advice to young artists in a postmodern era, chapter 3

artists and teachers

this chapter is about the relationship between art students and their instructors.  when a student signs up for a class, the first thing they should do is determine what they want to learn from the class.  they should also decide what their expectations of the teacher are. some students will see their teachers as mentors, they truly want to learn all they can from the teacher.  others will expect their instructor to do everything for them. then there are those students that join a class, yet they feel there is nothing the teacher could teach them that they don't already know, and that their ideas should just come out of nowhere and need no guidance.

the chapter goes on to discuss how teachers often tend to get lazy, or unenthused.  the author says this is due to the fact that students have stopped wanting to really learn. teachers have grown tired of seeing the same old apathetic attitude with each new class they meet.

another topic discussed in the chapter is critique.  how should instructors critique their students? constructively is the answer, although many teachers will go beyond constructive and beat the artists work down to boost their own ego.  while saying this, many teachers do hold their critiques in a constructive manner, but often the students will not know how to respond to any kind of critique because new artists tend to be insecure at first.

basically, this chapter stresses the importance of the "give" and "take" aspect in the relationships between artist and their students.  in order for the relationship to go smoothly each party has to respect one another.