teaching practice Painting Painting
taken too seriously, anything can become the instrument of its own undoing. Teaching a full credit painting class in five weeks is a stand out in the world of bad ideas. But, it is not clear that any specific amount of time is a relevant factor in becoming a painter.
In my experience it is an obsession; persistent, inescapable. It is something a feel the lack of, if I stay away from it and it is something that consumes me when I am at it.
I can only point towards the way, encourage a student to keep going... I am not a painting teacher. I am a painter. The painting 'teachers' I had as a student, painted on my work, took it over, pushed and shoved me to their purpose.
The masters, watched, encouraged me to become more of what I was, to travel further on the road I was already on. They knew that my journey had started from the first moment I saw that such a thing was possible, and though my voice had not yet formed, there was a sign of acknowledgement, recognition... sort of Oh, I recognize this...
One voice asked "why are you in such a rush?" and I answered. " I have a lot of work to do"...
I have always seen the vapor of what is possible.. It is a sort of Grail quest, where the searching is the crucible through which I am formed and reformed.
The creative spirit arrives intact, you can develop some skills and find direction,... art changes but it doesn't progress, it doesn't get substantially better over time...
As an alleged teacher, I am in a position to make this a horrible ordeal, a great obfuscation, a transparent tissue of pretense , an opaque vanguard of privilege, or a journey of beoming...
The desire or need to express arrives intact, of it's own volition, settling in random hearts, across socio-political divides without bidding, without purpose...
to see what everyone else sees, but more, something miraculous in the every day ... to transform ... to feel something spring from your idea to hand to some thing .. the externalization of an inner impulse...
In a classroom, I can create a space that maybe supports the idea of painting.. I can help with materials, facilitate some technical development.. I can ask that they look, but I cannot teach them to see... Can I create the desire to see, yes.. but if they can not see, maybe that is even worse... Can I suggest that seeing differently is OK, yes. I can do that... will it hold.. I don't know... I have a nerve even trying...
In my experience it is an obsession; persistent, inescapable. It is something a feel the lack of, if I stay away from it and it is something that consumes me when I am at it.
I can only point towards the way, encourage a student to keep going... I am not a painting teacher. I am a painter. The painting 'teachers' I had as a student, painted on my work, took it over, pushed and shoved me to their purpose.
The masters, watched, encouraged me to become more of what I was, to travel further on the road I was already on. They knew that my journey had started from the first moment I saw that such a thing was possible, and though my voice had not yet formed, there was a sign of acknowledgement, recognition... sort of Oh, I recognize this...
One voice asked "why are you in such a rush?" and I answered. " I have a lot of work to do"...
I have always seen the vapor of what is possible.. It is a sort of Grail quest, where the searching is the crucible through which I am formed and reformed.
The creative spirit arrives intact, you can develop some skills and find direction,... art changes but it doesn't progress, it doesn't get substantially better over time...
As an alleged teacher, I am in a position to make this a horrible ordeal, a great obfuscation, a transparent tissue of pretense , an opaque vanguard of privilege, or a journey of beoming...
The desire or need to express arrives intact, of it's own volition, settling in random hearts, across socio-political divides without bidding, without purpose...
to see what everyone else sees, but more, something miraculous in the every day ... to transform ... to feel something spring from your idea to hand to some thing .. the externalization of an inner impulse...
In a classroom, I can create a space that maybe supports the idea of painting.. I can help with materials, facilitate some technical development.. I can ask that they look, but I cannot teach them to see... Can I create the desire to see, yes.. but if they can not see, maybe that is even worse... Can I suggest that seeing differently is OK, yes. I can do that... will it hold.. I don't know... I have a nerve even trying...
posted by wipper at 2:46 PM
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