Nay for negative tutors. :/

[thatlauralass]

This is a bit of a rant so... yeah You've been forewarned, haha.

 

So I got an email from my tutor yesterday to tell me he wanted to arrange a meeting with me this week, to discuss the "progress" of my work.

Now our timetable is scheduled to meet for a tutorial on Monday, so I don't know why he can't just wait till then.

 

By the sounds of things, it doesn't look too good.

I'm hoping to get at least one big painting done today, another tomorrow and then a third on friday though, so I'm just going to have to butt horns with him if I must to stay on the course. They already kicked my friend off the course and the head of the department really does seem to have it in for the both of us... even though he definitely has no right.

 

I mean I appreciate that my attendance hasn't been all that great; there's lots of days I've spent sketchbooking at home or visiting around the libraries and doing external work instead; I've almost filled an entie sketchbook in the last couple of weeks. But it just frustrates me to no end that the tutors can't keep their negativity to themselves. Just let me sprint when I want instead of saying "you're average amount of work here isn't up to par" or whatever. We have 3 or 4 weeks left to produce final pieces for our degree show; I know I have my work cut out for me but I can do it.

 

The only thing is, it's hard to go in when there's all that negativity floating around the studios. I really wish I'd gone and done illustration instead; I feel like that's my life's calling and I feel absolutely stupid to have gone and done a degree in Painting instead - it's not even what I would define as "fine art", it's a load of contemporary nonsense and they expect us to be doing things like Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin. I don't want none of that; I want to make work that I'm proud of, but I seem to be caught in a hurricane of forcing myself to produce weird, unlikeable work just for their own benefit.

 

I only have two months left of this course so it seems absolutely ridiculou for them to try and pull me out now. I'm not letting my student loan be for nothing and to be frank all of my SAAS money has gone towards tuition fees for what; a jerk to come into my studio once a month and criticise me on what I've done - if we want to learn anything on this course we have to learn it ourselves, because aparently "Painting isn't a subject that can just be taught to someone" - and that's words straight from the horses mouth at the last review I had.

 

I'm just so frustrated. It's 11am today and I'm finding it really hard to bring myself to go in to start painting after a couple of weeks away working on my sketchbook stuff in preparation. In hindsight I should have been in more but yeah, not much I can do about that now other than up my attendance before next week. I just don't want to cross paths with my tutor for the remainder of the week until I have my stuff done and that's more than likely to happen.

 

Ugh! Anyway, I'm just dropping this here to delitter my brain from all this negativity. It'll probably be something that I revise and come back to over the next few days (I'm moving flat this weekend also and my parents are coming up on Saturday - I'm going to show them what I have and see what their view on it is.); so we'll see how I'm feeling then. Hopefully better once I have 3 or 4 paintings out of the way.

[Ranaki]

From your passed BC art, you're very talented from what I can see. I can envision something then when I go to put it on paper, it looks like a 2 year olds scribble x_@

I've had fair stuff in the past, but things like your work and others I have seen on here, I can only have in my mind.

Who is to say what is "fine" art, or what is rubbish anyway? Student loans!! I'm kidding of course... But if your tutor is bringing you down like that, you've only two months left in your course, I'd (personally not recommend this, I am a bit crass at times) tell him to shove it and put up with it. You are paying him for tips and tricks of the trade (if i'm not mistaken), not to criticize and rub your nose in it like you're a puppy doing duty on the rug. If you don't show it's your own loss, and he should see it as such, he's still getting paid after all (If I'm correct in how schools function now-a-days)!!

[Saxen]

That sounds like a lot of stress to be under! :( If I were you I would e-mail him back and say that you have a lot of work on this week and you don't have enough time for a meeting as you're trying to keep focused on your paintings, but that you will happily see him on monday at your scheduled time.

 

To be honest if he has a problem with that he's a pretty lousy tutor! Some people need to understand they're not completely in control and they can't just order you around because they're technically an authority.

 

Let us know how things go!

[Novelista]

I can tell I'm not in the fine arts...I can't imagine a professor hanging over my head and saying, "You're doing this wrong or that and blah blah blah."

 

Like Ranaki said, you're paying the school (and therefore him) to teach you little things to perfect your gift, not to make you feel bad about what the Powers That Be gave you.

[thatlauralass]

Thanks so much guys. the trouble with these tutors is they're only interested in 'contemporary painting' - any painting that has any aesthetic whatsoever they look down on, and aparently people who create art for the soul purpose of looking nice "aren't true artists".

They also believe that premade canvases are evil (I'm on the fence about that one, since handmades are better quality, but it doesn't define the work itself), and watercolour and acrylic paints are pre-school materials. I think they're just snobs and need to get off their pedestal, personally.

 

But anyhoo~

Saxen - I've pretty much done exactly that! :) I bumped onto one of the tutors this morning actually, and he gave me the worst look ever, haha. Glad that perticular one isn't my own personal tutor, but he is the head of the department and the one responsible for kicking my friend off the course.

But yeah, my own personal tutor should be a bit better at least. I've started a final 3ft square painting today, and that's coming along nicely so that, plus my sketchbook full of development plus another painting I'm starting tomorrow should be more than enough to get him off my back... right?!?

 

And yeah, thank you so much guys. :) We have a degree show where we're showcasing our work in June, and the photographs for the catalogue are on the 18th of next month - we need a minimum of 3 final paintings by then. Considering I've pretty much completed one painting today, then that's only 2 more to go, and it's well within my capabilities to do that!

 

I can't imagine if I keep on the same progress that I'm doing just now, that they could turn round to me and say "you don't have enough", since a full 200 page sketchbook is more than half the class has, and I don't see them getting on their cases. Only time will tell.

[Saxen]

Wow you're working so hard :O If they kicked you out it would be madness considering how much effort you're putting in!

 

Will you show us the paintings when you're finished? :3

[Novelista]

Watercolors and acrylics are for little kids? I think Milton Avery and Andrew Wyeth would disagree with that! How about Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko? Was Warhol a baby for painting his famous soup cans with acrylics?

 

I don't know where your professors are getting their ideas, but they're morons and their cavalier attitudes shouldn't affect you and your passions.

 

I hope you can get through this without them kicking you out...