What you learn at art class (part 4)

longevity versus immortality versus AI

That all good things do come to an end -

OK, so endings have marked 2007 so far for us amps anyway - this passing away - and not just at art class.

Still, when I handed in a set of 6 prints on Monday for assessment, officially marking the completion of a whole year of part-time printmaking classes, there was a sense of something valuable having come to an end. I haven't written much about these classes in the last 6 months because work had kept me away from them half the time. A real pity. Because in these last few months, the classes had covered several techniques for screenprinting and photo-etching...techniques which demand a whole new level of care, focus, precision - and patience.

Even if they do take time.

I think there's supposedly a whole go slow movement in managementspeak. But it's better to ignore that universe. For me at least, art offers perhaps simpler lessons.

One evening, having rushed to class some 2 hours late, I was too flustered to do any work, so stood around observing instead the teacher A with a classmate G by the mechanical press. They were preparing an etching for print and it seemed a rather delicate design. With an hour left and the assessment deadline in a fortnight's time, G got into a bit of a rush and had left some ink on the edges of his acrylic etching. A seasoned printmaker, A had immediately noticed and stopped it going under the press.

Somethings you just got to do things real slow in printmaking, otherwise the whole print gets botched up and you end up with nothing. That's the lesson of printmaking, A said in mandarin. I overheard and replied - the lesson of printmaking is that all its lessons also apply to life. To which she laughed and proceeded to help G produce a really stunning piece of work.

Awww, tuesdays with ampulets!

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Some earlier arty lessons: part 3; part 2; part 1.