The Problem With the Artist Discourse

The greatest contradiction in being a Fine Art's Major is developing personal style and orchestrating creativity, while maintaining the approval of the professors. Catering to a specific audience tends to limit ideas and production. This was what I found most intriguing about "Inventing the University". It is, for whatever psychological reason, a natural process to write as one believes is necessary to be approved of by those already belonging to the discourse. I know that I do this in my writing, and I find it intensely frustrating when I am unfamiliar with the way in which I believe a subject needs to be presented in order to find favor with my audience.

Bartholomae stated that "Learning, at least as it is defined in the liberal arts curriculum, becomes more a matter of imitation or parody than a matter of invention and discovery." I recently caught myself doing this in one of my drawing classes. After doing poorly on consecutive projects, I found myself wondering how I could make my style more like my professor's in order to gain his favor as an insider, and in turn improve my grade. After discovering he favored illusionistic compositions, I began working more into the details of my design, aiming for more realistic representations. The oddity came as I found that this felt more natural to me than the work I had done previously, and I liked that I could take what I knew was expected, and twist it ever so slightly to make it my own. Success was measured in my satisfaction of the work, and my ability to anticipate the reaction of my audience. Thus is the balance of belonging to any discourse. One must believe that you are already an insider, convince others that you are, but bring something new to the table to establish your own ethos.