TEACHER FROM 1977-2015
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THE MASTER
a portrait in his words by Ingrid Vander Veken I didn't want to be a teacher I wanted to be an artist I'm still not a teacher I’m an artist I taught for 39 years my classes are a work of art see my classroom as a renaissance atelier see a master surrounded by disciples I am their guide, their inspirer techniques can be learned anywhere. anyone can pick up a needle or a pencil anyone can hit a computer key. but creating is a journey every step counts, even the smallest scribble they have to keep it in a book to know where they came from sometimes my students are young, sometimes older sometimes they already had some training sometimes not and it doesn’t matter a backpack full of opinions weighs heavily the one who starts with a blank page often goes further you go to school to change those who don’t want that, won’t listen those who don’t listen, won't learn what I teach my students is to discover new shapes to speak a new language fashion is a language if you want to design a wearable jewel or garment then you need to know that language a design that isn’t wearable is a sculpture, not fashion what is wearable? absolutely everything you can wear even though not everywhere, by everybody my students get a lot of freedom but they also get an assignment that assignment is their support for example I tell them: your subject is vermeer, your muse fabiola then their first thought is oh, the girl with the pearl earring oh, the queen with the apple but their assignment goes far beyond that applied art is art for somebody not I am the boss it’s vermeer and fabiola they need to engage a dialogue with them the answers to questions will come from them I want them to do a lot of research get a whiff of an atmosphere, get immersed talk to each other and listen to each other that out of all that flood of information they filter out something that’s simple and their own that they make their own vermeer for fabiola my students don’t have to become little dvw’s I want them to emerge no matter how much that scares them so I tell them as little as possible I only get involved when it’s really necessary you don’t talk about work, you do it actions reveal the words of a teacher what is his place in the world, what he has to offer to the world how he appears as a contemporary artist I sit in class among my students and I work I think it is important that they see me working that they see my passion and engagement I sit there and sew long strips of pink fabric I see everything that’s going on around me I notice when someone is stuck |
but I don’t want to restrict anyone I let everyone mess up as long as possible they need the courage to enter into the fight with fabric or old clothes or rolls of brown paper they are working with matter and they have to take it from there a piece of plastic, a strip of cotton it is so little and yet so much so little because it’s only matter so much thanks to the artist’s magic it is the spirit that elevates the matter it is the quest, the inspiration the faith of the artist an artist experiences pleasure in his work even though it also involves pain and frustration and being stuck and unhappy through his magic with the matter he lets others share in that pleasure he lets others look at something for the first time seeing through learning to see to see the soul of something that's the most important if teaching has taught me anything it is that few can do that people see a flower but actually they think 'flower' and since they think more than they see they can’t listen anymore because they’re already working with their 'thought' flower making a historical costume drawing a lobster copying paul klee teaches students to see that’s my aim that they really look at the world that they understand the possibilities of what they see that their look upgrades everything, even the most insignificant that is why this diploma is much richer and much more comprehensive than a business card for a future in fashion it's more like a ticket for a new outlook on life as a teacher you are a father or a mother they too repeat the same thing over and over again until the child understands them suddenly in that split second, it happens when a student walks into the classroom and immediately understands what’s going on the training stops then and there usually though the learning process includes a period of ripening and rotting you have to be willing to take that time when I began teaching the students came five times a week they saw evening school as a new opportunity today it’s very different students also want to go salsa dancing of the five evenings, only two are left at the most the zap culture gives more and therefore also harder choices we give up more quickly and easily but my message stays the same: if you start this training don't just give up, finish it it’s a wealth that you can use for the rest of your life I hear it from students: how they walk differently through the streets seeing things that they never saw before discovering true treasures in a garbage dump and then I think: when you’re eighty and close your eyes for good knowing that because of my classes you looked differently at life then that is my greatest reward I can’t and won’t ask for more that’s why I do it this teaching |