Ars et Squid gratia artis

It is a thankless task, having Cec as my human. She has a complaint that she wishes me to express for her, and although I can think of a multitude of activities I would rather be engaged in, I am a kind-natured and generous squid and will comply. She tells me that while there are many annoyances in the world (an observation with which I must agree... just the other day I was attempting to extricate myself from the ceiling fan, as I had bounced a wee bit off my trajectory, when one of the feline nuisances happened upon my plight and began to bat at my exposed tentacles. It was awarded a sharp smack for its efforts.), the one that happens to be bothering her today is the phenomenon known as "art teachers." Not all of them, she assures me, but the ones who insist upon a set of restrictive guidelines to which a project must adhere else valuable points be docked from the final product. Being the knowledge-seeker that I am, I posed a query as to why this is such a negative thing--surely a set of rules can help with planning and execution. She let out a sort of squawking noise and proceeded to go on a long and tedious rant, which I have not the patience nor cruel streak towards my readers to relay in full. I gathered, however, that there is already enough restriction imposed with the amount of material permitted and the methods the class is allowed to use, without also putting in strictly artistic guidelines that force the piece to go in a certain direction. And yet, the professor seems to have done so. My human apparently must now redesign a project that she was very fond of and eager to create, simply because the professor was not enamored of the idea. I must say, that does seem a bit counter-productive to the "artistic process" as I understand it. Still, life must go on and art projects must be redesigned as necessary. I extend my sympathies to all other art students in this predicament and hope that your professors will see to reason someday.

I am certainly glad that I will not be required to attend any classes once at school. That is not to say that I shall not be popping in on one every now and then, but I intend to do most of my learning in the library. I have been told that there are many delightfully secluded little nooks in which a squid might comfortably settle down with a scholarly journal or classic work of fiction and not have to worry about bothersome humans poking their noses every ten minutes. Quite frankly, I doubt human students even use libraries anymore... certainly not paper-and-ink, academic ones. I am sure it will be quite suited to my needs and that I will be able to pursue a squid-driven education with no human professors to muddle things up.

Unfortunately, readers, I must cut this short. There is a cat eyeing me from the doorway and I feel that it is in my best interest to conceal myself until it removes its offensive presence.

Cheers,
Squidmore