31 Days of Thanks Day 1 My high school art teacher

In high school the art teacher at my school was, how can i say it, a snob and not a very good teacher at that. If you were not a cheer leader or on a team she had no time for you. And our assignments were not very inspired either.

I was going to go to college but didn't exactly know what I would study. But knew I had to have a foreign language. They only taught German at my high school and I was not really interested in that, Spanish seemed to be a language I might be able to use more. So I signed up for an exchange program with another school, 15 miles away. We would be going there two afternoons a week and take 2 classes, so for my second class I signed up for art.

I soon discovered I had no aptitude for Spanish, didn't have the ear for it, although I could eventually read it.

But...

the art class changed my life!

We worked in many mediums.

We did
wire sculpture
worked with clay
drew
painted
on and on

Within a couple months I started telling my folks that when I went to school I wanted to study art - and I wanted to go to the American Academy of Art in Chicago.

They said you need to get a real education.

So I went to Siena Heights College (now University) instead and earned a BA.

The first piece of art I ever sold was a wire sculpture I had done in my high school art class. I sold it for $25 to a girl in my dorm.

I was not a "natural". I learned how to draw by practicing. I guess my real talent lies in design, I have a "good eye" so they say. The rest just came by doing.

Thank you -Mike Fisher, art teacher!  

You truly changed my life.

- Jan Francoeur       Day 2 of 31 Days of Thanks will publish at 11 am est on November 3 and I'll write about painting with my friends and a second teacher.