Morganna Slept

Hmm....that sounds like the title for a necklace....I'll have to think about that one.

I thought she would keep me awake all night after she started throwing designs at me late last night (Morganna is my muse for those of you thinking "who the hell is Morganna?") but she let me sleep. That was good because I really needed it!

This morning I have some instructions to write but at least all the illustrations are done. Then it's errands, work on the newsletter and class tonight. Of course, after class I get to watch Project Runway....YAY!!!! I have to say that Christopher is my fave designer, I think he is just brilliant and very inspiring. The newspaper gown he created last week set my design brain spinning again and I have a necklace and bracelet design based on his awesome dress. I love that he's self-taught too.

I'll be honest, I don't have a lot of respect for degrees, back in college we used to say that "B.A" stood for "Bugger All". Why do I feel that way? Yeah...there's a story...it's me, what did ya expect?

I was in my second year of art college, leading the pack in figure drawing, mastering some of the old Master's techniques when we get a new 'professor'. She was straight out of college with a brand spanking new BA. The first thing she did was take all the easels and put them in storage. The second thing she did was to tell us we could only work in charcoal on newsprint and we had to lay on the floor to do it. WTF???? I was working in conte crayon at the time, black and white on grey pastel paper following Da Vinci, so as you can imagine I was not too pleased.

Rebel that I am I went and got me an easel. Then I continued working in the style I was studying. After spending an hour of the class working on a lovely seated nude which was really looking nice she came over, took a honking great stick of charcoal and proceeded to scrawl all over my delicate sketch. WTF????

Yeah...I stormed out. I went to see the head of the department and showed him what she did. She was told to leave me alone. I watched as she tried to teach life drawing and it became obvious she had no ability at all. The model would have had to had major bones broken to get into the positions she was drawing them in. She and I went head to head a few times, actual screaming matches, when she would interfere with my work. I was always backed up by the other professors in the department so I knew it wasn't just me.

A few months later I was in the textile lab at lunchtime finishing up a fabric print when she came in to chat with the textile proffessor. She said quite loudly, so I would hear, that she didn't know why they had her teaching life drawing because she was no good at it and never had been. It was nice that she was admitting it so I could hear but, why, oh why would you ruin someone's work or put students at a disadvantage by getting rid of the easels?

Anyway....that's where my lack of respect comes from. I don't care what school you went to, who you studied under, I want to see your work and my respect for you as an artist or designer will be based on that.

So, I love the fact Christopher is self-taught and I could care less that he didn't know what smocking was or that a fabric insert is called a godet. My fingers are crossed for him!

BTW....did you know that the long triangles on roads where one lane is phased out are called godets? I didn't...it was a question I got wrong on my driving test.