Chapter 10: Learning How to Learn

"Old School New Art - Craftsmanship: Today's Avant-Garde" - Jeffrey T. Larson

It is not the responsibility of your instructor to teach you how to paint as much as it is your responsibility to learn how to learn. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t expect your teachers to pour all they have into you, but it is your life, your future, your career, your training so therefore, keep it your responsibility. 

Make learning a habit. 

Learn to ask yourself the right questions at the right time, learn to perceive and anticipate what you need to learn next, learn where to find the necessary information and interpret the correct answers. These are only a few of the foundational skills you need to possess upon your graduation.  Over the years I have seen a number of talented students from different schools who did excellent work throughout their student years of training.  Several stood out to such a degree that I made a mental note to follow their careers, anticipating the beautiful work they one day would produce, only to never see their work improve.  Asking their instructors about them years later, the common explanation for the stagnation was that as students, while they did everything their instructors told them to do and did it exceptionally well, they never learned how to learn.  Once they were on their own with no one to tell them what to do next, they were lost and simply floundered.  I picture them alone in their studios continuously looking over their shoulder hoping for a critique and some direction that never comes after graduation.