completely scared away by my introductory post, so good for you! I figured an appropriate start to this newfound trend would be to rage at something art-related (since I’m just so gosh-darned good at that), and what better subject to rage about than my deepest loathing for the genre of “Realism”?
There are several reasons why Realism leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve never been all that fond
of the aesthetic to begin with, because why focus on making every last detail accurate when you can
move outside the box and create your own, unique take on the subject matter? Don’t get me wrong,
I understand the amount of skill and training Realism involves, but as someone who works in the
Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism genres, this was never something that was going to “click” with me.
It didn’t help that, as a student, I went from being encouraged to dabble in the abstract and fantastical
genres to being practically forced to move into more realistic subject matter. In college, I had a
professor who loved realism. He was all about realism. Realism was his style and his world – and hey, to each their own! I didn’t care that it was his thing, so long as he didn’t try to make it my thing. But oh, he did. And I struggled, struggled, in classes with him to keep above a C average.
In late high school/most of college I was going through what I like to call my “Dark Ages”, where I only wanted to paint macabre and horror-related elements (I actually did a bitchin’ evil mermaid painting my senior year of college). One day, while working on a painting my mother lovingly refers to as “Trauma Doll”, this professor came up behind me, stood there speechless for a few seconds, and then, in a small voice, said, “Why do you paint such scary things? Everything you make…always so scary.”
This is "Trauma Doll", for the record. I don't think she's all that scary...
By this point a few of my neighboring classmates had stopped minding their own business and looked to see what it was that was freaking the shit out of my professor (I’ve painted freakier, by the way), and lo’ and behold, I became the creepy, “clearly-she-must-be-disturbed” girl of the art class. After that, said professor spent a lot of time trying to encourage a more “realistic perspective” and discouraged any more “Trauma Doll” projects. In fact, anything remotely abstract from me was a no-go with him.
I’d never been more enraged. Seriously, I just enjoyed dark and weird art. That didn’t mean I spent my free time thinking about killing puppies. I decided to rebel against said professor's wishes by continuing to complete assignments in my own style. I'd still meet the guidelines of the project, but I'd do it my way, and no one else's (because I'm Rein Razer, and fuck that shit).
By the way, ^this^ is my mermaid, and she's pretty fucking rad. Shell pasties, FTW!
In the end, I passed with a B- in the class, despite the fact I continuously rebelled against his style-wishes and made things the way I liked them. I’ve always interpreted that grade as his way of saying, “You never listened to me and I’d like to give you a lower grade for it, but I’m mildly intimidated by you so here’s the lowest B possible. Have a nice summer.”
And that is why, boys and girls, I hate Realism. So tell me: have you ever been heavily discouraged from something you enjoy, or have people misunderstood something you do/enjoy as being “not normal”?
Comments and thoughts are encouraged!
Check back on “Model Monday” for my first entry about my life in the modeling world!
<3 Rein
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