Apropos of my last two posts, I just read Old in Art School by Nell Painter, as it
is our book club choice for next month.
(This on the heels of a summer dedicated to Ulysses – oh my god, what a
challenge!)
Painter’s path is much like mine. We both retired from tenured faculty
positions at prominent universities and changed directions completely in our
early 60s. Painter was a historian at
Princeton and embarked on undergraduate painting studies at Rutgers, followed
by a two-year MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is actually 11 years older than I am, so
she has had more time to follow her path than I have, and to digest it.
Yet, I can see similarities already, the first being to
acknowledge that what we have undertaken is arduous. Oy, how arduous! Art and architecture school can be
challenging even for the young, but for someone enfeebled by fading energy,
aches and pains, diminishing eyesight and hearing, and a general slowing down
in thought and response time, these intense professional programs are not to be
entered lightly.
She talks about being the “other”, and indeed we old-timers
are decidedly different from our classmates in other ways, as well. Unlike our younger cohort, we have the
padding of an established home, health insurance, and a retirement income, not
to mention the satisfaction of already having an accomplished career. Because these assets automatically set us up
for a cushioned fall should we choose not to continue, we can be perceived as
dilettantes. Painter bristles at the
notion, but I get it.
Still, there is a difference. It isn’t clear to me if Painter has made it
as an “An Artist” yet, with a capital A (as she refers to it), but she appears
to spend a fair amount of her time painting.
Let’s face it: it’s a lot simpler to paint a canvas than it is
to build a building. Painting
affords a lot more trial and error, a lot more rapid exploration. Architecture, like science, is a community endeavor
in that it requires a client, consultants, permits, builders, and a substantial
bankroll to bring an idea to fruition.
Hmm. Perhaps I did
not think this through.
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