When Your Idea Exceeds Your Skillset?

[Hawkmoth]

I hear ya. I took a ceramics class in my late 30s and I hated it because I was just not great at it. I wished I could have tried to throw some pots though, but the teacher had a strict policy that didn't allow "women" to use the wheel and did not accept me as not really a woman, though he did favor me as an artist in general. Didn't matter though. I still would have liked to see if I had any skill in that area.

In any case, I didn't like having clay on my hands, so it was a moot point.

When I have to render realism-type work, I have to challenge my skills a bit because I don't usually make work like that, mostly because I don't want to, but sometimes I do, depending on how I want a piece to look like. It might need some elements of illustrative things in it. I'll have to attempt to draw it several times to get it right, but that's okay because that's how I sharpen some of those skills.

Soon I want to make a painting that includes a weird house/shack with odd angles and I'm even a little nervous about how I'll do, but all I can do is my best.

The teacher did not allow women to use the wheel? WHAT THE ..........?!! WHY?! What possible reason could there be to allow some people to use the wheel and not others? That's insane.

I took ceramics at school and we were all taught to throw on a wheel (a bunch of 12 year old girls and boys). Shame on that teacher you were saddled with.

Good luck with your wonky house/shack painting. Maybe some relaxed sketching just trying things out might help you figure out how to do it.

 

[E.J.H.]

My thoughts about that teacher too. I think I' d have moulded my piece of clay in the shape of the male reproductive organ as a farewell message and left.
(Well, honestly, I'd leave for sure, but would probably not execute the goodbye project irl... )

 

[Artyczar]

To be clearer: the teacher let limited women on the wheel who had been in their third year in ceramics, otherwise he considered real potters to be a man's endeavor in the fine arts. He was a real ass and I did speak up, believe me. I wanted to get what I could out of the class, so I had to stay. It was at the community college and was far out from any of the others in LA County. The guy was a successful artist too. He also gave a lot of "advice" to me about my CV, telling me to rid of any women-run galleries I'd shown with in the past (and any disability-related grants, shows, panel participations, etc.). He did not like women for whatever reason, but he liked my art. He gave the women in the classroom a hard time about the things they made and made terrible comments all the time. This was in the mid 2000s and things were still as they'd always been. I gave him smack about it all the time. He tried to play it off as jokes when it was over the top. People complained (men too!), but he was the chair of the art dept. I don't know how he got away with it, but people do and have all the time.

He was just one of those guys. He often had subs (always men) and those teachers were awesome. I wouldn't have left a parting gift in the shape of a penis because I didn't consider him a representative of a real male! He probably would have taken it as some kind of compliment.

 

[stlukesguild]

Damn Arty! I can't believe that teacher. Over the years, I've come across a couple of college teachers/professors that might tell off-color jokes or show some degree of bias. I've also had a few professors who had affairs with their female students... but three of them ended up marrying the girls so I don't know how much we could deem them as having taken advantage of their students. But never anything that blatantly biased. Most of the schools I have been in had more than a few strong female teachers who would never have allowed such crap. In every class, I have been in there were more than a few female students of real ability. A good number of the best students were middle-aged women whose families did not support their aspirations as artists. They ended up getting degrees in another field, getting married, and having kids. When their kids were grown they went back to school to take classes in art... some even getting degrees where their real passion lie. A majority of my best artists are girls... but at the grade-school level, the boys mature slower and spend far more time goofing around.

 

[Artyczar]

I should check if he's still the chair over there. I know. When I think about it now, It's pretty blatantly crazy, but I've run into worse, truthfully.

EDIT: Yup. Still the dept chair. The art division chair is a male as well.
EDIT again: He is no longer teaching ceramics.

 

[Mississippi Hippie]

A success requires a thing to overcome. The son of the company owner rarely feels the pride of the father. A given thing is cheaply valued.

I always wish I was the older bro and could own my dads business.