Stick to your brushes

The universe was bent on me learning early what was to come from working in the field of art. The idea of having to stand up for my work was not common to a high school student who was top of his class and the big fish. Anything I did was praised and held as the standard for others to measure up to. This all changed when I got to college and became the small fish. I was unprepared for explaining and defending my artistic integrity.

Case in point was art history class where we were to pick a contemporary artist from the last 100 years to study, make a presentation and do an art project based on the artist's style. The presentation went very smoothly with a slide projector displaying my artist, Jasper Johns' best works using plaster casts and encaustic painting skills. The project, however took a different turn because the outline for it was to create a car license plate using blue marker and white paper in the style of our artist. But my artist wouldn't follow those parameters, so I didn't.

I thought it was a very insightful way for me to get to know the artist I had studied by walking in his footsteps and doing the project the way he would. I created a plaster cast of my nose and affixed it onto the centre of a canvas the same size as a car license plate. Then I proceeded to paint the plate encaustic style by mixing pigment into heated wax. It was not easy but it was fun and exciting to see how JJ must have felt when working with such an organic medium. My professor wasn't so excited by my dedication to my own style of learning.

He basically said he would fail me if I handed in what I had done because it wasn't done according to the assignment sheet. At the time I took the standpoint that my artist's style would be to not do the assignment according to this professor's specifications but that held no water with the stubborn drunkard. I contemplated taking it to the Dean level but my 'people pleaser' nature kicked in and I went back to the drawing board to create something mediocre to make someone else happy. I resigned to being happy to have had the experience of trying a new art medium and succeeding at it even if it wasn't what was expected.

To this day I think that if I had pushed back after already having pushed the envelope that things would have worked out differently. I do understand the point of following directions and giving the 'client' what he asked for but this was a silly project to begin with considering how narrow the outline was to incorporate the diverse selection of acceptable artists we could study. What I have learned over the years is that yes, there are times to give in and then there are times to stick to your brushes and maintain the integrity of your creativity.