In late March, I traveled to Minneapolis and taught a week-long figure painting (color study) workshop at the Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts. Prior to this workshop, I only knew (whether accurately or not) two things about the school: many accomplished painters have come out of the school and their curriculum focuses on drawing and form modeling. So, when the school first approached me last June, through artist/instructor Andrew Sjordin, to teach a color workshop there, I was surprised and intrigued. I didn’t know if students would be interested, I wasn’t sure why they would request a color study figure painting workshop when the emphasis of their curriculum is on drawing/form modeling and how they will incorporate any information that I can give into their existing method of working.
Patterns
I arrived expecting to be met with skepticism and resistance from workshop participants and members of the community at large, as would be human and normal when ‘an outsider’ comes into one’s own community. But instead, I was met with an openness and determination in students to learn whatever I might have to offer.
It wasn’t that every encounter and exchange on the classroom floor went smoothly or without its normal human miscommunication of words and/or minds. Teaching and learning is difficult. But everyone (students, instructors, models, visitors to the evening demo….) stayed engaged mentally and physically. Everyone valued and supported one another in their own way and stayed engaged with one another and with me.
I am sure the school has its share of problems and interpersonal conflicts like all other schools of its size and if I stay long enough, I’m sure I’ll experience them all. But the culture I observed is fundamentally a nurturing and tolerant one. I suspect this culture/environment is cultivated quietly but intentionally by the Atelier’s co-director Cyd Wicker, her husband Dave Ginsberg (their 3 cats) and everyone within the community, past and present.
I marveled at what the Atelier has accomplished, its resilience through all the economic turmoils in the last three decades of its existence and the city’s more recent challenges. I speculate the mechanism in place to solve problems, either internally and/or externally, when they do arise, is probably just the culture they have collectively created. And that culture/community is really just an extension of the type of leader that Cyd is - wise, genuine, trusting and generous. She is not only an accomplished painter herself but has taken on the mantle of teaching the next generation of artists.
She made me realize that a leader can succeed in many ways but a truly inspiring one is someone who has the innate desire to be of service to others and leads by example.
Progression shots of my evening demo. Photos by artist Sawer.
