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This is my Tuition, What is Yours? Haiku and A Toast to Artists!

haiku on tuition desktop workspace

Tuition

Unschooled fugitive
journeys in staggers and thrusts
makes radical lien.


I had a Zen type of moment today.  The decluttering and all the other normal but stressed out things made me search for a little space where I could clear the mind of all distractions. Deciding to work out a haiku was more time consuming than I remembered, but I did it. Everything comes with a price, cliche, but true.  This is my tuition.  A little blast from the past, to finally put things back there and lock them away.

I don't often take photos of my desk as there are gifts being made or supplies still in packages.  There is just a small space to actually work on and leave pieces to dry, sometimes for days in a row.  Maybe because I see it and it is calling out to me, "Get in here and get to work!" that I try to think of all the other things that need doing.  I want being at the desk to be a refuge not a burden.  

Because I had only one practical art class in college, a required course, I took it during the summer semester so that I could get the misery out of the way as fast as possible.  To my unending surprise, the instructor, once he got past the fact that I couldn't draw realistically, was very encouraging.  He helped everyone in the class, even me, ahhh the karma of patience. 

One day he said he wanted to talk to me, and to go for a walk down the hall.  Uh oh.  It turned out that he wanted me to sell a pattern to one of his contacts in the city.  Just getting into the display case with other patterns was a milestone, but to think it could be valuable, was he kidding?  I didn't believe him.  He wasn't kidding and was not used to people like me who did not believe in the value of their work.  I would have to work this out, my soul did not appreciate what he had said.  

In class, I hid behind Abstracts which were easier and more on the surface of my skill level.  You didn't have to explain them fully. (Che cosa significa? What does it mean?)  Plus, there was a dear older (senior) Italian man, a student, who loved my abstracts, so that helped a lot.  ♥♥♥  I haven't thought about him for years, and there he is now front and center in my mind, as plain as day. He's probably up in Heaven right now, painting in Oils. 

macro portion view of mixed media

My high school art teacher despaired as she was of the mindset that if you can't draw, and draw it to look just like a photograph- a realistic depiction, then you can't make art.  She wasn't the only teacher who pounded this message, beginning in First Grade.  That's why I said "misery" to speed through the summer session. 

So, you see, if someone mentioned art, I would be interested, but aloof.  One of my good friends got a Masters in Art from a well known art college.  All okay for her, she could draw realistically, but during all of the time we spent together, she never expressed that art comes in other forms.  

Let me tell you this little story:  My friend wanted to make a gift for me of two framed notecards.  She showed me a selection of pretty, store bought, embossed cards.  I chose the yellow and the gray cards.  The colors appealed to me and I thought they looked well together. She delayed, hemmed, and hawed telling me it was a big mistake, a little, okay, a lot of ridicule thrown in just to establish that she was the art major, the one who knew better.  

I could not be swayed from my color choice.  Yes, she would have felt better if I acceded to her M.A., but then I was left feeling, well, you can imagine.  Funny thing is, a short time after she finished the frame, she decided to include the piece in her portfolio for a possible gallery showing.  She presented her portfolio and the gallery owner wanted my selection of the yellow and gray cards.  Bites.  She asked me to lend her the framed piece which was then hanging on my wall, so I handed it over.  From that one piece my friend received orders for framed cards.  I would never gloat.  

I carried the yellow and gray cards for many years from apartment to condo to several houses to storage.  Last week I finally dismantled it.  It was a reminder to me that sometimes those with more schooling, more experience, etc. don't always know more than the person who is leaning from the heart.  To take a chance, especially when you haven't learned all the conventional ways, the conformist ways loaded with biases, can sometimes be the best way, your peace of mind way.   But you already know that.  I've kept the cards with faded edges to maybe reuse in some new piece of mine.  The frame is in the Future Yard Sale Pile.  

I'm still learning and experimenting.  Blogging has brought more people and their art to me than all the museums and galleries in total that I have ever visited.  It helps to see their dreams and passions for their chosen media  splashed out across the blogosphere.  Bright, gloomy, day glo, sepia, and everything else, whatever they make is another day in paradise, well, sort of.  Here's to all the artists and the artists at heart! 

This is my tuition.  What's yours?  


etsy treasury image








(Go see some of my Treasuries on Etsy here. There is even a Yellow and Gray one.)   
Do you update your Treasuries?  


8 comments :

AntiquityTravelers said...

art comes in many shapes and sizes ... for me my art is in colors and patterns. I have a hard time repeating any piece because it isn't about 'producing' stuff ... it is about expressing what is in my mind

Linda said...

Art is whatever you want it to be.
Here is a quote from Frank Zappa:
Art is making something out of nothing.
It is an expression.

Lucy said...

Going with your gut and having faith in yourself, all important in your art.

Lucy from Lucy's Reality

Little City Farm said...

One of the funny things I noted about your story is that yellow and grey have since become all the rage. You were just ahead of your time, lol. I know a lot of people who can draw well but who do not the heart of an artist.

Magic Love Crow said...

Excellent post my friend! I have on my blog right now, your mixed media painting and I showed a close up of the magic jewel ;o) I liked your story! There is one girl at Michael's and she can't believe that I sell my art, since I have no schooling! She said she went to college and she hasn't sold any of her pieces! I just smile! LOL! I believe you got to have heart and people feel this ;o) Hugs ;o)

Miss Val's Creations said...

Art from the heart is so much better than art learned in a classroom! Your high school art teacher was so close minded stating that only those who can draw are artists. Art is such an amazing, diverse thing.

Christine Altmiller said...

Making Art, an expression of the Soul, does not have to come with a college degree. All it has to do is touch the maker and maybe one other person. I could never get beyond stick people. Literally. So I never knew I was creative at all until the beads came along. We can all find our artistic selves. It just takes finding the kind that fits.

Additionsstyle said...

Fantastic post Gloria!! I loved your story. I hate when people tell me they are not creative, I always tell them they can make anything they want. Art is an expression of what is inside us and you need to share your art with the world.
Valerie
Everyday Inspired