Teaching

[Cynthia Daniel]

Lon,

Regarding structure in an art class, I will tell you a little story.

As a child, I loved to draw. I remember in 3rd grade, for homework, the teacher asked us to draw and color some birds from a book. The other children accused me of tracing, which hurt my feelings terribly...it was the best in the class. But, those who accused me never believed I had not traced.

Later, in high school, I took Art 101. We learned color wheel, complementary colors, graying, etc. Then one day, sitting in the classroom, the teacher told us our assignment for the day was to paint a landscape. That's it, just paint a landscape out of our head! Can you imagine! We weren't even given anything to look at.

Of course, at the tender age of 13, I thought I had to dream up some clever landscape, something unique that had never been done before. I couldn't think of something and consequently, I was totally paralyzed. I sat the full class fighting back tears. I passed the class with a B and vowed to never take another art class again, and I didn't.

The good news for me and others is that I now apply my aesthetic urges to this web site, bringing enjoyment to many. Though, being a web designer (I don't call myself that) isn't nearly as esteemed as being an accomplished painter.

(I also could have easily been an interior designer. I'm very talented in that. Now that I'm designing web sites, I don't have to spend nearly as much money on my decor to get my "fix"...phew!)