Clouded Judgement

When I was little and played with paper and a pencil (long before I knew that I couldn't do 'art'), I used to draw clouds: billowing tops, flat lower edges, in layers, like this:

"Clouds don't actually look like that", said my teacher one day, looking over my shoulder. "A good artist draws what she sees, Alexa, not what she imagines." Cloud-drawing didn't seem as much fun after that.

And then yesterday, on the way back from work, I saw a whole skyful of them, like this ...

... and stopped to record the evidence. "Ha!" said my six-year old self ...

There's a scrapbook page in here, and many possible journalling perpectives: childhood loss, the power of adults, the danger of speaking without thinking, how things continue to matter long after an event, the satisfaction of being 'right' however far away in time or space the original event was ... I'm not sure yet which I will choose when I scrap it.

And, I'm wondering, what about you? Have you ever discovered years later that you were right, and "they" were wrong? What did you feel? Did it make any difference? And does it really matter?

I've asked myself that last question, and I'm not sure of the answer. But I've started doodling clouds again ...

Comments

[Cheri]

It's a shame that so many have their artist stifled as a child by being told they are doing it "wrong" - it's all perspective! I hope you'll take it as a clue that you are an artist!

[Karen W]

What a pity you heard that! And boy, were they wrong! I know I must have heard something similar as my self-confidence in any artistic form was nil as a child and still is when it comes to drawing. Somehow I've repressed the actual words, and lucky for whomever, the person(s) who spoke them. The photo is fabulous!

[Miriam]

Yes, it mattered to me. 1 was by an 'art teacher' who rubbished my attempts at 'art' and the other I'll keep to my self although interestingly I have put it to positive use in bringing up my own child. x

[helena]

Ha to 'them' indeed - love this story - it should be compulsary reading for everyone who works with kids - hey everyone who comes into contact with people.

yes it matters, yes I remember some passing remarkes from teachers and relatives that stopped me doing things I enjoyed and changed my behaviour, yes I now do some of those things after affirmation from others. But I don't have an exact 'ha' like yours.

This has really but a spring in my step today - thanks for sharing

[Jennie Hart]

It's still bittersweet though isn't it? I guess teachers are human and will say the odd wrong thing, but for a teacher of 6 year olds to say drawing is wrong is bonkers, I never felt encouraged and that it was for other people that were able to do 'fine art'. Oh how I wish there were more design and art communication quality classes around in my day, I might have ended up, you know, with a career I liked more!

Beautiful photo x

[Alexa]

I hope you might still be able to do one, Jennie? It seems such a shame for longings, however, faint, to go without the possibility of unfulfilment ... Thank-you for sharing your thoughts with us. :)

[Alexa]

How wonderful to be able to turn these things around, so they do not get passed to the next generation! He or she is lucky indeed to have a Mum who does this. :)

[Alexa]

Oh, you too ... :(. Though perhaps there's a hint of optimism in your words - 'artistic' isn't necessarily limited to drawing? Thank-you. ;)

[Sian]

You have reminded me of the day my teacher gently pointed out that there isn't actually a gap between where the sky ends and the ground starts. That was a revelation! And a good lesson to learn.

[Jimjams]

It's all about perspective isn't - perhaps that teacher had never had the opportunity to scale a hill and look across the beautiful landscape on a cloudy but bright day ... perhaps the clouds she saw were grey and smooshed into one another between the chimney pots?

[Joanne]

Great photo - you were ahead of your time with your clouds. Have a great weekend - This made me smile :0)

[kjjc]

yep. Remind me to tell you about it at the next crop. The title of said page is "I proved them wrong." enough said?

[Carola Bartz]

What a crappy teacher! And certainly NOT an artist. S/he didn't even realize that s/he was talking TO the artist. And never had looked up to the clouds. Doesn't know ANYTHING about imagination. Man, this makes me mad!
And yes... I had an English teacher who loved to talk about politics and hated women. He was talking about Mao's "paper tiger" and that he never said what that was. So I looked it up in the German translation of the "Mao bible" and found that Mao explained it there. Brought it to school, showed it to him. Remember he hated women? So I couldn't be right. He looked at the translators and then said that this was first translated into English and then into German. Therefore, it wasn't right (can someone explain that to me?). - Years later, I mastered in Chinese Studies. My professor was one of the translators of that book. I talked with him, and sure enough, it was translated right from the Chinese. AND he told me I was right. It made me feel really good. I hated that English teacher. I still do, and I also didn't turn out a communist. Does it matter? Not really, but it still makes me feel good.

[Mel]

Yay you!! Hooray :) I hope I never, ever squash a child in that way.... And if I ever unthinkingly have or do, then I sincerely hope that I too am proved wrong.

PS I proved my step-father wrong when he thought my 'vegetarian fad' wouldn't last more than a couple of weeks. I was vegetarian for over 12 years, and could easily still be so. That makes me feel just a little bit smug ;)

[Marcie]

It's amazing -as we look back and we see and hear all of those negative voices and nay-sayers coming back to us. Good to know that we can get past it!! Lovely image!!!

[Tertia]

I am a teacher myself, but I think teachers have single handedly killed more creativity than anybody before them. Love your clouds and loved my daughters 'purple people', even though her teacher insisted that people are NOT purple. Stupid woman, how does she know what the people in child's imagination look like?
Happy belated WOYWW Anniversary - I tried to comment before, but Blogger was being rude.

[Morti]

I applaud you. And your magnificent photo - do make sure you do something with it, even if only to get it printed onto a massive canvas for your wall. I think it would serve as a good reminder to have faith in yourself.... WTG you!

[Lizzie]

A Good Teacher doesn't crush a child's creativity and enthusiasm with unnecessary and unkind criticism!
And yes it Does matter if someone is proved wrong, after such a put-down - even years later. If it hurt you, then it gives you some kind of comfort to know you were not "wrong" after all.
I love that photograph... I'd like to have some hills like that near enough, so I could go "cloud searching" too.

[katharina]

Hi alexa,
1. Thanks for commenting on my blog!
I am curious how you did find my oh so small blog!

2. How cool you did comment, because it made me hop over to your blog.
AND YOU KNOW WHAT: My fiancé and I had talked about this topic just yesterday, when we hiked the highest mountain here (about 1490m of hight) and it was cloudy and you could perfectly see the flat bottoms and the fluffy tops! (;

(;

[katharina]

Ha, that's cool news! (;
Didn't know that she listed me! (;
Have to thank her immediately! (;

(;

[Linda V]

Just stumbled across your blog while looking for images of clouds. YES is does matter to be right and all teachers need to remember that what is right for one is not right for another. When I was about nine my teacher asked me in front of the class, what the answer was to a math problem. Being not very talented at any kind of maths, but quite resourceful I looked up and projected the equation onto the ceiling and was about to do the sums when my teacher announced very loudly that "the answer was not up there"
I've had a maths phobia ever since, but I've realized after forty years that he was wrong, MY answer was on the ceiling and it does matter to me that I was right because being very right brained my solutions to problems are different to the mainstream. Thanks for bringing this up. Linda