The Teachers

I had written a blog post last week, but decided it should never see the light of day.  It was all about my first week of school and the weeks leading up to it.  It was a bit of a rant and it transformed into a monster.

Needless to say it turned out kind of angsty and I trashed it.

I'll sum up that post for you right now:  Life sometimes sucks.

So for this post I wanted to talk about my wonderful teachers.  I am so thankful to have such amazing instructors who like me and continue to work with me.  I got three new instructors this year: Howard Fullmer, Bryan Beus, and Kent Christensen.

I don't have Richard this semester sadly, but he lets me sit in on his classes. And I have Don Seegmiller for figure drawing which is fortunate because he is an amazing figure painter.

For the majority of schools out there students don't have such amazing relationships with their professors.  I'm reading "How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist" (by Caroll Michels) for my Senior Seminar class with Kent and I think it sums the general problem up nicely:

". . . Many fine-arts faculty members are opposed to career development courses for selfish and self-serving reasons:  they are aware that today's student artists will become tomorrow's practicing artists, and eventually artists with whom they will compete for gallery, museum, and press attention, so there is much resistance to imparting any sort of information that could possibly give these future peers a career edge or jeopardize their own pecking order in the art world".

Yikes.

I thank my lucky stars that I was so fortunate to land at a school where the teachers are all about teaching you to be the best artist you can be.  Of course they're all such amazing artists that they really probably aren't afraid of competition from 20 something-year-olds.

From horror stories told around the model stand (get it? Instead of the campfire? ha ha I'm so witty) we learn that most teachers in most schools feel threatened by up and coming talent.  For them there is only a finite amount of work out there for artists and they don't want these upstarts to be good enough to steal all the opportunities.

I feel like that's an old and outdated way of thinking.  The truth is, is that there are more opportunities for artists now more than ever and it will keep on growing.  One just needs to know how to market themselves and their audience.

(Besides, if you're feeling threatened then you should step up your A game)

I don't think I ever would've survived if my teachers were deliberately trying to sabotage me.  When I started out my confidence in my artwork was so low that a small breeze could've toppled it over.  It has solely been the teaching and support of my teachers that has boosted my confidence to the point where I'm showing it on a blog for the world to see.

So Thanks.

If you're searching for the right art school to go to, make sure the teachers there aren't going to be against you.  An experienced artist is a wonderful insight and tool, one that I believe is invaluable.  So acquire yourself an old wise person today!

(Also, some stuff I've been doing this week)

Fin

If there is any topic you wish me to discuss, or any questions that you would like answers to please respond in the comments and I will blog about them!