colleges aren’t going to ask for examples of your artwork(Unless you’re an art major of course). Colleges want to see something your passionate about. However, if you really want to stand out join an extracurricular that you feel you can be successful at. Many people do multiple ECs. Personally, I had 3 that I was invested in- Theatre, Speech/debate, and working with kids. I never won awards for theatre, but I still pursued it because it was something I was passionate about.
Both, sort of. I draw on my own, but it’s too late to take visual art classes because I would have to start from Art I. I’ll be taking Sculpture just for fun next year, and who knows, maybe I’ll be particularly successful at that. I’d be interested in starting a club, but what would we do? Anyway, I am in other activities as well, which are definitely more quantifiable.
do it if you want to & if it makes you happy
prestige/quantifiably doesn’t necessarily matter, it’s important to have things in your life that make you happy by the simple act of you doing them!
Do what you’re passionate about. It makes high school so much better. Plus, when it comes time to write essays, you have something that you could write a really good essay about.
Definitely do art!
Your heart is asking you to do it.
Most people think of art is not practical or even useless. They think people who do art starve. Many others also look at what colleges want to see as the end-all and be-all of a reason to do anything in high school. These ideas are false.
Art is all about solving problems in the real world. It’s amazingly useful. Look around the room. Nearly everything your eye landed on is touched or created by art. The lamp: designed and manufactured through art. The rugs: ditto. The Kleenex box: yes a lot of art ideas went into making that. The same goes for your toaster, the chair you’re seated on, the house you live in and the computer that you’re currently reading this on.
Steve Jobs’ most important class he ever took was in calligraphy.
Some of the most useful tools we have are art tools and as a result you can actually earn a living doing art.
The A Number 1 most important thing you can do to pursue art is to draw from life. Draw your cat. The bowl of fruit on your table. Your face in a mirror. Draw as much as possible. Carry a sketch pad with you and draw what you see. Just keep drawing.
As far as what colleges want to see: They might very well want to see art. If you decide to go into one of the many art fields, such as design (packaging design, architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, product design, auto design, graphic design) or fine arts (which can lead to publishing careers, law careers in intellectual property, museum work, etc) your college will want to see a portfolio. The most important part of that portfolio is your ability to draw by hand from life.
If you decide to not pursue art as a career, art can inform your world. Many fields need people with strong spacial and visual skills. Those skills are honed through doing art. Engineering and surgery are examples of this. Physics is another field that draws people iwth strong visual / spacial skills. As I said above. Law has a subspecialty in the arts tah can include Int. Prop and estates and provenance, etc.
Colleges also want to round out their classes. They want people on campus who do art, because it adds to the community.
As Frank Zappa supposedly said: Art is making something out of nothing, and then selling it.
Do art. You’ll never regret it.