From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 10/18/01-10:20:13 PM Z
On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, shannon stoney wrote:
> teach them. People in my classes still want to know things like how
> to use the zone system, how to use a view camera, how to process 4x5
> film. They have been asking about this stuff for a long time, and
> since our teacher has been stalling on teaching that stuff, they ask
> me to show them how to do these things.
I loved grad school, but I used to say it was like a Victorian lecture on
marriage, a lot of talk about the beauties of conjugal love, but if you
asked about HOW IT WAS DONE (film, development, etc.) you were quickly
shushed.
> In one of the best drawing classes I ever took, the most helpful
> things I learned were some "technique" things. The teacher could
> teach these things because he was a working artist. He didn't go on
> and on about theory; he taught us how he worked. That was very
> helpful.
Right -- no "theory of drawing."
> Not to say that theory is never helpful; it just seems as if lately
> it has become a substitute for anything else substantive, because in
> a way it's easier to talk about books and words than it is to get
> down to making something.
Not to mention that theory remains state-of-the-art about as long as
software.. If you go back & read "theory" of, for instance, the '70s,
it's like another planet... which many tenured profs are from.
> position on why you did something or why it's better to take pictures
> of flowers or not take pictures of flowers for example. My problem
> with the teachers at my school is that they don't support their
> theories with any good reasons. They just beat people up with them.
> They have been doing this, unchallenged, for so long that they have
> forgotten, if they ever knew, why they believe the things they
> believe. I think they accepted them as dogma at some point in their
> careers and have never really examined the validity of these ideas,
> or their practicality, or their effect on students, especially young,
> hesitant students. I am an old, stubborn student, so I mostly blow
> it off. But I end up defending younger, less confident people a lot.
Very well said !... Of course one hopes to produce art that transcends
theory... which, alas, may not be clear until we also are, so-to-speak,
transcended.
Judy
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