My Art Teacher Called 911 on Me
In the spring of 2017, I had to take ART 233 Drawing I as a prerequisite to get into the Art & Technology major. One of the assignments was to fill out my entire sketchbook by the end of the term. At the time, I was really into George Condo. Condo is the artist responsible for Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album artwork. A common theme throughout his work is dehumanization. Apparently, my teacher was not familiar with his work and did not recognize the style I was trying to mimic.
At the end of the term, I came down with the flu so on the last day of class, I turned in my sketchbook and told my teacher that I wasn’t feeling well and that I needed to go home. When I got home, I crawled into bed and took an hour-long nap. When I woke, I noticed that there was a missed call. I opened my voicemail and heard this.
“Hi Aaron this is Lori at the office of the dean of students. I’m calling because we have faculty that are concerned about you. If you could please give me a call back immediately... If I don’t receive a call back from you immediately um we will still be concerned and um we’ll need to check in with UOPD. So if you can give me a call back in the next five minutes so you got this and we can chat that would be great!”
I gave Lori a call and explained the whole situation. She required me to attend a mandatory counseling session. I told the counselor that there was a huge misunderstanding and that I wasn’t depressed or suicidal.
I never did get my sketchbook back.