Date: Sunday, May 31, 2009
Subject: Re: Did you READ NORTHERN WATCH TODAY?
Thanks for the interesting background info. A good thing for art teachers (even old retired ones like me) to read. But more important for current art teachers to be reminded of -- knowing when and how encouragement is needed so they will strive to meet each young person "where they are" in their creative life and crack open the doors of possibility for them. I do think it would be very appropriate for you to revise this a bit and send it to Trudeau. Teachers are usually taken for granted and seldom learn that their efforts have been appreciated.
Annette
I was listening to Jackie this morning when I spied a little headline at the top page of Page 1 of the Northern Watch, "Artwork, Page 6: featured at Roseau Library." Here was another story about my art exhibit! I am impressed! There, my name was in print again--and this time not under the "Law Enforcement." I hope my former art instructor Mike Trudeau (1937-2024) reads it. He was the greatest guy, so supportive and fun. I spent all my free time in the art room; I studied there when there weren't art classes and people knew they could always find me there. I helped other students when they asked me and I enjoyed it. I began toying with the idea of becoming a college-level art teacher, knowing I wouldn't have the patience with high school students.
I took a year and a half of Commercial Art in my technical trades/high school in Des Moines. It was a three year course that I compressed into a year and a half. I had initially intended to become a veterinarian and began the Pre-med coursework for it, then realizing my math skills were horribly not up to par I switched mid-way to the Art Core Area rather than just take General Studies. They told me I had to start at the beginning and do the best I could to catch up. Over two hundred students started the course, the bulk of whom thought it was an easy grade, but only thirteen of us graduated from it and I was one of them. A full semester of hand-lettering in the first year separated the men from the boys /women from the girls, although I thought for the most part it was a waste of time; however the alternative was 'Study Hall.'
Unfortunately, the last year a change was made in faculty. Whereas all my art previous instructors were men, an elderly retired woman teacher, was allowed to come back and teach our class the last half of our last year to meet pension requirements or something. Reportedly she had been the inspiration for many a gifted art student in the past, one of whose parents were close friends of my parents. Their son was with Hallmark Cards for many years and had also done some meritorious work surrounding September 11 memorials, if I'm not mistaken.
Whether it was a sign of the times, being the late 1960s and all, and I was at a rebellious stage or it just wasn't meant to be,I don't know, but almost from the very first day that teacher and I did not get along. It was like fire and gasoline. In all my student life I had never been a discipline problem but that teacher sent me to the Boys Advisor so much during my senior year that I started going to the BA first, then checking to see if she wanted me in class. I had carried As or A+s in art all my life until her class. I think I graduated with a B or C as my final grade--and was glad to go.
During some class discussion, I expressed I wasn't going to be a commercial artist, that it seemed too boring. Rather than try to instill some possible alternatives, she asked me what I was doing there then and told me to leave the class -- which I did of course. I had imagined that creating advertising, painting signage for buildings and truck doors (which I did for a few years part-time for little pay) sitting at an easel and doing newspaper layout ads all day would be horrible as hell. But, I didn't know there was a myriad of other art careers 'out there' beyond commercial art. And, who could've imagined the advent of the computer and how it turned an artist's job into a thousand other creative jobs?
Other successful artists possessed initiative; they've been drivers, doers, seekers from early-on--but I was slow in that department. I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I blamed others for not inspiring me as a youth; I lacked direction for a hundred years and came very close to becoming an alcoholic-- until my visit to the art class at Northland Community & Technical College in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, fifteen years later.
So, that in part was a reason for my sudden 'teary-eye' response entering that college class room upon Orientation. I recognized immediately: creativity, expression, appreciation--and sobriety. A door had opened in an old, old wall... and I eagerly stepped through it. College art class would explore everything I didn't learn in high school. If only I had gone on to college after I learned I wasn't going to be drafted for Vietnam I may have found my direction.
I remember being in Trudeau's watercolor class and he showed us the wet-on-wet technique. I was amazed to learn I could render realistic red willows and tree tops that way... Funny I recall that... He was surprised to learn I had never painted before and that painting had always scared me. When I had tried it at home before, I could not 'get it.' Those paint brush bristles would spring out and fling paint where I didn't want it or I'd make a mistake, 'right off.' I thought I was lousy at it... But once I learned about good brushes, I bought the best I could afford. And once I began learning about good paints, I started experimenting with different brands. I learned to stretch watercolor paper and make frames. He taught me about composition and light. I couldn't get enough of it--where had it been all my life?
Now maybe, thanks to your efforts--and Jackie's too-- I can get back into it again. Recreate my north-light room, set up some easels and paint with a brush instead of the camera so much. That would be fun...
Well enough of this rambling...
Thanks to you!
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