Learning To Be An Artist

Sophomore year, I took a couple more economics classes, thinking I could maybe do consulting, like many other Harvard grads before me. However, I was still a VES concentrator, so I was able to continue taking studio courses. I shopped a couple of painting classes, including one taught by Julian Lethbridge. In the interview, he asked me a question which I can't recall but when I responded, he said, "That's what I think, but you're the only one who answered that way!" He had a British accent and was very cerebral in his manner of speaking. Later, I was trying to decide on which courses to take for the fall when his TF, Tova, happened to walk by my window. She recognized me and urged me to take the course, saying that Julian had taken a liking to me.

I did and it was a difficult but edifying class. The course was titled, "Drawing Into Painting" and was meant to explore just that -- going from sketching to making paintings. We would meet once a week for 7 hours, which we spent critiquing the work done in the previous week. (The idea is that we would spend the week away working on whatever ideas had been generated in the previous critique). It was the first time I had really been exposed to talking about art critically and academically, and what it meant to be an artist. I was used to just drawing whenever I felt like it, not really thinking about what it was about or where it was going. I can't say that I followed through with it in the actual course, but the course taught me how disciplined an artist must be, and how the drive must come from within. No one is really asking for more art in this world, so if you are to be an artist, there must be an internal force compelling you to continue to create work.

Julian was/is a thoughtful and generous mentor, and even after the course was over, I kept in touch with him. He would be instrumental later on in my pursuit of a career in fashion.