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Indirect route for me too
Reading through these posts has made me realize that my route to art has not been so unusual. I loved drawing and painting since I was a small child. When it came time to go to college, I chose the University of Texas and to please myself and my parents, chose classes to become a medical illustrator. That way, I could take drawing classes and then apply that along with biology with a plan for an actual paying job. (That was the plan.)
After one semester as an art/biology major I decided that wasn't for me. Too much memorizing in biology. And my art teachers . . . I would spend 4 hours on a pencil drawing and get a 'C' for a grade. One day I didn't do my homework assignment so right before class started, I knelt down and draw 3 black lines on my pad of drawing paper. One very thick line horizontally and two thinner lines at each end vertically. That particular teacher kept me after class to discuss the 'meaning' of my art. That was it for me! I couldn't take any more of that, though I did make up some story about the meaning of that drawing and got an 'A' for it.
I decided art was too subjective so I went into engineering where the harder you worked, the better grade you got. Plus, no memorizing, with all that math I could figure out the answer by calculating the answer. I eventually graduated with a petroleum engineering degree and went to work for Shell as an engineer.
After 4 years of that, and I was not happy as an engineer after the initial year of the 'newness' of the job wore off, I went back to school and took some illustration and marketing courses. My sweet grandmother supported me for a year and enabled me to do that.
I worked for a graphic design company for a couple of years then started freelancing graphic design. Got married, had 2 kids and 10 years later became interested in portraiture. My husband, who works for Shell (met him when I was an engineer - an office romance that turned out very well!) was transferred to Holland for 2 years and I was lucky enough to be able to take classes from a wonderful Dutch portrait artist. I also took some other classes in Holland from an art college and other smaller groups. It was worth it to fight the wind and rain and cold to make it to those classes, I now realize.
Now that we are back in Houston I have exhausted portraiture classes and now look entirely to this forum for any help. And I'm saving for some workshops, though my husband would love to see some 'income' from my attempts before I go off to a workshop!
So, that is my circuitous route back to art. Mary, I'm with you, I will not do this to my children. I'll support whatever they want to do from the start (within reason, ha!).
Joan
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