Friday 12 June 2015

And I am continuing to play with my Hansel and Gretal characters. This is such a pet project, years ago when I was studying on my access course our teacher gave us the theme - collections. She asked us to choose one of our own collections as the starting point. I have collected fairy tales for as long as I can remember and was excited to begin to work with something that belonged to me. It was then a shock, though maybe it should not have come as a surprise when she put down my proposed subject. "What will you do ? Make a gingerbread house?" she mocked. I was so taken aback that I let go of that theme and chose maps in which ironically I got completely lost. 
Now there are a few lessons I learned from this. For instance, if I have decided on a creative direction it is better to continue along that line until I hit my own stop points because however good a teacher is they are not me and they do not know me more than I know myself. Another one is that teachers are human, they may think I am a pain (this one even told me as we set up our final show that she never liked me) and nothing I do is going to please someone who has firmly decided they don't like me. Given that I am not obliged to like or respect people who don't like or respect me. - that information is very releasing. Oh and if I should find myself on the wrong path for whatever reason I can stop and go back or go sideways or up, catch my drift, it's all learning. And, often a mistake can be the beginning of something I love. And whatever I do the world is pretty surely not turning on my success or failure. But it can be very hard to remember this when work is being judged and found wanting especially if you have, as I do, a fairly heavy inner critic as an unloved but faithful companion.
Anyway, grumbling aside. A couple more doodles of H and G




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