Comments on: Artists Weird from Childhood

By: keith

keith — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:57:14 +0000

I’ve always been an artist- I’ve always been ‘different’- too sensitive maybe- As I’ve gotten older the distance has increased between me and the world- Among artists and writers- sometimes actors- musicians- educated free thinking people- I feel at home- Among regular people especially in small towns- I scare them- What’s ordinary for me- is odd or scary for a lot of people- I moved back from big cities to the small town- I live in constant siege mentality- This defensiveness and feeling of being an outcast has led to misanthropic feelings- which just further alienate-
Unless i’m around other creatives, rebels artists- It’s me against the world- Hard thing to get out of- but much of my life is spent trying to resolve everything- However- I’ve got to work work work to reach ever increasing standards – the more you learn, the harder it gets

By: Birgit Zipser

Birgit Zipser — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:33:02 +0000

Selina, I have made mistakes of trying to please the viewer,... I started painting a picture with the intent of giving it to my daughter as a present. But after a while, I felt inhibited by thinking whether my daughter would like the picture. I realized that I could only enjoy the process of painting the picture if I fully owned it, made it mine.

By: selina

selina — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:14:22 +0000

well.
I ve been an artist since i was a kid.and i m getting tiered.
its like being stuck in yourself.and the rest of the world is just not available.
i have never been able to stop.yet i have never beenthe best . everything else is easy for me to do well in, but painting just i never get to the top of my capabilitites…once u get at a point, you come to realise you have got to nowere.i ve made mistakes of trying to please the viewer, but at this point i cannot be bothered anymore. i just do not like or need anyone to like my work anymore.
i m not sure,,wether it s a sickness i got, that is eating me….or a blessing.
i m now looking at 2 artworks i m working on..and i just cannot figure out wether they r beautiful or attrocious…wether they r finished or not.

By: Becky

Becky — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:36:51 +0000

Art is something that is gracefull and elgant. It is not to be destroyed. Art alows you to be free.

By: Angela

Angela — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:36:25 +0000

No matter how good is your teacher, the best school you go to, if ther crits are doing you good or not… art is something that no matter how much you learn and study, if it is not on you… you will never reach it!

By: Sunil Gangadharan

Sunil Gangadharan — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:10:12 +0000

Going by the above standards, I am not that creative…

I used to love doing chemistry experiments when my parents were not looking using chemicals stolen from a friends garage. After I burned myself badly I stopped that creative urge.

By: June

June — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:59:54 +0000

AS a very late art student, what I’ve found is that I can absorb only a few things, maybe only one, at a time. I need input and strong input, not coddling — I’m too old for false praise — but only on one aspect — “glaze with ultramarine” or “lay down the black shadows behind the grass first.”

What some art teachers want is for students to absorb everything that they, the teachers, know — it’s a natural impulse and one that feels generous. But the best teachers are very stingy with their information, feeding it slowly to the fingers and minds of the students. I like to think of my art teachers as making me a roux, in which a few bits of flour have to be thoroughly mixed before I can digest any more.

This is radically different from teaching, say, the British novel, where history can get swooped through in great gobs and the students can memorize somethings and get the “feel” for others and do just fine. Teaching art is training the fingers and eye and that takes patience that neither students nor teachers sometimes recognize.

This is not to say I didn’t have the usual off-putting experiences in my youth. I vowed never to take another art class — or do any more sewing for that matter — in 8th grade when my art teacher sneered at my carefully delineated face-on drawing of a Philadelphia historica monument (it was dreadful, but I was trying very hard) and my mother had to finish my apron for home ec because I whined so much. So much for vows.