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.
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