I started this blog in 2013. Then in 2019 I added a second post. Here it is, 2022, and I am on the verge of posting all kinds of stories about Art for the Intimidated. They will be random stories with helpful labels. Some of my penpals might find the stories useful. Maybe someday, when I am dead, my kids will discover them and read the first two sentences and find them boring.
Story number one is about my very first calligraphy workshop. Peter Thornton -a true rockstar in the world of calligraphy- was in town for a guild sponsored workshop. I walked in and sat down at an open chair. The woman next to me was my age 40-ish. Maybe a little older. Many of the people in the class had tons of art supplies. She had just a pad of paper, a notebook, a ruler, and a modest number of pens, pencils, etc.
As we got into the class, I did not pay attention to her work. I might have glanced over but nothing jumped out at me as being spectacular. At lunch, she wandered off and sat with people she obviously knew. I wandered in the direction of people I knew from the guild. One of the people I had lunch with said to me, "Aren't you intimidated sitting next to Barbara Bruene?" I did not know who Barbara was and asked why I would be intimidated by the nice lady. I was informed that Barbara taught calligraphy at Iowa State University. This was back in the day when a few universities still recognized calligraphy as a worthy subject to include in an art or design degree program.
I do not recall my response. Learning that she was an illustrious instructor did not intimidate me. I had already learned that half of calligraphy was learning how to make the letters - but the other half was how you arranged the words on the page -the composition. I was confident that I knew a enough about composition to compensate for whatever I was lacking in actual lettering skill.
It was a two day workshop and on the second day we were working on composition. At one point, I turned my paper and started writing in a different direction. A few minutes later, I saw Barbara turn her paper. Bingo. The master calligrapher was stealing ideas from me. Not that I had invented the concept of turning the paper. But, it was busting out of the constraints of typical calligraphy during a workshop where we were (or rather where we had been) conforming to traditional formats. I'm sure that Barbara had turned her paper - plenty of times - in other situations.
Later, in the day - after Peter had mentioned something about square layouts providing something less than rectangles - I thought to myself - he may be a rock star - but I disagree with him that there is anything *less than* about a square. So I started doing a bunch of square compositions. Bingo. He stopped at my desk and took one of my pieces, held it up as a good example, added some things to it -- and then the frosting on the cake was that he made a cute remark about how he would be stealing the idea. I did not say anything about what he had previously said - about squares. What he had said wasn't wrong - but, it just didn't cover the exceptions. If I had engaged him in a conversation about squares, I'm sure it would have been very interesting. But, I also knew it would be side-tracking the whole class - which is not polite.
So, where is this going?
Point one - do not be intimidated by people. The more proficient someone is at a skill, the more gracious they are to beginners. There might be arrogant exceptions - but nobody takes them seriously. They are buffoons.
Point two - recognize that whatever someone says has a flip side that may contain some truth, too. It's a tricky concept. Even the concept of looking at both sides - can be tricky. Sometimes you end up in wishy-washy land - if you are forever stuck on flipping the perspective. At a certain point - you do have to commit.
Peter could have covered squares as legitimate equals to rectangles in composition. But, most people do rectangular compositions. There are tons of pre-made picture frames that are rectangles. It's probably better in a workshop situation to keep the focus on rectangles. I still remember many of the tips from that class. The tips for rectangles do not always apply to squares. Squares have their own set of tips.
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