For me personally, the gavlenising moment came when my
art teacher chided me for not taking my own work seriously.
I was sort of joking that it wasn't very good (or like
other people's work) and he just fixe me with THOSE EYES
-- he's the spitting image of "Papa Hemingway" and always
very soft spoken. And he just said, "don't do that. You
should always take pride in your work. You are the only
one that can do what you are doing."
After about 3 courses, i really began to see myself as
an artist.
Personally, i usually (since i'm a bit older in the classes
that i take) tell them "I'm sorry but Picasso is dead.
Mary Cassatt is dead, Pollock, van Gogh -- all dead.
And i haven't been feeling too well lately, either!
It's up to you to do what you need to draw that line
from who you are to your work. No artist starts out
being "great" and in fact all of us who are alive
and still doing art sort of resent the fact that
our work will go up by 10 times when we die. But,
then we're not in it for the money."
This sort of uses peer pressure as well, since it sets
everyone on the same playing field. It's hard for
someone who's just taking an art class for the
required credit or elective, but then you never
know. One day they're a computer science major,
and the next thing their off working on their Masters
at Washington University - true story: Goran Merick.
(but of course it didn't just happen over night)
Another thing is to take the students to the library
and pick out different books for them to look at
-- especially modern artists they probably haven't
heard of (eg, Arshile Gorky, Helen Frankenthaler,
etc). And then have them read and do a short presentation
about the artist's work - naming off the style, methods,
etc. Works wonders when they start to see that art
didn't just begin and end with the Renaisaance.
- hope this helps,
Frank. http://art-squeek.angelfire.com
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