I am enjoying my short experience (so far) with the Bead Journal project (and it’s only been a month! Wow!). But this month is so far the most interesting – so far – remember it’s only a month.
First, a little background on me. I was an art major in college. 
Started in fine art, but moved to Graphic Design because I hoped to use my art to make a living (big mistake, but that’s another post). I draw, I paint, I have used tig welding to make large metal sculptures. However, all of this was in college. High School and College should have been spent exploring my artistic expression and yet I found that art teachers can suck every creative desire out of you.
I was not into “trendy” artistic directions in college. I wanted to go my own way. I love Andy Warhol and all Pop Art, Grafitti art, and realism (especially in my drawing). Every time I picked a direction I wanted to take my art, it got slapped down by some self important teacher who tried to push me into the way they were going. At one point I made a HUGE metal sculpture that I hated for years – I think it finally fell apart in my brother’s back yard. The painting I did here is in the garage – yep, love it that much.
I basically quit doing any art for 20 years after college.
So, why am I doing needlework and fiber art? I had grown up dabbling in embroidery and other crafty pursuits, but mainly because about 15 years ago I got a job in a clothing store that was a celebration of fabrics – there were mudcloth, batiks, saris, fabulous kimonos, tapestries and colorful fabrics from Mexico. I found myself buying them with no actual use for them – just collecting to fondle. I finally realized I had a connection to fiber and fiber art.
Robin Atkins, who I have taken one class from but followed her blog religiously for years, brought up a fabulous point on her blog today – inspired by me, and by a commenter on her own post (and finished February project).
This was to talk about two ways to approach art (her graph):
Making Art < – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – > Just Do It
Do It Right < – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – > Let it Be.
I think this is where I went wrong in art school. The teachers were so full of the “why” and the artistic expression and I was never allowed to create the images I had in my head. They tried to mold me so I was “doing it right” and yet never let me just “do it” or “let it be” – it may have been junk, but at least it would have been MY junk!
So, in my exploration while doing the Bead Journal Project, I am reevaluating and thinking about my original goal which is completely to “just do it”. Why else would I have a goal of one a month? Pushing the deadline just makes me obsess over my choices and the “right and wrong” of it all.
I have more to write on this subject – but more on fiber art and using it as an artistic expression, but I’ll leave that for another post!
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My college art years were far different. I felt encouraged to do my own thing every step of the way.
This makes me think it all depends on a particular professor's viewpoint about what makes true art.
I guess it was my good fortune to have teachers like that.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts on this. Your experience in college is what I worry will happen if I try to go back to college for an art degree. Barbara's experience is what I would hope is the more the norm than the exception though.
MF, I quit art classes after the first term in high school!! My art is my art, and while I know there is a place for the technical, and theoretical side, there has to be room to breathe. One of the great things about being all grown up and being able to do whatever the “heck” we like !
Barbara, I’m so relieved your experience was different. I think my mistake was in not going to visit all the professors first and seeing if I “meshed” with them. I think I’m a bit impulsive for art school – at least the one I went to.
Whytefeather – just visit around. I really do think if I had talked to professors I would have at least figured out whether it was a good “match” for me or not.
Jo! I’m with you – I think sometimes you just have to figure it out on your own!
I’ve heard/read others who had experiences similar to yours in art school. Oddly enough, I managed to pick up the same sort of blockages without going to school or getting any official art training. I grew up with the attitudes that needlework was just “women’s work” or something to do for a hobby, that it didn’t have anything important to contribute to the world unless it turned out a useful object. I’m better able to express myself freely with my fiber arts now but I still struggle with the concept of making things that are meaningful to me vs. actually utilitarian.
Oh, my! Your experiences in school really rang a bell. I also began in fine art and moved on to graphic design with the same plan. In grade school I had some inspiring teachers, in high school they just let me do my own thing, pretty much. But collge just sucked the life and joy out of me. I also did pieces I hated to fit the faculty’s desires (they were much more interested in what they were doing than in their students). One, a massive wood and mud construction, I left behind as I left school…with great feelings of relief.
I find it very interesting how we evolve through our lives. I had one boost–there were some artists using fiber in a rather massive way and quilts were just being discovered as “art”–when I was in school, so that I never felt that textiles were hobbyish. And I’ve always felt I’ve gained, in spite of the teachers, from the experience. I have a lifelong love of type and fonts, color, printmaking of all types. I learned loads about photography. But what I gained, I did because college gave me access to tools and materials and other students and in spite of the faculty.
I agree with you – I think some art schools have a lot to answer for. Apart from the problems of making art such as you have described, the major one is that they do not teach students how to make a living from their art after school.
I never went to art school although I studied art in high school for 6 years and architecture for 5 years later in life.
These days I consider myself a textile artist, with the emphasis on artist, although some people still talk of my ‘craft’. I don’t want to invite endless debate on that old chestnut, but if I make something that originates in my mind with no input from anyone or anything else (except perhaps in techniques) I figure that is art. If I buy a cross-stitch kit and embroider it – no matter how beautifully – then it is craft.
This has probably strayed a little from the topic, except that this dichotomy is also one that can be laid at the door of the art schools.