Formal art training...

[smkie]

Back when I went CHicago was number one. AT the KCAI (number two tho the library was number one in the USA) money won't buy you in. Your portfolio is your gate pass. I went on a dare. A double dog dare from a friend that said "you can draw rings around those people just try it". So i went with an attitude of someone that knows they are going to be told run along now. My drawings were rolled up with rubber bands. I was 23 with a baby girl and poor and living with my mom after a nasty divorce. SO as my drawings were unrolled and viewed by a man I later respected as a GOD I said "i would like to go to your school but it would have to be for free."

He told me..
YOu have excellent craft.

I heard..
antioch craft fair

he said
Go down to financial aid and they will put you on full scholarship.

my jaw hit the ground. I couldn't even pull away in the car when i got to it. I just sat there.

THe BEST TIME OF MY LIFE. THe first time i felt I was where i really belonged with people that made sense to me. That's priceless. THe facility, the opportunity, the availability of tools..swoons..

So if you get the opportunity grab it with both hands and don't turn loose for any reason.

you don't learn to teach there. YOu learn to be an artist. Get your masters and you can teach art in any university.

THe one thing you do learn there is daily hard really hard work and every day that slips through your fingers for the rest of your life that you do not feed your soul by effort will be a great loss and the guilt is huge.

THe life so short the craft so long to learn.

A qoute I saw hammered into a copper fireplace shield. Don't know who said it.

[Dekka]

I know some people who want to college for visual art. I have to say I thought there were amazing BEFORE they went.. and they got way better. (and one person that I wondered why they were pursuing art at the post secondary level.. but they improved immensely too!)

[Dekka]

Originally Posted by smkie

Back when I went CHicago was number one. AT the KCAI (number two tho the library was number one in the USA) money won't buy you in. Your portfolio is your gate pass. I went on a dare. A double dog dare from a friend that said "you can draw rings around those people just try it". So i went with an attitude of someone that knows they are going to be told run along now. My drawings were rolled up with rubber bands. I was 23 with a baby girl and poor and living with my mom after a nasty divorce. SO as my drawings were unrolled and viewed by a man I later respected as a GOD I said "i would like to go to your school but it would have to be for free."

He told me..
YOu have excellent craft.

I heard..
antioch craft fair

he said
Go down to financial aid and they will put you on full scholarship.

my jaw hit the ground. I couldn't even pull away in the car when i got to it. I just sat there.

THe BEST TIME OF MY LIFE. THe first time i felt I was where i really belonged with people that made sense to me. That's priceless. THe facility, the opportunity, the availability of tools..swoons..

So if you get the opportunity grab it with both hands and don't turn loose for any reason.

you don't learn to teach there. YOu learn to be an artist. Get your masters and you can teach art in any university.

THe one thing you do learn there is daily hard really hard work and every day that slips through your fingers for the rest of your life that you do not feed your soul by effort will be a great loss and the guilt is huge.

THe life so short the craft so long to learn.

A qoute I saw hammered into a copper fireplace shield. Don't know who said it.

Thats such an awesome story Smkie!!

(the bolded part is that still true in the US? In Canada you can teach at community colleges with a masters, but need a PhD or post doc to teach at a university)

[smkie]

I don't know..it was a long time ago. IF you get that far teaching would be a fall back job anyway. My point was don't be afraid to ask. Sometimes the answer is YES.

I don't believe there is a phd in art but that might have changed as well. THis was 20 years ago for me.

[Beanie]

You can still teach at university in the US with an MA. A PHd will look even better though. You can get a doctorate in a few fields in art but I can't remember which fields (a doctorate was never something I wanted to get so I didn't really read much about it.) Surely art history was one of them... like it's in the research-y kind of fields, the stuff that gets you more an MA versus a MFA.
I want to teach at the community college where I first went, because there was a teacher there who really inspired me, and I want the opportunity to be "that teacher" for somebody else... and you only really need a MA to teach at a community college. I believe there are a few people teaching at the CC who have a PHd but there's obviously a reason they chose CC over uni. But I don't think I'll ever end up pursuing that dream.

[Romy]

Originally Posted by smkie

Just getting her not to bear down on the pencil so hard it indents three pages is a goal at this point. I am keeping her lessons to about 1o minutes so she doesn't get frustrated.

Smkie, a very good exercise for children to learn correct pencil pressure is drawing little "tornadoes". You start dark at one end and shade down the tornado until it's almost white at the other end. Back and forth. Different sizes, it teaches pressure and gradient. I can make a few and scan them in so you can see what I mean.

Another trick I found with kids that have a tendency to push too hard is to give them vine charcoal. It's very brittle and soft, forcing them to lighten up on the grip and pressure.

Taking art classes in college would be a dream. I took an oil painting class once at university. I didn't get to finish it because I ended up in the hospital, but just learning how to use the materials opened up new worlds for me. In high school I started teaching at a private art school when I was 16, and probably learned more from the students than they did from me. I took some art classes in high school, but the teacher let me go straight into studio (free choice) classes. Now I wish I had taken the basic stuff with the other kids, there was probably a lot I could have learned.

[smkie]

I skipped foundations because I transferred in my classes from Jr college. It made it sooooo much harder. I didn't know the basic stuff and had to burn the candle at both ends to catch up. I knew how to draw, but not paint. SO my oil painting was my first one, same for water color, pastel, and on and on. EVeryone else knew so much more than I did. They didn't teach you how to do this, you were expected to know that before you came. They taught theory, and visual language and the rest. Many of my peers had grown up with private lessons. I felt so much like a hick at first it wasnt' funny. Even tho I was on full scholarship that didn't pay for supplies or living costs. I sold my early 65 mint condition mustang my first semester and bought an awful gran toreno (i dont' even remember how to spell it) and lettered LANDBARGE down both sides. I hated that car. It got me there however and the money from the mustang sale kept me going. I was able to split some supplies with a friend and that helped.