1. So, are you an Artist
Artistic Inclination
My nephew is eight years old and he is a fantastic artist. Show him anything and he will
draw it. Unfortunately that artistic inclination will disappear as he will never get enough
training from school to make it better.
Our school s use the one and only hour per week art lesson for anything but art, if an
Arabic teacher needed an hour extra, she or he will take that class, and so will the social
studies teacher. I am not saying that all other subjects are not important, of course they
are, but art is important as well, we might have a Michael Angelo or a Picasso in our
class room, but because we do not give them enough grounding, they will unfortunately
never be.
In my business I get those future Michael Angelo’s who want to do Art at University
level, so the first question is, “where is your portfolio”? The mouth drops, and a big sigh
occurs, “what is a portfolio”? Well, most art schools require seeing the student’s art
work, before he or she are accepted. The art work has to show creativity as well as talent,
it has to show the students inner feelings, why this particular style was chosen, and who
inspired him or her to draw. Normally 20 pieces of artwork are requested, some of them
will need to be from sketched pieces until the final art piece. Of course, some of the more
respectable Universities want to see if the student had entered a competition or
participated in an exhibition, and the list of requirements goes on.
I do not want to talk about the industry behind the artists (canvas, paint, pencils, brushes,
etc). I looked around many bookshops and stationary stores to buy art equipment for my
children, what I found are either very expensive or really primitive.
I am not saying that a young artist in our world will never become a good artist, he or she
may well become an artist, and a brilliant one too, even without any training from the
schools. We would have many more artists than what we have now if we trained them
well. A message to all teachers: “leave that lonely hour a week alone and let our kids use
the brush and draw”.
The same concept can be applied to music, film, video production, graphic design and the
like. All of these subjects are not taught in our schools. But these are important aspects
of our lives. How many hours people spend in front the TV or go to the movies? One can
easily say that its many hours in a day. I would love to see a movie produced by a local
kid, and the same movie recognized in an international setting. But these are my
dreams!!
For enquiries on art courses, contact me on info@ezone.ae