Your account of Hagan reads like the Winter Sorbeck character in Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys. I feel lucky to have been informed and challenged by similarly firey (maybe less physical) artists in my life. A fantastic drawing instructor (called 'Arty', really!) once all but destroyed a life drawing I'd been studiously working on, because I wasn't being brave enough. I stormed out, returned, ripped the drawing from the board and then re-stormed out (with admittedly diminished impact).
I thought I was screwed. I was later told that Arty was delighted with my response, because I cared. I still have the drawing and I was never fully able to erase his intervention. Thankfully.
BTW, I think these pieces are stunning and have left me fired up and brimming with ideas for my own work.
Thanks for sharing your drawing class experience. I love the Sorbeck character as well, innovative teaching today seems to be about giving up any sense of challenging the preconceived ideas of students. I wanted to be pushed to test my thinking, not be rewarded for just having a thought. So glad this inspired you in your work!
Yes, a teaching method that didn’t reinforce all the things I thought I knew, but rather challenged them and challenged me to my core. He wasn’t an ideologue, he just couldn’t suffer the ‘small talk’ of so much of the art we were doing in school, he wanted us to wrestle life and not style surfaces.
Personally I hate this kind of teacher. I always wonder how many artists (and let's be honest, often female) we lost because of such tactics. I hope the era of such egomaniacs is over. Because you know it's much harder to teach you everything that guy taught you, but without the assault bit.
Your account of Hagan reads like the Winter Sorbeck character in Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys. I feel lucky to have been informed and challenged by similarly firey (maybe less physical) artists in my life. A fantastic drawing instructor (called 'Arty', really!) once all but destroyed a life drawing I'd been studiously working on, because I wasn't being brave enough. I stormed out, returned, ripped the drawing from the board and then re-stormed out (with admittedly diminished impact).
I thought I was screwed. I was later told that Arty was delighted with my response, because I cared. I still have the drawing and I was never fully able to erase his intervention. Thankfully.
BTW, I think these pieces are stunning and have left me fired up and brimming with ideas for my own work.
Thanks for sharing your drawing class experience. I love the Sorbeck character as well, innovative teaching today seems to be about giving up any sense of challenging the preconceived ideas of students. I wanted to be pushed to test my thinking, not be rewarded for just having a thought. So glad this inspired you in your work!
Courage + Purpose are words bandied about as if found on aging bubblegum wrapper-
but here it seems the legend and young protege formed a visceral arena to search for both.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Clemente. He knew me well enough that the physical lesson, the visceral you so aptly describe it as, was the best language to use.
Great read Joe. I had a similar teacher, david Heath. He was problematic in many ways but his lessons were unforgetable.
Yes, a teaching method that didn’t reinforce all the things I thought I knew, but rather challenged them and challenged me to my core. He wasn’t an ideologue, he just couldn’t suffer the ‘small talk’ of so much of the art we were doing in school, he wanted us to wrestle life and not style surfaces.
Personally I hate this kind of teacher. I always wonder how many artists (and let's be honest, often female) we lost because of such tactics. I hope the era of such egomaniacs is over. Because you know it's much harder to teach you everything that guy taught you, but without the assault bit.