The Education of the Artist Part 1

Education is key in anything we want to pursue and art is no different. This is the topic of the 4th chapter in The View From the Studio Door which I will break down into a few parts so that we can thoroughly discuss it. The discussion also continues on Katharine's blog.

Above is my second cross stitch made when I was 10-12 years old...I didn't want to finish but my mom wouldn't let me start something new until I finished my current project. Too bad that lesson didn't stick with me:) I leave many projects unfinished now. I did learn that I won't like everything I will work on. I also learned workmanship and neatness and carry those lessons into what I do today.

Ted ended chapter 3 by stating that we artists are making the world a better place and to move us closer to becoming a society that values every artist we must first acknowledge our own contributions.
We begin chapter 4 wondering how to get to where we need to be, "Indeed you may wonder what magical qualities you'd need to even begin such a journey." Ted discusses doing the work (a lot of it), caring about the work, and mastering the work.
*****While reading this chapter on learning I remembered a blog post I had read about blogging with a learner's mind. It was very interesting and could be applied here as well since there is a lot of positive reinforcement in each section of this post. I digress....

"Consciously or otherwise, we each self-select the path we need to take."
Take 10 minutes to really think back on your lives and what paths you took that brought you to the place you are now. I truly believe that ALL experiences-good and bad- have a lesson in them that you can apply to what and who you are today. "After all, if there's no predicting which particular piece of knowledge or experience will later prove essential, we're faced with the disconcerting possibility that everything matters."
Everything does matter! I didn't enjoy cross stitch when I was young but I eventually came back to it for it's familiarity and then learned that I really enjoyed it. This led to learning other mediums of art which eventually led me back to fiber. I have held many jobs in my life that I stumbled upon and they all had something to do with advertising. All those bits of information help me immensely today with my own business of self publishing my patterns, writing copy, marketing, etc.
We have all been learning our art and how we approach our art and how we put that art out into the world our whole lives. As we continue on this path, we can correct and/or change directions as we see fit for where we are going or want to go. YOU are in charge and you have a lot of the information and education you need...AND you will keep adding to that information. Try to learn one new thing each day---you never know when you will need it:)