The perfect reference question… for me.
Actually, there have been two. The first question came from a young woman on a mission to design the costumes for a dance that she was also choreographing. She began our session by asking if I knew where she might find some textile/art-fashion magazines. This is a perfect example of a question that is not as it seems. I told her that UCB didn’t have a fashion program so we don’t tend to collect corresponding materials, however, we had a few books in the library that explored the intersections between fashion and technology and fashion and architecture. Those were a good start. So to was the suggestion of visiting the Berkeley Public Library. Then I asked her what she was really after. “Tell me about your project?” “What do you hope to find in these magazines?” Inspiration. She wanted to find inspiration for designing the aforementioned dance costumes.
Oh, well! Have I got a quicker solution. In the next 15 minutes I introduced her to the world of fashion and art blogs, as well as Google Reader to managing her burgeoning interest. Because believe me, once you start down the track of fashion blogs, you can’t stop collecting them into Reader. Okay, maybe that’s just me. Still, the young woman was absolutely delighted. She had no idea that this virtual world existed. Fashionistas are highly visual people and litter their blogs full of images swiped from everywhere. Probably not copyright Kosher.
This brings me to today’s question, which found me sitting next to the patron with scratch paper in front of us, holding pencils at strange angles before our faces. I spent 15 minutes showing her perspective drawings and giving her some quick and dirty introductory drawing tips. Yes, she came to the desk asking for books on drawing, and that was what she was really after. And yes, I sent her out the door with an armful, but I think I addressed a more complicated problem that the books couldn’t have: the blow to her self-esteem. All of her classmates were whipping out sketches with ease and she was struggling to even decipher what the instructor was saying. Drawing has its own language and it’s both visual and linguistic. So I showed her. And then I told her to relax, draw as much as possible and let the drawings be as bad as possible. I drew very badly for her and told her it was supposed to be like that. She took it with her.
I clearly miss teaching drawing.
