Dali

Dear Westerfield,
“. . . The art class I am taking is taught by a . . . woman . . .  who is sucking the life and joy out of her students. She has already separated me from a nice woman I met there. No one is allowed to talk .  . .  I once, shall we say, talked back to her and I felt like I was Norma Rae. Hence, I will be sent to the principal soon, I’m sure. I hate going to the class but I want to stick it out for myself. She is always tense, tells stories, LONG, boring stories (multiple times) about herself and even the barrette that she wears on the side of her hair is annoying.

She is a good artist but as a teacher, HORRIBLE.  I am sticking it out . . .  [because] it took me years to sign up, to push myself and I am proud of me doing it.”

My heart simply went out to Laurie.  She’s landed in a creativity-killer-class. I say she should ask for a refund with added reimbursement for creativity abuse.

Every serious artist I’ve met who went to art school tells tales of how stressful it was. Teacher critiques were at the best uncomfortable and at the least brutal.  Now I’m not down on art school – wish I had the opportunity to attend one.  I am down on teaching methods that take the joy out of creativity.

Famous MAJOR artists play! – splashing paint (Jackson Pollock),  abstracting images until they were “childlike” (Picasso), put together surreal elements (Joan Miro) and all explored and experimented outside the “technique of their time”.

Art should be fun, art should be pushing your own limits with curiosity and adventure not with the goal of doing it “right” or for someone elses approval. Creativity is “PURE PLAY – ” no thought to outcome, function or future” Eric Anderson

P.S.  I’m proud of you too Laurie!