I have a job interview today.
I'm hoping it doesn't keep me from missing Crime Story this afternoon. I really have been liking that show lately. Crime Story is just amazing, even if it does make me homesick.
It's been a hell of a long week for at school.
Last night, I got so pissed that I walked out at the break in my flash class and never came back.
I have expressed many times my frustration about the lack of creative emphasis in most of my classes, and the mentality that if it's software,there must be some necessity to use it for professional design and there's no point in using the stuff otherwise. I decided that even if it was getting me straight As, I wasn't going to let the teacher mold me into her image of what my Flash work should be. I went from straight As to straight Fs. I mean, this teacher even took points off for stuff that I did right. I could have argued with her about it, but she obviously was biased out of dislike of those who exhibit creativity in an electronic format.
She's had a bit of an attitude towards me anyways. Last week, I asked her a question regarding when she would return a certain assignment. She just gave me a flippant, mono syllabic answer. Half an hour later, when the guy sitting next to me asked her the same question, she was very helpful.
Maybe she just doesn't like us artsy fartsy big city folk, who knows. I mean, I don't know what I was thinking, attempting to be creative in an art class.
I had done some great work on the piece I was turning in for that class. It was incredibly innovative, some very good and very experimental animation but I decided I wasn't even going to show it. It would have been wasted on her anyways. So, at the break, I walked out.
I wonder if maybe art is not meant to be studied. It's too subjective. It's not quantifiable. If they happen to like what you do, you get an A. If they don't, they can flunk you. Hell, even as much as I hated Columbia, if they didn't like your work but saw you had put a lot of effort into it, they at least let you coast by with a "C".
But of course, when I'm being taught by people who can't seem to do anything more creative than teddy bears or angels, who still think that spinning logos are something really innovative and show immense technical mastery, I guess I shouldn't be surprised when met with hostility when I try to do something creative.
Still, if she's going to take twenty points off for "not having a mask layer" you would think she would pay close enough attention to notice that I do, in fact, have that mask layer there.
Bah.
I almost dropped the class online while she was mid-lecture, simply out of sheer poetic justice, but I waited until I got home, giving me my grand exit.
But I've decided that art is just far too subjective to go to school for it. A person can not like the work that you did and give you a low grade for it, and they can love the work you did and give you a high grade for it. But all that means, is someone is molding their talents to someone else's image and it's not a comprehensive means of measuring learning. It allows the teacher to be biased, both regarding the artist's style and teacher's sentiments toward the student. It can't be accurately measured. I love my art far too much to have someone else ruin it for me by threatening to flunk me if I don't do it their way.
How do you grade it anyways? As someone said to me recently, "What if you feel like drawing a square instead of a circle? What if you're feeling cubist today?" Maybe that's why so many people get a degree in art then never pick up a pencil again. They try to strip you of all creativity and implant their own ideas, often from a mind that has little imagination and less true artistic success, so within a year or two everyone's art looks alike.
Those who can't teach. And those who can't do that, teach art.
So what now?
I want to keep working on my projects. I'm doing some great stuff with puppet animation and I'm doing one called "Kalamazombies" which involves my friend, Juan, and a sorority house.
I'm also getting back into my writing. I've been doing a lot of work on the novel. It's at the slow point that usually hits a little past the halfway point in any given story line, but I'm trudging through and finding ways to spice it up.
I'm actually thinking of going to school for writing. I am unsure on this, but at this point it's go to school for that or don't go to school at all. I've seen a few postings on Awn.com for writing series and was thinking that since my talents are most developed in that arena, I might do well to get writing gigs and then I can always do other stuff once my name has some sort of recognition within the industry. Plus, writing a series would be fun.
I'm still taking my drawing for animation class. I really like the teacher. He seems to spend a lot of time having us do something that is really quite routine by now: spend half the class drawing our other classmates and the other half watching video taped lessons from a teacher in Canada. I suspect that he is lacking in material. But, it is his first semester ever teaching and you have to give him credit for enthusiasm and effort. Also, he really does appreciate everyone's talent and attempts to give direction without trying to re define his students' style.
I imagine, too, it's hard to fill a class with material. Most animation classes seem to be a small amount of lecture and a large amount of lab time, with the teacher coming around and giving individualized "pointers". Since Valley doesn't even have lightboards, it's pretty much impossible to do that, so he has to make do with what he has. But overall, he does seem to care about his students learning in the most fun and creative ways possible, and is definitely an idea man, who appreciates creativity and innovation. So I'm going to stick with his class at least.
I am still wishing for a world where someone would pay me to make clay zombie puppet whores, but someday...someday...