Yes, over the years I had several. But by the time they were in college (and most of my teaching after '83 was graduate level) they were already aware of their abilities. I used to say in jest that they were already corrupted by inferior ideas by the time they came to me. Although once I was convinced that a particularly highly rated incoming MFA student was just mediocre -- until she was in one of my grad seminar courses and she blew me away with her brilliance and I saw the light. She is now a well-known critic and full prof. in a top art school. Another student came in with off the charts GRE scores and seemingly magical painting abilities. She is now a named full professor in an elite university and shows with a top gallery. There are a few others. I've also had a few who had great promise and skill but lacked that almost insane drive, focus, and confidence. They slacked and thought the world would come to them. Or it was too easy for them and they became un-lerners because they thought they had it all or couldn't handle the inevitable real world rejections. You gotta have the abilities and the insight or brains and you gotta have the ambition to keep getting better and you gotta figure on starting over every day and you gotta work, work, work all the time and realize that the odds are against you. I used to ask students if they would remain artists even if they could know in advance that they's never make it as artworld artists. To those who said NO I replied that maybe they should go home. WC
--- On Wed, 2/4/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Tinkering with the System > To: [email protected] > Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 4:00 PM > In a message dated 2/4/09 4:41:02 PM, [email protected] > writes: > > > > You know, most artists don't just decide on a lark > to go to art school and > > start from scratch, knowing nothing until their first > lesson. Like many > > artists I knew a lot about art before I had any art > schooling and was fairly > > well practiced. > > > William, did you ever have what I presume is every > teacher's dream -- a > stunner of a new student? > > > > ************** > Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all > time on > AOL Music. > (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?ncid=emlcntusmusi00 > 000001)
