Wednesday, January 2, 2008

A QUESTION FOR THE TEACHER






















Today at 8 a.m. I will be in a college classroom again, studying Anatomy and Physiology, after having not been in an academic setting since 1984 when I enrolled at the same community college so I could take classes to become a medical transcriptionist after having earned a B.A. in English Literature with a Minor in Art and finding myself unemployable in the small town where I still live. I don't have a clear idea of what my goal is this time. Despite my desire to be focused, I'm not. I need to go forward in some tangible way, even though each time I go forward I encounter massive ambivalence.

Registering as a community college student has resulted in a surprising renewed energy for drawing and for my yoga practice, rather than enthusiasm for being a student again. This quarter there were no art classes that fit my schedule. I'm not sure that I even want to take art classes. I have signed up for a yoga class at the yoga school where I first learned yoga in the late 1970s.

"A Question For The Teacher" was "drawn" using the trackpad on my iBookG4 in 2005, during the time I worked as a medical transcriptionist in my home, a time when I didn't have much time for artwork. I like the way that it looks like a woodcut or a linocut.

I still have lots of questions. If I think of being a student in a college classroom as a form of yoga practice, I'll probably be okay. I need to find a way of making a living.

"How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?"
-- Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

5 comments:

robin andrea said...

Good luck at school. What a great way to start the new year.

I showed my mom your paintings on Flickr. She loves them as much as I do. Beautiful artwork, am.

The Dream said...

COOOOOL! I would LOVE to go back to school - BIG time! However, with two kids amping up for college, it will not any time in my near future. Enjoy it - it sounds VERY exciting! Cool quote by van Gogh - have you read, "Lust for Life?"

Lori Witzel said...

I am sure it will be a great adventure!

am, thanks so very much for helping me send some funds (and thus books) to Africa. Your swift generosity was really encouraging and inspiring to me.

You sound as ambivalent about schooling as one of my good friends here is (and she has not yet taken the plunge back yet.) I think your notion about considering it part of your yoga practice as a valuable idea. School sounds like it will give you the credentials and hopefully the tools to further your dharma, and also to take care of yourself...always a good thing for artists!

Keep me/us posted about what transpires...

Anonymous said...

I think Lori's right. School as yoga would certainly make it more...interesting, at least.
That drawing does sorta look like some kind of print. Very natural looking, good drawing.

"...each time I go forward I encounter massive ambivalence." This reminded me of a quote from Chuang Tzu, that's always stuck with me: "The mind of the superior man(or woman, I sez)is like a mirror. It does not lean forward or backward in its response to things. It responds to things but conceals nothing of its own. Therefore it is able to deal with things without injury to its reality." I'm not sure if this helps, but it seems appropos, somehow...

I hope it was a good day. G'night.

Anonymous said...

Oooh, as a community college English teacher, I would love to have you in my class, though clearly you don't need it. Still, whatever comes of your exploration, I hope you find being in the classroom again stimulating and fun. Either way, it's nice because you're stimulated to draw, and I do love your art. tarakuanyin