We go to school to learn how to learn. We develop physical, emotional, and perceptual skills that allow us to leave behind what we once thought were limitations. I have always loved teaching the real beginners in Studio I– those students who are convinced that they have no eye and think they have nothing in common with those around them who mysteriously, eloquently, translate thoughts and observations onto sheets of paper. Most of us remember painting as children but learning to “speak” in a more sophisticated visual language means embracing a wholly new enterprise, similar to constructing that first meaningful conversation in a foreign language.

I asked students in this year’s Studio I class to deconstruct a myth about Studio Art: that you are either born with “it” or not and to describe what may be a recent or a distant memory about the process of learning to see. Included are samples of their early work followed by a drawing completed just after spring break.