Feeling flat

This week was crit week at Sheridan. I got a note from a student saying she was feeling flat. I get it! Showing your work for comment is like standing there buck naked. You wish you looked better but that's what ya got to show for now. Perhaps more time in the studio or at the gym and all would be better. Dunno!
As a teacher I feel flat too! All the woulda, coulda, shoulda's enter your mind. Would I be a better teacher if I told some of them to go do something else? Do I keep searching for diamonds? Not all are born with the God Given talent. Some just work so hard they end up being the All Stars. These are the ones that I keep hoping will catch on fire. Students tell me I make it look easy. Yeah, I rose rapidly to where I am today with only 55 years of devotion to clay.  I'm the one that just kept working. It really is about "showing up" each day.
I'm marking test papers today and then trying to make some sense of my notes during the critique of the students work. That's the tough part that leaves me feeling flat.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You care, so stop beating yourself up. I'm taking a ceramics class at a college. I get about 30 minutes of instruction in 5 hours of class time. What a waste of money.
October 19, 2012 at 9:21 AM
Sandy Miller said…
I always looked for the most tenacious kid, not the most talented but the one who jump in and keep jumping in, sometimes over their head but they figured it out.
October 19, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Anonymous said…
I had to laugh at your "rose rapidly with 55 years of work". Mmm, I'm rising rapidly with 20 years working at it - and some days I feel like I'm getting there and other's not so much.
You are keeping it real! I think that's the best thing anyone can do.
I do love reading your blog. Thanks,
Michi
October 19, 2012 at 2:46 PM
Anonymous said…
I've working at it for about 14 years now; took me too many years to get serious. Decades ago all the other art students told me I was at the top and how jealous I made them. A teacher told me I'd never make it 'cause it was too easy for me, that it was the students who had to work constantly who became true artists. He was right, but it took me 20 years to recognize that. It's much harder now but I'm much more satisfied too.
October 21, 2012 at 12:22 PM
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