(no subject)
I had THE MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT OF MY ENTIRE LIFE on Tuesday! I am completely mortified just thinking about typing it right now. (ok….so maybe im exaggerating just a tiny bit…..but it makes for a better story)
So here’s all the background info:
My art history teacher is all about reading in to text very deeply, and also having the choice to either join in or refuse to join in to class discussion. Also, he makes it a fact for students to know that you can either do the reading before the class lecture or after the class lecture.
It is for these reasons (as well as many others) as to why I think that he is one of the most amazing teachers I have ever met. Basically, after Al, he is one of the most brilliant men I have ever met.
Ok…So our reading for Tuesday was about Modernism, in which the author defines modernism as “the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself, not in order to subvert it but in order to entrench it more firmly in its area of competence”
So basically, the artist understands the limits of his/her materials and works as a way to show that in his/her art. (example would be the flatness of a painting as oppose to a very photo-realistic painting that works to move paint beyond its boundaries by creating a space in which the viewer feels that the object could be 3d)
SO when I read the article I didn’t totally understand what the author was saying, because I didn’t have a visual image to compare it to, but in class when we first came in we had a writing assignment in which we viewed two different painting and wrote why one was viewed as “traditional” and the other was viewed as “modern”
(traditional painting was pic of Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and our main man Baby Jesus, modern painting was of Nanny Woman and a child)
After we finished the writing assignment, he called on a girl to talk about the differences and her response was “Umm well, like, I just think that its modern because maybe the artist was just bored with painting religious pictures so he just like did what he wanted to do, and that why its modern”
And I’m just totally like : O , I cant believe she just said that, well maybe he will call on me because I totally got this answer! And I’m pumping myself up to get called on, and then HE DOES! (how wild?????) So I give my answer which was what I said earlier (the painting is modern because the artist works within the boundaries of his materials, and this is shown in many ways, one is by the brush strokes ect…)
And while I’m waiting for him to praise me for my completely brilliant answer, he just simply says……………………………………………………………………………
“Did you do the reading?”
And I’m like “Yeah”
And he goes “Ok, any other ideas (referring to the class)”
and I am still very confused as to why that is how the conversation went, and I’m not sure if he meant it in a way that was like oh, you got it, you (must of ) did the reading, or you’re a total dummy, or don’t you have any ideas of your own - or do you just recite the article (although I did say it in a way that that was my own answer)
And it was totally embarrassing, and I just wanted to cry.
But i think that it is important to remember this moment, becasue it changed the way i view everything.
So here’s all the background info:
My art history teacher is all about reading in to text very deeply, and also having the choice to either join in or refuse to join in to class discussion. Also, he makes it a fact for students to know that you can either do the reading before the class lecture or after the class lecture.
It is for these reasons (as well as many others) as to why I think that he is one of the most amazing teachers I have ever met. Basically, after Al, he is one of the most brilliant men I have ever met.
Ok…So our reading for Tuesday was about Modernism, in which the author defines modernism as “the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself, not in order to subvert it but in order to entrench it more firmly in its area of competence”
So basically, the artist understands the limits of his/her materials and works as a way to show that in his/her art. (example would be the flatness of a painting as oppose to a very photo-realistic painting that works to move paint beyond its boundaries by creating a space in which the viewer feels that the object could be 3d)
SO when I read the article I didn’t totally understand what the author was saying, because I didn’t have a visual image to compare it to, but in class when we first came in we had a writing assignment in which we viewed two different painting and wrote why one was viewed as “traditional” and the other was viewed as “modern”
(traditional painting was pic of Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and our main man Baby Jesus, modern painting was of Nanny Woman and a child)
After we finished the writing assignment, he called on a girl to talk about the differences and her response was “Umm well, like, I just think that its modern because maybe the artist was just bored with painting religious pictures so he just like did what he wanted to do, and that why its modern”
And I’m just totally like : O , I cant believe she just said that, well maybe he will call on me because I totally got this answer! And I’m pumping myself up to get called on, and then HE DOES! (how wild?????) So I give my answer which was what I said earlier (the painting is modern because the artist works within the boundaries of his materials, and this is shown in many ways, one is by the brush strokes ect…)
And while I’m waiting for him to praise me for my completely brilliant answer, he just simply says……………………………………………………………………………
“Did you do the reading?”
And I’m like “Yeah”
And he goes “Ok, any other ideas (referring to the class)”
and I am still very confused as to why that is how the conversation went, and I’m not sure if he meant it in a way that was like oh, you got it, you (must of ) did the reading, or you’re a total dummy, or don’t you have any ideas of your own - or do you just recite the article (although I did say it in a way that that was my own answer)
And it was totally embarrassing, and I just wanted to cry.
But i think that it is important to remember this moment, becasue it changed the way i view everything.