My favorite teacher was an oxymoron

I couldn't tell you the names of 95% of the professors I had at college, but I'll never forget Norm Looney's name. Isn't that a great oxymoron? Looney taught drawing at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State) in San Marcos during the late 1970's, and I learned so much more than drawing in his class that I have been able to apply in other areas of my life.

He taught me how to really see what I was looking at. One day he asked us what color a tree trunk was, and the obvious answer was brown. Then he had us go outside and find a tree and put our faces within inches of it to answer that question. I saw yellow and green moss growing on the various shades of the gray trunk. I saw some brown, white, and tan color, too.

Looney challenged our assumptions and made us back them up. I've learned since then that many of my assumptions were wrong-- in art and in life. He took us to an art show in Austin, and I remember scoffing at some pieces that looked like a little child had been playing with crayons. He gently steered us into viewing them with a different perspective by asking us to try to think about how children first begin coloring with crayons-- the complete freedom they have when no one's taught them how things should be drawn or colored a certain way. He said the artist may be trying to tap back into that. Wow. I hadn't thought about that. That didn't mean I had to like it as art, but I could appreciate what the artist was attempting to do and not be so judgmental about it.

I know this is so cliche now, but Looney truly taught me to see outside the box-- which was a new concept back then. He taught me to try to see things from all different perspectives. That is an art tool, but the skill is also essential in problem solving. Problems turned into challenges for me, and it was exciting to figure out how to solve them. It still is. But before I learned those skills, I would give up way too soon, assuming a solution did not exist.

It's also an important skill in getting along and working with people, and respecting others' viewpoints that are different than my own. I think Congress and our Administration could stand taking a class under Norm Looney.

It's been thirty-four years since I graduated from SWTSU, and I don't know if Norm Looney is still living or even living there. But I've never forgotten him or what he's taught me about art, and especially about life.

Thank you, Norm Looney, wherever you are.