High School: Mrs. Herlitz - Art Class

Mrs. Herlitz  had a fixed concept of what art should be, and anything which deviated from it was, in her mind, not art. Anything which didn’t fit her mold was, to her, just pigment on paper.

She liked abstract art, the more abstract the better. The more literal a picture was, the less she liked it.

At first we got along fine. I came to class, listened to her lecture and watched her draw, and left. She didn’t impress me very much, but she didn’t immediately turn me off to the subject.

I decided I’d show her some real art, so I brought one of my dad’s paintings to her class. This was a mistake, as it became immediately obvious she didn’t like his work at all. She asked me why my dad just didn’t photograph animals. Wouldn’t that be easier than painting them?

I tried once more to do something good in her class. She liked to expose her students to a large variety of media, including charcoal, paint, pen and ink, clay and many others. One of the things she particularly liked was linoleum carving. She gave each of us some carving tools and a piece of linoleum and showed us how to carve. Then she told us to make our own carvings.

Most of the people in the class chose to make very small carvings - maybe four by five inches. I had something else in mind, however. I had just finished reading a book called "The Book Of Skaith", and wanted to make a carving of one of the things that I had read about.

I spent the next week making a nine by twelve linoleum carving of a "Johnny Hangman Tree". I worked very hard on this thing, and was very proud of what I’d done. In my opinion at the time, it was an exceptional piece of work, especially when compared with the stuff done by the other students.

Mrs. Herlitz didn’t like it at all. She thought it was too literal, and too fantastic. She didn’t like that science fiction stuff, she said, and she didn’t want to see anymore in her class.

I lost all respect for the woman. She had belittled me, she had insulted my dad, and that meant she wasn’t worth listening to. I tried to transfer out of her class, but since I had been there over a month they wouldn’t let me.

Forced to continue taking classes from a woman that I despised, I became a drone. I listened politely to her lectures, watched her draw, and did the bare minimum of work necessary to get a good grade. I was very glad when that class was over and done with.