Hey guys, it's been a while. This is not because I don't love you, but rather because I keep having thoughts about what I want to write about but I'm not sure which one I want to tackle first and then I decide on one and realize I have to do more research or at the very least doodle up an illustration and gosh wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to hold the cord into my scanner with my foot while praying that my computer doesn't overheat while cs3 pulls the image slowly into my computer pixel by agonizing pixel?
And then, in the middle of the night after a long, long day, I realized what I needed to write about.
Foot care.
'But hey!' you say, 'this post is titled 'weird tips for art students', what gives?'
What gives is that proper foot care is the weird tip. Surprise!
I'm not talking about the usual horror stories that you hear going into college about fungus in the bathrooms or whatever. My dorms had communal showers and they were fine. It's amazing how much your university of choice wants to cut down on things like the spread of disease. I'm sure there are places in the world and even on my campus where ringworm and athlete's foot are actually a concern, but with the power of the internet I have no doubt you could find such things out.
...and if not, why is there no map of this? It could be crowdsourced so that people could update when they pick up some minor annoyance, like the sniffles or pink eye...anyway, I'm getting away from my point.
My point is this: I know you really like those shoes, and that they look super cool, even if they're not comfortable, but you should probably throw them away right now. Or, well, I guess you can keep them, but you should definitely also buy a pair of sturdy, all purpose shoes that your feet will be comfortable in for hours and will minimize any blistering that may happen.
Think lots and lots of cushioning. Flats may be adorable, but are they worth the pain?
I'd also invest in a thick odorless lotion, because no matter how good your shoes are, you're still going to want to give your feet a good massage at the end of the day.
If your specialization is design or something like that, it's likely that this post is pointless for you, because you're spending most of your time in front of a computer. But for painters and sculptors and ceramicists and so on and so on, you're going to be spending a lot of time standing. And the floors are all either concrete or hard tile, because those are easier to clean than carpet.
When I say 'a lot of time,' that's pretty ambiguous, and it can vary from person to person. Studio classes here are 3 hours a class, 2 times a week, and I've had two syllabi this semester state that the teacher expected 5 hours of work outside of class per week. Doing the math, that's 11 hours a class (minimum), and I'm taking 3, so that's 33 hours, which is the upper edge before you drop off the cliffs of crazy (4 classes) and into the seas of utter despair (5 classes). 2 classes is a more manageable work load, and what I'd recommend.
So, y'know, make sure you save up some general education courses for the end. And also: buy good shoes.
The mooooore you knoooooooooooooow.
(this post brought to you by 12 hours in the sculpture building)
