A Short One on Teaching, Painting and Not Painting
Another Day in Painting Class
As an art teacher, one is constantly looking at other people’s art of course. In order to be as effective and helpful a teacher I can be I have to think critically about what my students should do about their works. When I’m trying to critique a student’s painting, the only way I’m able to be direct and candid with my criticism is to consider what I would do if the student’s piece was in fact my own piece. Otherwise I start to worry about the student’s feelings and how nice I should be. This used to happen a lot. Instead of getting concise, succinct feedback that they could chew on and run with the students would receive a vague, tepid, circulatory recounting of what I felt worked and looked nice…but, what could just quite possibly, maybe, just, I don’t know…not be working as well. Maybe. Mainly because I didn’t want to hurt their feelings. But I’ve learned (and truthfully, am definitely still learning) that it’s mostly about being clear and straightforward, as hard as the criticism might be, the students are better off for it.
So…after running through studio after studio looking at an assortment of works in progress, processing, deconstructing and assessing them, by the end of the day I’m usually kaput. The last thing I want to do is to think analytically about paintings, any painting. Especially my own paintings in development in my apartment/studio where I return to after class. There, they are all propped up on the easel and against the wall facing me and waiting for attention. At this point in the day, I can’t stand to look at my paintings, they all look goofy to me. All I want to do is sit on the sofa, eat something delicious, maybe have a cold one or a glass of wine, open the laptop and watch some silly scuba diving cat videos on Youtube. And that’s what I tend to do, my own paintings be damned.