When you walk into the classroom, the instructor is the Director. He or she can’t teach you if you resist direction, and you can’t find out how much value there is in what you are being asked to do without first fully engaging with the process and following directions to the best of your ability.

This requires trust. It also requires putting ego aside and assuming that the people who are instructing have something to share with you. It can be difficult to come out of high school, where many of you were the “school artist,” and suddenly be surrounded by people who had the same reputation. Because so few schools teach “visual language” and because so few students today seem really familiar with the great artists and illustrators of the past, there is also the shock of discovering that you really know very little about the craft of drawing and painting.

This doesn’t reflect at all on your potential. We are not born knowing these things anymore than a ballet dancer is born with turnout. We learn them. We practice. We redo things. We learn from the great artists of the past, from our classes, from practice and observation and the passion to develop ourselves. We have faith that over time we will improve, and we work hard to retain humility and the desire to keep learning all the days of our lives.

As a student I was inspired by an anecdote about Renoir’s last day. It is said that he painted in the morning, ate lunch, and said as he went to take a nap, “Today I learned something!” Renoir was in his eighties, and he didn’t awaken from that nap.

Next week I’ll write more about important “habits of mind” that make people successful, both as students and professionals.