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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

WHEN THE STUDENT IS READY

by Gary Lehmann


Until Andrew Wyeth was 15, his father gave him no artistic training at all.
He sensed that his son could only learn from his own intuition,
but there came a day when Andy reached the limit of his own methods.

NC unexpectedly taught his son to sketch a skeleton, a still life, a human body.
One day NC entered the studio and stared awhile at a watercolor.
Andrew was completing a tree. “Andy, you’ve got to free yourself.”

“Then, he took a brush and filled it with paint and made this sweeping
brushstroke. I learned more then from a few minutes of watching what
he did than I’ve ever learned from anything since.”


Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Gary Lehmann’s essays, poetry and short stories are widely published. Books include The Span I Will Cross [Process Press, 2004] and Public Lives and Private Secrets [Foothills Publishing, 2005]. His most recent book is American Sponsored Torture [FootHills Publishing, 2007].

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