Overcome obstacles and succeed. by Julianna

Overcome obstacles and succeed. by Julianna - May 2021 Scholarship Essay

In general, my drawings have an abstract and nonstandard style with that; in one of the drawing classes in college, I did work on the theme “Saying Goodbye.” It took me a long time to finish the project because I used the woodcut technique and, after countless tests, I arrived at the final result very proud. However, after the professor's evaluation, I didn't receive the grade I expected, which made me curious to know the professor’s vision of assessment. So, I went to talk to him to ask for feedback and get suggestions for my growth. However, he just said that my work was not beautiful enough compared to the realistic style works. I confess that I did not understand this comparison and the adopted evaluation criteria, but, in a peaceful and friendly way, I managed to show him that an expression of Art goes beyond horizons and that we must, every day, break that, in a certain way, they were created to limit everyone's creation. Due to this disagreement, I will research more about each artistic style separately so that later I could have a conversation with the teacher and take consistent arguments to understand my side as a student willing to learn from mistakes and misunderstandings.
In my understanding, Art is free and therefore allows freedom in its form of expression. But, of course, we must respect the History of Art, observe its characteristics and styles, but from the moment that there is a conceptualization or a judgment about what is beautiful or not. They only reinforce the limiting standard for the artist’s expression within society and do not really encourage learning and creation.
Therefore, after this conversation, my teacher was able to understand my point of view on the development of the work and on my vision of Art, which ended up adding positively to our growth, bringing a very enriching conversation for both, proving that art is also an eternal exchange, great learning, without limitations so that our horizons can evolve.
At first, this situation affected me a lot because I questioned my value as an artist in society since I was trying to break the standards imposed by society. So I ended up being cornered and not knowing what to do, but after reflecting enough, I acted with the most effective teaching that my mother gave me: patience and respect for everyone. And that was how I conducted with my teacher and talked, debated about contemporary art, and stimulated the creativity and unique art of each human being because that makes the world more beautiful. After all, my role as an artist is to learn from obstacles to make the world more colorful.
On the other hand, I could see how sometimes, even inside an art college, we got stuck in the patterns of more experienced teachers, and this is precisely a way to get us out of the square and create our style and grow as an artist. Only by questioning and studying will we be able to overcome obstacles and succeed.