"Everything else pushes or constrains you to be dishonest"

Olivia, 21, Fine Art Student

By Orla Loughran Hayes

What is your biggest struggle as a millennial?

I feel like I’m split between nostalgia for my parents’ generation and wanting to live in the present. I love the stories of my parents’ generation but I don’t want to be so absorbed in the past that I miss 2018. I feel unsure whether the adulthood I grew up imagining is real or not.

Do you think a degree is worth much in today’s job market?

It seems that degrees are worth quite a lot! The ‘job market’ seems so different in every corner, a big thing that’s always in flux, without one unifying opinion. In an ideal world, I would be a self-employed artist, and it’s hard to tell how much this experience will help - there are probably subtle things you learn that add up subconsciously, and are really about losing fear and realising no-one else knows anything either. I know young people who hate the idea of spending so much money on a degree but they feel there’s no other way to start their career.

What advice would you have given yourself 5 years ago?

It is well and good to be alone! There is a whole world of greatness and importance beyond social dynamics! You don’t need to feel pressured to perform in any character than the one you feel or choose.

"I feel unsure whether the adulthood I grew up imagining is real or not"

What would your perfect scenario be?

It would probably be having multiple hand massages. Either that or the creative climax you get when drawing or writing.

What has been your biggest life lesson?

You can become anything you want, all it takes is practice. You may need to repeat something several times, but you can really learn most anything.

What keeps you awake at night?

I am only kept awake at night occasionally. The things I’m thinking on these nights aren’t of much importance. They are usually things that I would consider a waste of time to be thinking during the day, but occasionally they creep in if they build up.

What would your ideal job be?

It would be drawing and making things, reading in between art projects, and earning enough to make a living doing this somehow.

On that note, what pushed you to become an artist?

It was the realisation that nothing else makes sense. Everything else pushes or constrains you to be dishonest. That’s how I felt studying everything else. With art, however, you look within yourself and with this, you can do anything.

What do you love about art?

This freedom of movement and action; I can go beyond thinking, into new dimensions of consciousness.