More reading...

This is from the book "Art & Fear" by David Bayles and Ted Orland. This paragraph seems to primarily be targeting students pursuing a career in the fine art market, yet I believe that this applies to all of us who study at Ringling. Sterling Hundley was the one that recommended purchasing this book. It's only 13 bucks, definitely worth it, in my opinion.

"Ask any student: For how many before them was the Graduate Show the Terminal Show? When "The Critique" is the only validated destination for work made during the first half-decade of an artist's productive life, small wonder that attrition rates spiral when that path stops. If ninety-eight percent of our medical students were no longer practicing medicine five year after graduation, there would be a Senate investigation, yet that proportion of art majors are routinely consigned to an early professional death. Not many people continue making art when - abruptly - their work is no longer seen, no longer exhibited, no longer commented upon, no longer encouraged. Could you?
Surprisingly, the dropout rate during school is not all that high - the real killer is the lack of any continuing support system afterwards. Perhaps then, if the outside world shows little interest in providing that support, it remains for artists themselves to do so."