We need more art teachers like that. In my Intro to Art class I remember two pieces I made that got some attention from my teacher. The first was a wax-resist piece working on drawing figures based on those pose-able dolls. I decided to do an orange and red background with torsos and legs flying all over the place, to resemble an explosion at a doll making factory. My teacher asked me why I wasn’t drawing full figures, and after I explained my vision for the piece she left me to my work and didn’t give me a lower grade because I was still drawing figures, just not fully connected ones.
The other piece was a collage and being the angsty atheist I was, I used bible pages as the base and vented all my frustration with the Catholic church via everything else I put over it, including finding a picture of Mary strapped with dynamite, and AOL ads turned into ads for salvation. I don’t remember if we discussed it, but on the back of the piece she wrote: “Very strong statement. The repetition of the eyes helps create unity. Adding actual currency $ & loose change could help stress your point. Hopefully one day you will have some positive experiences w/ Christianity! Unfortunately - corruption is present in many peoples, places & things, sometimes even in those with truly good intentions…”
^ sadly this piece fully detached from its backing, as did the Mary cutout, so this is the closest approximation I could make of how it was. I’m really not sure where Mary is supposed to be.
Rather than scold me for not following the implied rules of an assignment or judging me for making something taboo (and blasphemous), she accepted and encouraged my artistic vision, and that’s the best thing an art teacher can do.
😍😍😍
Aw shit, this deserves a real response and stuff but I’m pretty drunk right now and can’t give it one. So, uh…
Fucking with that doll: A++. Admire. Had one of those. Should start doing that with what they taught me a face needs to look like.
Fucking with Catholicism: A++. Admire. Wasn’t personally hurt by Catholicism, just have to live in a country influenced by it.
I am deleting so many rambles.
I was personally hurt by different baseline-for-my-culture stuff. Bitter about standardized education, recently.
The idea that I could have the courage to artistically scream at the power structures around me and then have it encouraged by an authority figure.
