The real reason why I failed art in school

[BrianPowley]

This has been an interesting thread! It started because of the work I'm doing on a revolver (See picture in my original posting).
This revolver is one of a two gun set that is the American Pistolsmiths' Guild's 2012 Guns of the Year, and it will featured in a future issue of The American Handgunner Magazine.
This is one of those "AHA" moments where I've yet to draw a single pattern for this gun on paper, but my mind "sees" everything that's going to take place.
It reminded me of my art teachers rebuke of my lack of artistic "vision" and that I was a failure. Go figure.
Never let their spoils become your destiny.

 

[Tom Curran]

Something is going on in Powleyville. I can sense a storm coming, I can smell the ozone in the air.....

 

[billrice@charter.net]

Brian

I still remember my fourth grade teacher telling my parents that I was fluncking 4th grade and that I propably would not make it through Junior High. Amazing I now own a home and business in the Central Coast of California and I watch the sun go down on the Ocean allot of days of the year.

 

[BrianPowley]

Tom....My wife read your post and said "HEY TOM---THAT'S NOT OZONE!"
She's such a comfort. LOL!

 

[Roger Bleile]

I think that James Ehlers made an excellent point about attendence in an art class. Like Mike, I did a similar thing in college when I had a scheduling conflict with a community based corrections class. I had been a full time deputy sheriff for a few years at the time and could have taught the class. Nevertheless, in a skill based course, I would not want to miss a minute of the class for the reasons James stated.

RB

 

[thughes]

This is really a funny thread. I failed (I think I made about a 52) the first test of my first semester in Graduate school. Hey I screwed up. The test schedule was given the first day of class and never mentioned again, and my room mate and I had made a treip back home as we were still trying to get our appartment pieced together (ya'll remember the big wooden spool tables and all that) so I just plain forgot about the test. i explained it to my prof and all he could say was that I was an idiot and that there was no place in grad school for someone like me and that I would likely not graduate. i proceeded to finish his class with a 95 average and the S.O.B. still gave me a B grade because he said he just could not give an A to a person who made a grade that low on a test. He taught a course later that was considered the course there that separated the men from the boys, and I broke his heart by finishing with one of the highest grades in the class ever, and was perfect on the lab exams (supposedly the hardest part). Man did it kill him to look down and kind of scuff his feet on the floor and say what a fine job that was.

Needless to say I've been working as a geologist now for 26 years and have owned my own consulting firm for 10 years now. What a dork.

 

[Chapi]

I can sure relate to this thread. Growing up, my grandfather always told my mother that she should discourage me from art, as it would distract me from important things like sports and debate(!). He told her that I would never make a living at it, and while it does seem tough at times, I am my own boss and have huge amounts of freedom, as well as having some of the most colorful -literally and figuratively- friends and acquaintances you'll ever meet. I also failed art class in high school, as I seemed to do things in a non approved direction when it came to art. Not that I colored outside the lines or anything, I just picked subjects that didn't fit with the lessons being taught. Also, I put monkeys in all my drawings back then, and the Art teacher had a Filipino boyfriend and thought I was making a racial slur( I was not, and at the time didn't even know about the boyfriend until the end of the year). Anyway, all of the stuff that was supposed to be taught in class, I later learned properly on the interweb, plus a lot of other stuff like engraving. Take that Grandpa and Art teacher! Now if I can keep the lights on through the winter...

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

Not that I colored outside the lines or anything...

I did that in 1st Grade... twice. My teacher pulled my hair and gave me a good slapping on the face and along side the head with a few punches thrown in for good measure. I tried to not rile her up after that. They'd probably throw teachers in jail nowadays for some of the things we used to put up with in the old days.

 

[JJ Roberts]

Doc, My Mother beat up a Nun for abusing me on my first day in the 1st grade,and I did'nt do any wrong to get abused. J.J.

 

[Ray Cover]

There aren't many of us who can say their mom beat up a nun.:bow:

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Maybe I was lucky, I always got A's in Art class.
In high school my Art teachers usually gave me the keys to the "Cage" the room where the supplies were kept, and let me do whatever I wanted.
I remember I blew glass for the first time at Sac State while my mother was still in college in 1968, which would have meant I was around eight years old.

When I was about ten my Mother became an Art instructor for UC Davis and we would go to San Miguel De Allende GTO in the summers and make jewelry.
She would take her students and I around to many of the museums and historical places in GTO, Mexico DF( we would stay in La Zona Rosa because it was cheap, our driver took us around to the museums in an immaculate 1947 chrysler) and Teotijucan ( I think I spelled that wrong) she would teach UCD Art extension classes in jewelry and other subjects, one was " Mexican Art Cultural History". I was forced to go along.
I could make waxes, invest, burn em out, melt casting grain and spin the centrifuge, solder and set stones in bezels by myself by the time I was in 4th grade.
In the late sixties Mom had a pile of fire bricks and a 55 gal drum of deisel in the back of a pickup and would go to Mendocino camp on the beach and build a kiln in the sand, and we would make Raku in the piles of seaweed graciously provided by the surf.
My mother had an excellent Art library and after reading all the history books I could find, I worked my way through her art books. We still have them, and it is a constant pleasure to rediscover these old friends made of paper.
I was working as an engraver when I was 18, I had been recruited through a high school art class by Ethan Jacczak, an older fellow student who was working as an engraver.
I must admit that later when I was in college, the instructors were a little more uptight, but I never let em get me down.

 

[SamW]

I started playing the french horn in the 5th grade and began dreaming hot rods shortly thereafter. Art was many, many years away. I don't even remember there being any art classes in high school but suppose there could have been, just not of interest to me. Mechanical drawing was as close as I came in college. And Humanities, with which I had a hard time. The teacher in that class was one of my mother's music teachers in the early 30s so you can imagine she had been around for a long time!

 

[Sam]

My art education consists of high school art classes (the only classes I got decent grades in) and a few local classes which I enjoyed very much. I've been drawing as long as I can remember, and some of my greatest memories were hearing my dad laugh loudly at the characters I'd copy from Mad Magazine. I could copy them quite accurately and it really helped in developing my drawing skills. In high school I can still hear my math teacher Mr. Aikens say "Mr. Alfano, one day you will become an artist..." followed by his fist slamming the stop of my desk as he screamed "BECAUSE ALL YOU DO IN MY CLASS IS DRAW PICTURES!" I can certainly understand his frustration and he was right, I did become an artist, which I found to be far more enjoyable than mathematics.

 

[KSnyder]

Believe it or not, but my art teacher in school actually failed me because I couldn't learn and I had absolutely no vision for imagination.
Now that's how you motivate your students!!!!

Albert Einstien failed math too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mtgraver]

I really feel left out of the fray. I have never had an art class ............ unless 9th grade would count. Really didn't start to draw much until about 20 years ago. I've always felt that I have one thing going for me and that I've never been taught that I can't do something. That's how I approach work today, think it through in my mind's eye and then do it. Of course whatever it is I'm making will work out perfectly! ........ I just don't allow anyone to look in my scrap can.
I must say that through the forums I've found that my drawing skills are improving and the confidence to attempt more complicated projects, so a hardy thank you to all that shares their knowledge, seasoned and novice.
Mark

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Chris, GTO's are cool, in this case I was abbreviating Guanajuato, the state in mexico in which San Miguel De Allende is located.
Speaking of GTO's, II had a 66 Buick Skylark GS in high school, ate quite a few better knowm muscle cars with it.
It had 10.75 to 1 factory compression on a 401 with a stick shift, a lot of fun.
I paid 200 bucks for it, sold it for 230.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

were hearing my dad laugh loudly at the characters I'd copy from Mad Magazine

Yip, I did exactley the same. My bedroom walls were covered in them. Christmas presents from Mum and Dad were generally drawing pads, pencils and rubbers (that's erasers in American speak)

Cheers
Andrew

 

[FANCYGUN]

CARS????????? who the heck could afford a car? I was too busy working in an art store framing pictures so I could get discounted art supplies. That's what buses and subway trains were for. You ever try parking a car in New York City?????? Get real. Muscle cars???? I was lucky to finally get a 1965 Opal Cadet USED no less. Artist are supposed to starve.or at least look like it

 

[Roger Bleile]

"some of my greatest memories were hearing my dad laugh loudly at the characters I'd copy from Mad Magazine."

I had a similar experience with a different outcome. When I was about ten, I was reading a history book that had a very accurate drawing of Adolph Hitler. I was always drawing something so I picked up my colored pencils and made a very accurate, color rendition of the image (I seem to remember making his uniform powder blue).

The drawing came out so well that I taped it to the wall of my bedroom. Apparently the picture could be seen through the window from the driveway because one day my dad came into the room and gave me ten kinds of hell for the drawing. Understandably, he was worried that if anyone saw it through the window they would think we were nazis. The drawing came down and went into the trash. I knew that Hitler was the enemy in the war but it wasn't until later that I learned of the atrocities associated with him.

RB

 

[Sam]

Roger: That's what you get for reading history books instead of Mad magazine!