hate art class so bad

I hate art class so bad. So bad. I can't believe I looked forward all summer to this and then it turns out so awful. I come home so exhausted and demoralized that all I want to do is cry - heck while I'm there all I want to do is cry.

We started our next big project today, a sustained still life. Wait - I took a picture of it. You can see for yourself how unappealing it is. And the thing that gets me is there is so little actual teaching done in this class. This is very much an old-style learn by doing, sink or swim class. Which is great for the people who swim happily away having either natural talent or years of high school art under their belts. The rest of us are not finding it so much fun. I thought art could be taught, but I guess you either find your own way or you don't. I'm definitely a don't. She seemed surprised when I said that I didn't even know how to start - but I was not the only one.

Here's the still life:

We only have to do a part of it, and I am definitely trying to keep that god-awful stripey thing out of it. I do like the wheely thing though, but I can already tell it will be the bane of my existence.

In better news. The great Van Gogh project is done.

Sorry, I didn't realize how blurry the picture was - I was standing on a stool trying to take a picture of it. Here's the individual pieces.

I'm mostly all right with it. It's sure not great, but for someone with no experience of paints or colour mixing it is not terrible. And I have a much deeper appreciation of Van Gogh. I am so glad it's over though. Another girl in the class said, "angels will sing when I'm done." Pretty much how I feel.