Perspective Through Art

by Eva Pasco, author of "Underling Notes"

A student at Lincoln Senior High during the Sixties, my drawing ability, the same as now, bordered the stick figure stage of development. Yet, Mrs. Foster, one of the art department’s most gifted teachers, suggested I enroll in her Art II class when most of us tapped out after Art I.  My self-doubt “distorted” to despair during lessons in perspective—the fine art of creating work aesthetically pleasing and visually correct which allows your eye to see an illusion of three dimensional space on a flat piece of paper. 

Armed with a pencil, paper, and ruler, most of my classmates—upper classmen at that—exuded confidence in executing their horizon lines and superimposing scaled objects which assumed the viewer is a certain distance away from the drawing. Sensing my agitation and frustration, Mrs. Foster patiently guided my implements across the paper, though I could never grasp the rationale for the dance she choreographed. If life imitates art, no one can put things into perspective for us. Then as now, I’ve never perceived or judged from a straight-and-narrow point of view, ever grappling with those gray nebulous areas.   

However, Mrs. Foster must have had a perspective on my artistic potential when she assured me I was Art II material.  My enthusiasm accelerated as the course veered to abstract lineage—screen printing. This stencil method of print making involves imposing a design on a screen of fine mesh, and coating blank areas with an impermeable substance.  Ink is forced through the mesh onto a printing surface such as fabric.  Following a field trip to Cranston Print Works, we embarked on constructing our screens and executing our designs.  Left to my imagination with no stifling line boundaries to corral my thinking, I created an impressive floral and leaf motif which I printed as a pattern in colors of fuchsia, purple, and chartreuse. I saved my tablecloth-sized masterpiece for the longest time, so proud of my artistic achievement. 

Credit is generally given to artist Andy Warhol for popularizing screen printing, identified by his 1962 depiction of Marilyn Monroe screen printed in garish colors.  I give Mrs. Foster credit for tapping into my artistic potential with perspective through art.  Most paths in life worth taking are not journeyed along straight lines, but squiggly abstract detours venturing to the unknown. 

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