Vital Fine Arts Model Interview Preparation Guide

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Yes, but not because I paint. I am a good artist because of my ability to transform the obvious from invisible to prominent through my expressed observations, which I may or may not choose to communicate in a visual image.

As we know that every artist has their own style of working .We need to understand the integral part of his work to know him better. This is also a one of the good questions to ask to an artist in an interview.

We live in a society and we do have some social responsibility. An artist is the role model for a society. Hence his work can made a lot of impact to the society. There are many problems in the society and we need to solve the problem. An artist can help the society in finding the solution of the problem through his artwork.

This is a simple question. Describe your "best work" as a teacher. In other words, you're looking to tell them about project that was engaging to the students, educational in terms of artistic development, and well-received by others when it was displayed. Pass around some pictures of this lesson from your teaching portfolio!

It's like having the best of both worlds. It has also produced some funny side effects. One of my greatest artistic assets with some of my wealthy clients, it's generally... my accent. It makes me sound foreign and sophisticated (in spite of being a buckeye from Cleveland, Ohio).

Clients who can afford to get any competent artist are always looking for something extra to come with the package. So they will choose the one they can impress their friends with. They want to say, "I am sophisticated because I picked him".

To continue the flow of conversation and to understand the work of the artist this is the best question to ask him in an interview. Every artist has their own unique style of working to brings out their creativity in their work. Every artist follows their own set of guidelines and procedure to do their work. Hence by asking this question to the artist we can understand how they work to brings out the creativity.

You should have your teaching portfolio with you at an interview. Since you're an artist, your portfolio should include pictures of your own artwork, in addition to lesson plans and student artwork. Be sure the works you show the committee are appropriate for a school setting. Don't show them your latest nude sketch or a violent scene. Keep the content of the material in your portfolio light, upbeat, and positive.

Only when doing a teaching workshop. Never on professional commissions. That is not the place to be teaching (though spectators are always welcome). Professional mural painting is not a democratic process or a paint-by-numbers enterprise.

Non-professional help dilutes the quality of the work. Let's go back to the brain surgery analogy: would you like some volunteers working on your head? I do however, take experienced art students as apprentices.

Through a visualizing technique: I listen carefully to the client's ideas and desires and I listen for the things he or she is not telling me. What they want is usually in between.

Then I lie down, close my eyes and do absolutely nothing. In a few minutes, hours, days... a week (it depends on the complexity of the commission), I will have the entire painting visualized in my mind, every detail, exactly as it will look when it's finished.

The rest is easy: I do the required research, gather the necessary props and materials, make some mental revisions, and then, I paint the picture that's inside my head.

To know the personal details of the artist this is the best question to ask him in interviews. It gives you the ideas how the artist is associated with his art work. Whether he had met any challenges to pursue his career as an artist and what opportunity and obstacles had come in his way while he was passionate about his work. Whether he got full support from his family, friends and relative to pursue his career as an artist or not.

I am a very down-to-earth person. Very accessible. When I complete a mural, I include my phone number (now changed to an e-mail address) next to my signature. The public, friends and critics, are invited to call in with their comments and suggestions. I like to know what they are thinking.

One great painting out of a hundred bad ones, that's inspiration. This doesn't make a professional. A true artist is a trained and experienced master whose work gets consistently better from one painting to the next. To rely on inspiration is to starve.

When a commission comes my way, I can't wait around for inspiration to get me going. Whatever is demanded of you by a client, you do. That's what I'm getting paid for. You trust your skills and you rely on experience to work on cue. Would you select a brain surgeon on the basis of inspiration?

Word of mouth. That's the best promotion. A satisfied client is the artist's best friend; an unsatisfied, his worst enemy.

This answer, will of course, vary from person to person. Some things you might want to think about: Art is a small, but important part of a well-rounded education program. Art teachers stimulate students' imaginations, by encouraging them to express themselves creatively. Art teachers develop students' self-esteem, by allowing them to discover other talents they may have that go beyond the rest of the school's curriculum. And art teachers help students to better accept the world in which they live by inviting them to view things in different ways.

I definitely have an outstanding engagement with short film. When I was at art college I had two ‘film disasters’: The first short film I was making got burnt in a fire in the college and the second, which was a music video, the musician ran off with the only copy before I could even present it for my course! So I’m due for third time lucky! I can’t do anything too complex due to my RSI but I’d like to combine my collages with music somehow.

I’m not sure I really have a favourite. I like to look back at what I’ve done but only to get an overview of my trajectory to help me figure out where I’m going next. I’m developing all the time and fixing on one thing would feel like saying “That’s it, I’ve arrived!” and I’d be afraid of trying to somehow repeat on that for ever after. I’m not trying to sound trite but it really is the process and not the product that motivates me now; its the journey of discovery –when I’m transported into a parallel universe – that I love.

Everyone has a higher calling in life. Isn't that what all religions teach us to aspire? I think humanity's higher calling should be the protection of everyone's right to achieve happiness and fulfilment. The artist role is to help bring forth that which is best in every one of us.

I believe that art does not exist merely to entertain and gratify; it must edify. It can improve our collective existence by participating in the development of attitudes which can lead eventually to a better society.

Only one... really! All my drawings are done inside my head; I am no good with a pencil. After I complete the research, gather the props (or pictures of the props) and visualize the composition, I then proceed to draw the cartoon (a finished drawing that serves as the pattern for the painting), which will end up projected onto the painting surface.

I rarely make changes. This is a very reliable and productive method I learned from studying Norman Rockwell.

There is involvement and professional satisfaction while you work on a piece. You take pride on doing a job to the best of your abilities. But once you're finished, you have to walk away and forget about it.

An artist needs a certain level of detachment from his work in order to remain objective. You can't fall in love with your work. I've known so many who puke on a canvas and call it a masterpiece.

First, the capacity to bring the obvious into focus. In other words, to see beyond ones nose. He does not judge, he makes us understand. A good artist has the ability to perceive what others have failed to notice.

Then, the artist organizes these ordinary images of life to say extraordinary things about us and the world in which we live. Finally, the artist must communicate his art in a language of symbols that have meaning to the viewer.

Unfortunately, there is a lamentable split between artist's intentions and public perception. It is largely the result of the absence of art education and the nurturing of visual thinking throughout our public school systems.

And it is also the result of the isolationist stance of the art community, which has refused to recognize that visual perception in the public sphere does not occur within art world parameters. It occurs in the context of the "real world," in the context of popular culture.

Pretty colors will catch the eye of the public for a few seconds; colors can even influence psychological and emotional moods. But it is the understanding of visual symbols and the relationship of images that engages the mind of the viewer in a cognitive dialogue.

When communication between the artist and the viewer is achieved, there is a higher state of human enrichment. I believe that it is at this point that the artist creates art.

I challenge myself by trying to get in and out of bed at the same time every day. I challenge myself by trying to keep up with an exercise program. And, I challenge myself by learning something new every day, like a word in a foreign language.

In all these things I have failed. But when it comes to painting, there is not much of a challenge; painting comes easy.

This question is for candidates that are interviewing for high school art positions. The simplest answer to explain how you engage students in worthwhile art activities. The final projects come out so beautifully that students are proud of their work, see their talent, and have a strong desire to create more!

Murals are more demanding. A muralist works in the open. He is exposed to the public and to the elements. It demands confidence in ones abilities and, above all, it requires physical endurance.

I have painted in weather ranging from 105 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit. I had brushes become stuck the surface because the heat would dry the (acrylic) paint almost instantly. Also, when you are close to a wall you lose your point of reference.

Therefore, you have to be a good strategist and be absolutely sure of what you are doing. Timing yourself is essential. If you time it wrong and miss a deadline, you may lose more than money; you will lose your reputation.

Art as we know it has always been about business. The purists think this is wrong. That art should not be concerned with this. I agree with the principle of this sentiment, to a point. There is a certain ring of truth about it that feels right.

But the purists like to create dogmas that tend to forget reality. Some consider artists, like me, who have managed to earn a living by marketing art to others, to be beneath their self-proclaimed standards of what a true artist should be. They forget to realize that artists have lived from time immemorial from the fat of the land.

Let's face it; a painting or a sculpture, for example, has no practical value. It cannot feed you or shelter you. Therefore, the artist depends on others to support them so that they can make art. The artist has to secure ways to get that support, and in my book, however he gets the support he needs, is valid.

Unfortunately, for those "intellectuals" who make distinctions, to be "commercial" is a filthy way to earn that support. But I tell you, if I were able to take away the art grants, the fellowships and the museum gifts, most of those voices will be silenced. They will cease to exist. Survival of the fittest would rule. Supply and demand would rule.

Artists and art intellectuals who think that they work in a vacuum neglect to acknowledge that without an audience, a market, without the sponsors and the buyers, there are no artists. Without these they will die. We all need each other.

The artist always hopes, secretly perhaps, that there is a discriminating and perceptive public which will admire his or her work. The public needs the artist to remind him that in a world of tangibles, art offers them something they desperately need: spiritual values. It may not be a perfect system and it is subject to abuse, but in the end, the market, the buying public, has the last word.

Whether you like it or not, the art teacher is often responsible for setting the decor of the entire school. You'll likely be responsible for keeping the halls full of student work and updating displays on a regular basis. You'll be the one they turn to when they want a mural painted on the gymnasium wall. They'll run to your room when it's time to set up the annual display in the district office building. And, when the community art show comes around, you'll be the one that is expected to coordinate it. When it's time to create the yearly district events calendar, you know they'll be turning to the art teacher for a collection of high-quality student work samples. Art teachers have a HUGE responsibility outside of general teaching. You need to reassure the interview committee that you're aware of these responsibilities and are excited to take on these challenges.