Finding quality teachers,just as curriculums, requires
searching. I am one of those students mentioned who transferred a
few times in my college career which gave me a broader view of
teaching styles. My first metals teacher was concept oriented and
very inspirational. He pushed us to be
different,abstract;metalwork as artwork. It was freeing but
lacked a great deal in technical training and practical
knowledge. This was a man who seemed allmost ashamed of the
traditional bench jewelry work that he did on the side to
maintain a living. He would not even speak the name of the
company he was working for or talk about that work,wanting to be
doing only his art. Yet he gave me my first exposure to the
medium and I was hooked.
My second teacher was skillfull but was again a frustrated
artist who treated the student studio workspace as his own
personal studio. We were actually limited in the amount of access
we had to the tools,allmost like we were using his tools. This
was a large university art department but the metals part
revolved around him. I gained some technique but needed more.
My third teacher gave a wonderfull balance of technical as well
as conceptual training. He was a stable individual without
personal hang-ups to be brought into the classroom. We were
exposed to a wide range of metal working areas(jewelry
fabrication,casting,blacksmithing,hollow ware). Although
traditional production jewelry techniques were not his
specialty. I gained more knowledge of that after school while
working.
My rambling point being that school curriculums are part of the
issue of a quality education. But being in any artistic
field,individual ego issues can affect a students’ education as
well. Good teachers that just have that part of their personality
to give of themselves to enrich another are golden. There are
quite a few frustrated artists out there who came into teaching
not by way of a love for it,but maybe out of a self-affirming
need. A good education has to be actively sought,just like “you
get out of it what you put into it”. Sorry so long. Carrie Nunes