Formal art education, again

[Anthony Emmolo]

Hello all,

I am pro art school. I believe they get a bad rap. Here's my story. It was back in the 1980's:

I went to both the School of Visual Arts, and frequented The Art students League, both in New York City. Both were very very different experiences.

SVA was filled with a bunch of streetwise, kids who in many cases knew it all already. I remember hearing a teacher in a drawing class make a comment to a young 18 year old know it all, that her peach was not drawn well. Her angry response, "That's the way II see it!?just made the teacher walk away. Can you teacher her in that moment? Of course not. Other students would leave the 6 hour studio classes for lunch, and not return for three hours. In classes that didn't't permit music, student's would be drawing and bopping their heads to their Sony Walkman's.

I asked myself, "Are medical students doing this? Are law students doing this? Of course not. At least not the successful ones.

I, at the age of 21, was three years older than my peers. The weaknesses I described in the students, were not my weaknesses. Mine were all based on vanity. I'd spend more time looking at other easels rather than the model, and then bang my head against the wall wondering why the drawings were better than mine. I'd often whip myself into a frenzy that would just get serve in getting in the way of anything sensitive coming out of my pencil or brush, depending on which class I was in.

At 21, I was intelligent enough to look carefully at the examples of work by the instructors, and choose well. However, my vanity got in the way o f my education, the same way childishness got in the way of many of the other students.

My vanity infected my time at the Art Student's League as well. I could never enjoy it because there you really did have some talented students to compare yourself to. Wow! anyone with my vanity would get clobbered there, looking at other easel's rather than the model.

Our culture isn't the type of culture that offers a lot of academic stye lifestyles with eight year olds spending an entire day drawing from plaster casts until they get it right. Would I have been able to sit around drawing plaster casts? Would I have valued them enough at such a young age? Ask yourself those questions having grown up in the USA.

THE REMEDY FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN ART TRAINING

Go to an art school. There are good ones. Look at the instructors artwork. Choose the most talented ones, and ask about reputation. Leave the music home. It would have gotten in the way of Leonardo at the formative years as well. Especially today's music. Along with the music, eave the ego home. YOU DON'T KNOW IT ALL AT THE AGE OF 18! Do like the law students, the nursing students, the business students. Attempt to learn something, not to express yourself. Then you will. I promise. Sorry to sound like your father, but your only 18. You don't have a whole lot to express anyway. Learn, and in time you'll have a lot of depth to express.

The problem is, how many 18 year olds do you know that don't think they know it all?

Anthony
I'm doing it now, at the age of 43 in China, with plaster busts and more humility, and I really enjoy it. I don't care about what is on other poeple's easels and I'm learning more now.