New year, new semester new prof, teacher, instructor, tutor.  Who was your best and worst artistic/literary mentor?

I've been instructing art for many years.  I don't reach every student and for some I'm just 'good' or 'okay', but for others, I know I've made some sort of major impact (because they told me so).  For me, my grade 6 teacher, Mrs Care (aptly named), who brought her guitar to class and wrote a goodbye song for us was my first important artistic mentor.  She encouraged my early artistic endeavors with gold stars.  My grade 10 and 12 art teacher, Ms Jones was an early inspiration in terms of technique, artistic expression and art history.  Her specialty in printmaking gave me a whole different way of looking at positive and negative space, line and the idea of art being a one-off creation.  My worst art teacher... it's hard to choose, was probably my grade 8 art/gym teacher.  First of all, art and gym?  Like I'm sure someone with these specialties is qualified.  Anyway this teacher made us stand at the front of the room holding our artwork and then she'd say, "criticize!"  Of course the whole class was silent, afraid to say anything. If they were too nice, they'd be criticized by her and if they were critical, their classmate holding the art would have hurt feelings.  This teacher obviously hadn't learned the word 'constructive'.  And she couldn't be bothered with such trivial matters as feelings.  Also notable, I'm oldish and I still remember these teachers as if it were yesterday.

No need to name names, but feel free to share your best/worst artistic/literary mentors in the comments below.
:holly:(Christmas) cheer me up with your artful and thought-provoking holiday art and lit.  Submit them to Santa's Sack :santa:and I'll give the best ones a feature in the 'featured' gallery.


In the comments area below, feel free share the title of your least favourite Christmas song.  For me this would be The Christmas Shoes, for its overt and manipulative sentimentality.  Okay, this could be said of most Christmas songs, but somehow hearing the Christmas Shoes makes me feel like tossing an elf.;)

Cheers,

MsK

PS:  Best wishes to Qjyx, the founder of this group, who moved to Finland (or was it Norway?) several months ago.  She has closed her dA account, but it's possible that she may return someday.
Wanted!  Your thoughts on GBLT youth, bullying, cyber-bullying and teen suicide:

A moment of silence was held today across the globe for teens who took their lives as a result of bullying.  Will this help build awareness or effect change?  Canadian teen, Amanda Todd, took her life after she was threatened and stalked after having posted intimate photos of herself online.  Sigh.  As a mom, it saddens me that a teen's mistake should have such devasting consequences in this internet age.  www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2…
Share your thoughts below.

Spirit Day!
See that purple banner up there?  What do you think of Spirit Day on dA?  Below is a DD-winning article by one of our own esteemed (as well as lovely and talented) literary members.  Stop by her page with congratulations or respectful comments.

:thumb263150103:


Calling all zombies, ghosts, witches, werewolves, etc.
CREEEAK! The Crawlspace is open.  Submit your most terrifying art and lit before it slams shut at midnight on All Hallow's Eve!
I know Canada doesn't really make it onto the global radar much, but recently Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided to close our embassies in Iran and call back all diplomats. This is mainly due to Iran's support for the Syrian regime and because Iran does not recognize dual citizenship (and is holding some Iranian Canadians).  So, what do you think?  Is Canada right to make this move?

In other news, the American election is officially underway.  I'm going to be honest and say I have a bias toward Obama.  Not only do I think he's the man for the job, the thought of Mitt Romney as president, who represents the soft republicans, is horrifying to me.  He made some of his millions through leverage buyouts, which is the sort of shadow economy transactions that led to the recent global economic crisis IMO. He also has hidden away some of his profits in the Cayman Islands and in Swiss Bank accounts.  Can he really understand what the average American needs?  Anyway feel free to debate.  We have supporters for both parties in the ideological gallery.

BTW:  I want to apologize for any submissions that might have expired before I could get to them.  It's summer....  If your work didn't get in please resubmit.
SolutionsSanctuary May Contest

:iconsolutionssanctuary: is hosting contest to help noobies find their way around dA.  Entrants are being asked to write a tutorial that answers a question: "I've set up my profile...now where do I go?".  Full details about the contest may be found at kneeling-glory.deviantart.com/…

The deadline for entries is May 31st.  Entrants must be members of or join SolutionsSanctuary


TheControversy Welcome Challenge

To support SolutionsSanctuary's tutorial contest, TheControversy will feature two types of submissions in our 'Featured' gallery:  
1) New tutorials submitted (on any helpful subject, including getting started on dA)
2) One piece of writing or lit per each new dA member (who joined dA in April 2012 or later).  
One submission per entrant.  The deadline for submissions is May 31st.  Please read our guidelines (on our Home page) before submitting tutorials or your noobie work for this challenge.  Note in your artist's comments that your submission is for TheControversy's 'Welcome Challenge'.  

Thanks,

:heart:
MsK

Recent Journal Entries

Journal Writers