Olivia's Passion
I'm going to be an art teacher. I don't think I can discribe accurately how it feels to build relationships with these 8th graders. I've only been around them 3 weeks and I already love some of them. There is this girl named Olivia. She's beautiful and her art is relitively good. She sits next to Charlotte, although I wish she didn't. Charlotte is probably the best artist in the class, along with my buddy, Tyler. Olivia, though, she has potential. You can tell she loves it. She asks me to come look at her paper and I can tell that she is just dying for me to tell her that she is an artist, that she could change the world, that she made me feel something, that she made me dicover something something about myself, that I could learn something new every time I looked at a peice of her artwork, that she could make me laugh and cry, that she could make me FEEL. Charlotte is a better at rendering. But Olivia, she puts her heart in what she does. She is one that would cry if her artwork didn't live up to her standards, regardless of anyone elses. She's one that I could teach, because she wants to learn. She wants to grow.
I want to tell her that her artwork doesn't need to be like Charlotte's, that her passion shows through to me that there is something in her that is dying to be released, but her notion of good art has been crafted by watching the Charlottes of the world. Fred Babb, this inspirationalist (i think i made that word up) artist, wrote on one of his paintings, "If you get out of the way, the art will make itself." About a week ago I finnaly did for the first time, and I created this piece of abstract art that I fell in love with.
Maybe I just love this girl because she reminds me of myself. I've always needed my teachers encouragement. Olivia has this notion that Charlotte's art is the kind of art that should be her goal. I felt that way about Mirranda, Brooke, and Dani for at least two years. I look back on some of my art from last year that I did with mirranda's art in my head, and I feel like that tainted them. I don't know what it took me so long to fully realize that my art could be as good as hers, but in different ways. I've consciously thought that for years but only recently accepted it. I'd love to see what she, Brooke, and Dani are doing now, but I know that my art has taken a different turn and I love it.
And Olivia... I'm going to think about how I can get her to open herself to the possiblity that her art could move the world. Because she has so much passion. If she realized that she didn't have to draw perfectly to stir emotions, her art would blow my mind.
I want to tell her that her artwork doesn't need to be like Charlotte's, that her passion shows through to me that there is something in her that is dying to be released, but her notion of good art has been crafted by watching the Charlottes of the world. Fred Babb, this inspirationalist (i think i made that word up) artist, wrote on one of his paintings, "If you get out of the way, the art will make itself." About a week ago I finnaly did for the first time, and I created this piece of abstract art that I fell in love with.
Maybe I just love this girl because she reminds me of myself. I've always needed my teachers encouragement. Olivia has this notion that Charlotte's art is the kind of art that should be her goal. I felt that way about Mirranda, Brooke, and Dani for at least two years. I look back on some of my art from last year that I did with mirranda's art in my head, and I feel like that tainted them. I don't know what it took me so long to fully realize that my art could be as good as hers, but in different ways. I've consciously thought that for years but only recently accepted it. I'd love to see what she, Brooke, and Dani are doing now, but I know that my art has taken a different turn and I love it.
And Olivia... I'm going to think about how I can get her to open herself to the possiblity that her art could move the world. Because she has so much passion. If she realized that she didn't have to draw perfectly to stir emotions, her art would blow my mind.