Well, this rang lots of bells for me.
When I decided to leave my academic department, I was kinda fed up with many things.
But one of my last acts of rebellion was to structure my advanced drawing class around a service-learning model. ‘Never been done before in a studio course- this was the late ’90’s.
They worked with Alzheimers patients, kids in Big Brother art programs…. and kept reflection journals about their experiences. This was in addition to class time working on their own series of drawings.
Also, all the years I taught, like Tim Miller, I had all my students go out to various and sundry places to draw and interact with their environment and other people. . . gas stations, laundromats, greenhouses, grocery stores, horse stables, ice rinks, cadaver labs, day care centers, inside power plants…… every new situation compels you to consider, “what do I think about this?”
I was sometimes derided for being too ‘nuturing’, but I knew that helping students find their own voices, (or becoming sensitive to their surroundings as Irwin puts it), well as teaching them solid technique is the whole package. I have no regrets.
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