Page 11 - Demo

During my junior and senior high-school years, I always took an art course, along with regular academic courses such as science and advanced math. For a reason I didn%u2019t know at the time, my basic arithmetic skills were abysmal. Because I understood all the mathematical methods, laws, and theories, my teachers didn%u2019t consider my occasional addition and subtraction slip-ups to be of any real consequence. My miscalculations were so inanely simple, they just wrote in the correct numbers, and ignored the errors in determining my grade.Sadly, as far as my art teachers went, most were not very talented or stimulating. The one exception was a drawing/painting teacher I had in 11th and 12th grades. He was rather full of himself, and had been to Italy, as he put it, %u201cto learn how to draw and create art like the Renaissance masters.%u201d He considered himself a superior teacher, and also taught at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial (the former Alger mansion) which was located on the lake, and was our community center. From him, I was instructed in the basics of charcoal life drawing, which he was very good at.After graduating from high school with honors, I chose to go to Western Michigan University with a major in art. In those days, women from good backgrounds (especially from Grosse Pointe) were expected to be school teachers%u2014but only briefly%u2014until they married an appropriate, soon-to-be financially successful, young man. Then they were to quit teaching, stay at home with 1 or 2 children, entertain, and join several women%u2019s clubs. This lifestyle did not appeal to me in the least, but I decided to get my art degree in elementary and secondary education anyway, so I could better guarantee that I could always support myself.Western is in Kalamazoo, on the other side of Michigan from Detroit. It was comfortably distant from home and family, which was just fine with me. It was a wonderful mid-size college, and it had a great reputation in a number of areas, including education and art. The array of art courses offered was vast, and I took many of them%u2014art history, life drawing, design, jewelry making, textile Untitled. Hooked wall hanging. Wool yarn. 1970design, graphic design, oil painting, water color, calligraphy, hand-built ceramics, and more. I had an insatiable yearning to know about all types and aspects of craft and art techniques. While I enjoyed every minute of it, I knew that, after graduation, I didn%u2019t want to concentrate full time, on just pottery, or painting, or jewelry making%u2014I wanted to do it all.Design for shopping bag. Ink and paper. 1969