[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by percytruffle on 19:51 Nov 20
In Reply to: Hijack, if you don't mind (m) posted by Valerie(TX)
Sorry I missed your question down below.
I can give you info from my own experience. Take it for what it's worth, it was a while ago! Neither of my dc will be going to school for art, so we haven't been exploring art schools.
I have a BS and an MS in Art Education and am permanently certified to teach art k-12 in NY state. NY requires a masters and teaching experience in order to continue to teach in the public schools. I attended a private liberal arts college, not an art school, but my school is very well known in its general area for having a good art program. All of my art professors were practicing artists. Their standards for art ed majors were the same as their standards for fine art students. As an art ed major I was required to take courses in all areas of art because I would have to be able to teach all areas. Consequently, I worked with: jewelry and metalsmithing, sculpture, ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, graphic design, weaving and fiber art. Then, I had to have one area that was my concentration. Mine was printmaking and I took several more courses in this area as well as an independent study. The teaching courses (art ed I and II, child psych, classroom management, etc)were taken in the junior and senior year and student teaching was senior year. My master's comprehensive included a slide presentation of my portfolio to several of the art professors as well as several (I think around 7 from what I remember) papers. Being a liberal arts college I received a well rounded education which included math through Calc II, English, Literature, Science, Psychology, Religion electives, and a wonderful Children's Lit course that was one of the best courses I took! I don't regret attending a liberal arts college for one minute. I enjoyed every aspect of my education. If I had to do it over again I would choose the same route, but I always knew I wanted to be an art teacher as well as an artist.
Addressing your second question, many art students learn technique and learn how to see by studying and copying masters from the past. There is nothing wrong with that. Many of the Renaissance artists we are most familiar with had studio apprentices who learned from their masters by copying their style and finishing their paintings. There are even some paintings from old masters that the art historians are unsure who painted. Was it truly the master, or was it an apprentice. That said, at some point an art student needs to break out of the copying mold and learn to use those various techniques to create something unique. Art really is about the creative process: taking an idea from start to finish, molding it and developing it, deciding when it is complete. Copying alone does not an artist produce.
I would love to see some of your dd's work! Please let us all know when you have the bugs worked out of posting them somewhere. I have taken photos of some of my work and use a Photobucket account to store them on the net. My dd is very proficient at graphic art and has a Deviant Art site where she stores her work. Those files are quite large.
Hope this helped, some.
Lisa