altivo

kaysho's journal made me think about how long I have been an "amateur artist" and how that came to be so. My father was semi-professional at least for part of his life, so I was exposed to drawing early and had no want of supplies or advice. By the time I was in secondary school, though, I was fairly focused on other interests and I did not have time for art classes (I could fit music or art into my schedule but not both.) In college I decided to at least consider the advantages of formal instruction, and enrolled in a basic drawing class.

It was "interesting." This is not to say that I learned nothing. I learned a great deal. The exercises assigned and the discipline required to complete them on time were very helpful indeed. But I have to say that criticism from the instructor was not very valuable other than in that it made me dig in my heels and insist that I would approach art on my own terms, not hers. The class was taught by a graduate assistant, a woman of about 30 who was finishing her MFA and in fact had a master's exhibition during the term. She dressed in men's work clothes, rode a motorcycle to class, and made few favorable comments about anyone's efforts. Innocent 'Tivo never added up the evidence until he went to see her exhibition at the campus museum. She was primarily a sculptor. Her work on display consisted almost exclusively of images of male bodies chopped into segments, or torn limb from limb, or encased up to their screaming mouths in concrete. Wow, ouch.

Remembering this for the first time in many years, I went looking for any sketchbooks or materials remaining from that class so long ago (1968) and to my surprise, found that I still had them. She gave me an A in the course, and admitted that I had a good eye and a sense of composition and presentation. But she never liked my choice of subject. Her consistent reaction to my efforts was typified by what she said of this drawing, which I have now uploaded to FurAffinity. In essence, she told me repeatedly that my work was mechanically excellent but it wasn't art because it was all "too pretty". She sent me to the museum to draw mummies and bones, which I dutifully did, and she declared them "too pretty" as well. I suppose her reaction to my imagery was much like what I feel toward Thomas Kinkade. ;P

Edit (July 26, 2005): The sudden collapse of Furaffinity broke the image link above. I have reloaded the scan here to keep it available for viewing.