I thought I was going mad because I just didn't get it! Now I see there is hope for me yet. I'm not a Dinosaur!
I attend the supposedly foremost 'fine art' school in my city in the vain hope that I might learn something useful, but I come home each day absolutely dejected. Today for example, my painting lecturer ridiculed my expressed desire to learn 'skills' and admitted they had none to teach me anyway. Apparently, "skills are limiting".
I am yet to see a drawing instrument of any kind in the hands of my drawing teacher. I note that weekly, by the end of each drawing class, there are no students left. When they get sick of tearing up pieces of paper, rolling dice and other inane activities passed off as 'drawing', they wander off looking for something else to do.
I am yet to see a work of 'art' in this institution, whether from a teacher or student, that I would not be too embarrassed to put my name on.
I myself, have just finished presenting a five week art & design course to undergraduate students in a business school (as an extension activity)using my own knowledge gained from hard work and experience, and a previous formal art education presented by lecturers who actually had the right stuff. At the end of each lesson, my students had inspired heads, spinning with new knowledge and the excitement of future possibilities. They did not want to down tools and leave. Where could I find someone at my level to inspire me in the same way? It appears unfortunately, not in any art institution in this city.
Still, I want to make great art eventually so I struggle on. Let time be the judge.
I would like to print your Philosophy section and hand a copy to every struggling, gullible, and/or talentless art student I know. I would probably get expelled!
Keep up the good work.
Michael Hodgkins
Perth, Western Australia
www.mhodgkins.com
