How an Art Mentor Affects the Development of an Artist

How an Art Mentor Affects the Development of an Artist Erik Michielsen: From middle school until you left for college, you had an art mentor. In that period, what were the most meaningful takeaways from the experience? Lulu Chen: Fundamentally, I learned how to draw and how to paint about perspective, about how to take a 3D image and transfer it into a 3D surface, a canvass. I guess on an emotional level, I really got to learn what art gave me back in terms of, you know some calm, and you know as a child you’re hyper all the time but it was always an hour and a half each week where I’ve got to just focus on something I really love and create something. And also learn that you can, you know I never finished the painting in a week, so a lot of times you started something you’ve found, you’ve found a picture you wanted to paint and then each week, you built up on it. So you’ve got to see how just a project from start to finish and be proud of something that you accomplished, that you achieved, that was blank and you created. Erik Michielsen: How did the experience working with a mentor outside the school compared to your art work experience inside the school? Lulu Chen: Well there were no grades and so you’ve got what you’ve put into it. And there was no time line, it wasn’t a test. It was more free thinking. It was more something that you enjoyed. It was more of a hobby or an interest versus something dictated to you that you have to learn within a certain amount of time or to a certain grade.