Gude Writings

 Value One:  "Engaging mess over keeping things neat"
Gude has a point here.  I agree that mess, or playful attempts, are important.  In my studio I always feel restricted near the end of a painting.  Any slip of the brush could be a terrible mistake.  I enjoy playing at the beginning of a painting.  No stroke can't be fixed, or even be wrong.  I have made some messes in my time, but I learn from them.  Isn't that the point of playful art making?  I am terribly obsessive at the end of paintings.  Everything has to be perfect and neat.  Why can't I finish an entire painting that is a mess?  I have never been able to come up with any that didn't fail miserably.
Messes are definitely necessary when first learning to create art.  I wish I had started out with making messes.  I think I would be a better artist now if I wasn't initially such a perfectionist.  I'm still a perfectionist when it comes to artmaking.  I think that inhibits my growth and evolution as an artist.

Value Two:  "Authentic artistic processes, over mimicking styles"
We are humans.  We learn by modeling or mimicking others.  What's wrong with initially mimicking a style in order to learn.  It isn't asking students to "feel fraud", but rather to attempt to create something that may help them learn to create their own.  There is an extent to how far a student should go with that.  They shouldn't playact "meaning making for the sake of the teacher".  But what if that is the only way to please the teacher.  Then there is a problem.  Teachers may expect meaning to come from a student that is not capable.  Or maybe they are capable, but the meaning isn't acceptable to the teacher.  What is the student to do then?  I am writing from experience here.  Teachers can be full of shit.  High school and college level.

Hetland Chapters 8 & 11

I find all the writings this week to be too idealized.  Not everything can have meaning.  Maybe it should, but it doesn't.  Sometimes exercises are necessary to teach the students certain techniques.  "Cool looking" art is sometimes a good thing.  A student that was never interested in art may see something she thinks is cool and want to make something like it.  That may be the beginning of a career.  All meaning isn't necessarily apparent to everyone.  Different compositional decisions may be made to give meaning, but what if a student doesn't understand or care to understand that art should be looked at beyond face value.  When a student moves past 12th grade and decides to become a fashion designer she can't be worried about meaning in everything she makes.  What art career out there really requires meaning in the end product?  Few if any.
Young artists should look at art as a way to express themselves, but not be entirely strapped to that belief.  Some art is just meant to be pretty.  And if you try to sell your work you will come under that realization.  I sell my work at a store and I know that what I sell is meant to decorate.  To be cheery, bright, aesthetically appealing, and void of meaning.
Is there something wrong with that?  Certainly not if you try to sell and certainly not if you're prepared to be a professional artist.  Should we allow our students to figure that out?

Orchid Painting