Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Disposable Teen

This is so strange, but I must have found someone just like me in one of the girls in my class. She's pretty, sexy, a complete sucker for Neil Gaiman, knows what's bullshit art and what isn't, produces good work, works out and has a soft spot for moon-cakes. She mentioned modeling for art classes, but I told her Suicide Girls (and modeling in that general direction) is much more fun, easier, and better paying. I don't do that kinda thing so much for money anymore, but when a good project arises, I can hardly say no, can I? And now I'm really looking forward to have Lynn and Luna join the club. I'll be fun and we could get up to stuff; go on wacky holidays for group shoots and things in fancy Balinese villas.

One of the profs really got be completely worked up sometime ago. I'd missed one class because I was in Sydney, and there was a lot of fuss kicked up about it. I told her I genuinely wanted to develop myself technically in the course, but at the same time, I couldn't forfeit other experiences that would greater contribute to my general artistic development. And I am sure the trip to Sydney gave me a lot more in terms of that then the class I miss possibly could. Anyway, instead of agreeing (who wouldn't, you have to admit, I do make sense in this case) I was deemed as 'confused' and 'at conflict'. Confused and at conflict with myself? Me? You got to be kidding. I sure as hell know what I want, and what I want is to have fun and to learn something really solid along the way. I love drawing classes, there's no bullshit in drawing class. You see the model, you draw, and you do it for six bloody hours; it's really tiring, but I can see myself improving by the hour when I do it.

Everything else apart from technical ability is up to the individual. Creative development is not limited to the classroom, and it's not as if I'm skipping class because I'm lazy. I'm skipping class because it takes a-lot to stimulate me and whenever I can find something better, hell of course I'm going for it. No one can accuse me of being lazy, that's for sure. It's completely ridiculous. None of the other people have a problem with it. I produce work as good as I can given the constraints (I do have other projects on the side that actually have immediate commercial value there is no way I can forgo them for homework. But so far I've been able to handle my time relatively well and cram as many things as I possibly can in a week).

You know, sometimes you just kinda want to tell the person that everything about the course is great and generally not a waste of time. But it's the same old problem in situations where you have to take other people in consideration. And we all can't be doing anything we like in school, and we're all at a different level of development and awareness; But for heaven's sake, it's an art course. If you think there's a set way to develop as an artist, you're not in the right frame of mind to be in charge of the development of the next generation of creatives. There are tons of successful creative people that were never formally trained, and tons of formally trained ones that never amounted to anything. It's all up to the individual, and all a college needs to do is to provide good technical coaching and equipment, a suitable environment, and act as a place to bring together people that will inspire one another. But we must be allowed to discover things for ourselves and make our own decisions.

After all, the reason why Singapore isn't as vibrant as it should be is because there's still too much central planning going on. I don't really care if someone else central plans the places of buildings and shops and things that haven't got much to do with me and do no affect me directly, but I do care if someone starts suggesting that my life needs to be planned for me, because they think I'm confused and at conflict with myself.

Who in the right mind could presume artistic development needs to be planned? There's be no evolution then. Oh yeah.

***

You say you want a revolution, the ape was a great big hit. You say you want a revolution, I say that you're full of shit. -Marilyn Manson

xoxox

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