Art Education

Induction (2001-2002) Image courtesy of http://www.stillpointartgallery.com/

Artist Julie A. Struck writes, “So, why are you compelled to make art, she asks, and I shock myself by quite honestly answering—because my mother never wanted me to.” She goes on to say that although her mother was an artist herself, she never praised Struck for her artistic skills: “I always felt that art was an avenue forbidden to me because it was exclusively hers.” But this only pushes her forward.

In a piece in the current issue of Still Point Arts Quarterly, Struck writes about her struggles with her family and pursuit for an education in art. “My family, especially my mother, continue to function as endless subject matter for my creative productions,” she says. “It is the only support my mother ever gave me, along with passing on her innate artistic talent. However, not one of y eight siblings, let alone my mother, ever asks me about my artwork or my long, difficult career in teaching art at the college level. It doesn’t stop me from making art, or teaching, however. In fact, without the familiar familial opposition, especially my mother’s, I suspect i would never make any art. Or write this.”

Struck’s art also appears in this issue, honoring her with the award for Best Three-Dimensional or Mixed-Media Artwork. Also included in this issue of Still Point are portfolios by Gary Enge, Ronnj Medini, Leslie Parke, and Jill Valliere; features by Monica Nawrocki, Laurie Schreiber, and Christina Tang-Bernas; and poetry by Lilace Mellin Guignard, Margôt Maddison-MacFadyen, and Judith Sornberger.