Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for November 11, 2019

confusing, ain’t it, Luann?

Looks a little like the Sorting Hat. ✨

I hate pretentious little snips like him.

What a friend Luann is! No one in her world is better off having known her. And if they thought they were initially, it is just a matter of time until she shows her true colors.

(rolls eyes) Looks like Zebo is determined to make Tara his “Starr” pupil. Zebo and Tara deserve each other.

The debate should have been over at the end of the first panel. YES, grade her drawing skill. It was a drawing assignment that she was given, after all. If I’m told to do a book report on Great Expectations but hand in a report on Oliver Twist instead, it doesn’t matter how well-written my report was. It fails for not staying in the bounds of the assignment. The assignment was to do a still life, and still lifes are drawn.

Luann, quit while you’re behind…

Zebo is a fine example of a teacher who couldn’t do so he is overcompensating

Zebo is playing Luann like a yo-yo. Hopefully Luann will learn from this that it’s difficult or impossible to make a compelling argument that something does not have meaning.

Is it just my pareidolia, or does anyone else see Tara’s sculpture/drawing laughing at Luann?

(Greg may not want us to admire Tara’s "drawing, but I think he’s proud of his drawing of her “drawing.”)

It’s not simple Luann.

Panel 2: “Ok, her attitude was lousy.”

Do not admit you don’t understand her “meaning”.

That way lies Madness.

AGAIN MY REPLY FROM 11/8/19 WHICH WAS IGNORED…

That’s not art, that’s something a 3 year-old would make! (and believe me, any 3-year old would make a better design that that!) Cover it over in plaster and you have art! That he’s holding in his self-centered hands is fart! I give that a quarter a star (that is, a star with the upper left point only shining, the other 80% is empty!)

This isn’t a drawing class, it is art 101. And, this was not a drawing assignment. Based on Zebo’s cryptic instructions on 11-4 it looks like Tara nailed it.

Artists notoriously flaunt the rules.

Tara will graduate with the highest score in the whole class jut by chance. Meanwhile Luann is turning into Borenice pt. 2 here.

Well this dashes my hope that this thread would end today. Guess I’ll check back next Monday.

Looks like he’s grading Luann……

Hmm. You’d never know that Luann once got “A’s” from Zebo in art 101 by pretty much doing the SAME thing.

Someone said that Zebo will offer Tara Luann’s job. Possibly. But Tara won’t take it because to her, being a T.A. ain’t cool.

But if she does, Luann should take that as an opportunity to END their pointless “friendship,” with a: “SO! You joined class just to cost me my job, huh? Some “friend” you are! “WE” are DONE!”

Hey. Stuff like THAT, happens in the “real world” all the time.

Interesting. It appears Zebo is trying to instruct Luann (in what I’ll wait and see). What I believe is Zebo is being inconsistent and thereby destroying other people in the class (what do they learn if he asks for one thing and rewards the one who didn’t follow directions unless he told the class your grade is based on creativity). As for Luann, she’s forgotten her class time and how she succeeded through serendipity.

Nobody’s going to be more surprised about this than Tara.

And apparently Zebo is such an egomaniac that he can’t comprehend that Tara only made the “art” to mock him, and that there are students who think he’s a complete joke. He seems to believe that they all take the art as seriously as he does.

First rule of holes, Deary.

“Look… I saw Tara wad this up in a defiant pantomime of your self-importance. Go ahead and give than an ‘A’, if it pleases you, Mr. Zebo. And parenthetically, I suspect there’s a reason I’m not calling you ‘DOCTOR Zebo’…”

Not another week of Zebo! :(

This is really a good artist / moral dilemma. If starting from a common base, someone comes up with something different but better, this is what people usually call genius. Is it right to grade the finished work or the attitude that led to it’s creation? Luann is facing a huge problem, something able to make you very angry and confused. I hope Zebo will not be too strict with her. But him, obviously, want his TA to be the best of all.

It can be confusing, but I think we can unpack it. I think Zebo, in his imperious way, is grading Luann on how strongly she holds to a position she takes, even in the face of authority, I think, rather than being a betrayal of the friendship, Luann is being honest that not only does this “art” do nothing for her, but was not what was being asked; Tara and her reaction to whatever happens is the dangling modifier here though. It’s power, veracity, mixed motives maybe. Classic GnK misdirection play.

That is College Luann,where are you are encouraged to be a free thinker but at the same time you are forced to be indoctrinated to depraved, aberrant ideals and they fail you if you show any objection.

When did the main character here get so petty and boring

Luann, art is a way of expression, not rules or style.

I wonder if it’s too late to drop this class.

This isn’t art! Why not? Tara was frustrated. The crumpled paper with the pencil stuck in it is a great example of frustration. Or, it represents her inability to capture the essence of a flower. A picture of flower certainly isn’t the equal to real flower. The paper and pencil represent human inability to match the beauty of mature. I think Zebo is actually trying to teach Luann something here.

I like Tara’s “sculpture”. The original still life was kind of boring and stupid anyway. Tara produced what she saw.

Reminds me of that episode of absolutely fabulous where the two ladies for some reason sneak into this Museum of modern Art filled with twisted pieces like that and come across a dead body where one says we should call the police and the other says but it could be art. Lol

The questions are 1. is modern art weird. 2. is the instructor full of dung. 3. is an art major at a community college worth it. 4. why is Luann torpedoing her friend.

I love the condescending logic of pretentious people.

like I said, pretentious douche. I’d go easier on him if he didn’t ASSIGN a still life drawing, then penalize the people who drew still lives and reward the person who made a da-da esque sculpture.

The assignment was draw. As an artist you can do anything you want. Give her the grade against which all others following the assignment are given. But compliment her on her creativity. Luann knows she was basically telling the instructor to “shove it”.

I—THINK— I follow his line of reasoning; then again, maybe not….

Boy won’t Tara’s ego be inflated when she learns she got the A+ plus instigated a dressing down to Luann by Zebo. And all because she was just goofing around!

As a retired art educator (“teacher” isn’t really apt.) Art is very difficult to ’teach" and more difficult to grade.

“It ain’t nothing ‘till I call it, then that’s what it is.”

Zebo is quite the devil’s advocate, and Tara tends to ride luck like a birthday pony in this strip.

This reminds me of a Peanuts comic where Sally received a low grade on her art project and is questioning the criteria used.

“So grade her attitude. Not her meaning.” Is he being sarcastic, or did he mean to say “Grade her meaning, not her attitude”?

Zébo seems to be deliberately obfuscating. As a teacher, he should be instructing his TA in how he grades his projects. Given this dialog, it appears that Tara should receive a passing grade and the rest a failing grade. Sounds as if Zébo is describing a highly subjective pass/fail system. There is no definition of what constitutes an A, B, C, D, or F, i.e., no structure for gradation.

Ah well. This is Luanniverse, and hilarity not reality prevails.

Another arc that was clearly over last Thursday continues.

Along with removing the possible progress (or evidence thereof) of Luann’s personal growth last Saturday.

Someone said it best, above:

“Check, please!”_

Meanwhile back on the mean streets of skid row poor little……

All this schmaltzy art talk here. The class assignment was: 1) “*Consider* the complex simplicity of the humble still life.” 2) “*Your Task* is to capture the banality of perceived reality while exploring the uniqueness of its deep essence.” That’s all!

One could read Consider, Capture, Explore, using “the humble still life” as a focal point. Under those instructions anything would satisfy. In fact, according to Zébo’s “scoring” criteria today, Nil should also receive at least an A. The perceived banality and “deep” essence of a nostril is self-evident.

On the other hand. In preparing the materials for today’s lesson/project, the TA must have been given instruction from Zébo on what materials to present to the students according to some prepared lesson plan. The materials appear to be easels, sketch pads, and a “still life.” Under this criteria Nil gets an A, everyone else a C and Tara an F or “incomplete.”

In other words, this is a lousy class and Zébo is a lousy teacher.

“ÅŘŢ!!!” – Mr. Zebo

I’m actually starting to like the crumpled paper-and-pencil thingie Tara made. She meant it to show her disrespect for phony arty blather, but she’s got an artist’s soul, maybe, and she’s a free spirit who knows exactly who she is. Luann’s still searching for her own identity, but she’ll get there in time.

Speaking as former high school art teacher, Tara did not exercise her drawing skills, which seemed to be the assignment.

Regardless of the subject matter, or age of one’s students, a key part of teaching is very basic: train students to listen/assimilate information and then give instruction in which they utilize the information.

And it truly is an ability that needs to be taught and reinforced. It’s been my observation that this skill is on the wane in modern society.

I had students like Tara, creative but flaky. They required special care, in that they had a unique artistic gift that perhaps they wished to develop, and I didn’t want to discourage that. However, as their teacher and a practicing artist myself, I knew that they needed to develop their skill set and artistic discipline. It was often my experience that students like Tara just wanted to goof off and get an “Easy A”.

I was kind of thinking… perhaps Nil’s nostril drawing on 11/06 was not complete at that time. In its completed form, it’s Nil’s nostril, reflected in the bottle, with a tiny, tiny gourd behind the bottle. Nil’s daring use of perspective, and his emphasis on something that the mind’s eye always tunes out, is something that would rate an A++. Take that, Tara!

So, Zebo IS able to ascertain her “meaning”?? If he says yes, then he’s automatically a liar.

This is what Zebo said last Monday. Your task is to capture the Banality of perceived reality while exploring the uniqueness of its deep essence.

Definitely makes you think, doesn’t it?

This comment thread set me to thinking about an unintentionally hilarious essay in the pages of the Paese Sera newspaper in Italy that appeared in 1963, analyzing “Peanuts” as inadvertently tearing the mask off of the corruption and villainy of capitalist society, e.g. that Lucy is nothing but a nasty little girl, Charlie Brown a gullible “consumer”, and so on.

Sometimes a comic strip is just a comic strip, to paraphrase St Sigmund.

The more I look at Tara’s work, the more I kind of like it. LOL. I see the sorting hat from HARRY POTTER and the pencil representing the quille that the students use to do their assignments (or maybe it’s a wand). PS: In 7th grade art class our teacher said to draw a “still life” – one of the class comedians drew a guy in a coffin.

Yes, she should be graded on her drawing skills. That’s one of the purposes of an art class. Still life drawing is a test of your technique. If you want to see someone’s artistic merit, let them select the medium and subject.

That’s one of the problem areas I avoided as an accounting major.

Professor Zebo’s rationalization confirms the state of our so called “higher education system.” We were warned 56 years ago about the Communist Agenda, but Congress and the American people chose to ignore the sign/threats. Instead of being alert we stuck our collective heads into a hole and refused to see reality. We have only ourselves to blame for our predicament today! [From “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen] There are actually 45 points made by the author. I have sited only five of them … and all have come true. The entirety was read aloud to Congress: “Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record—Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963”: 17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks. 18. Gain control of all student newspapers. 19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. 20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions. 21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. Note: Of the 45 points listed all but four or five have become reality. Based on what I have seen and read, I predict our current form of government will cease to exist within the next ten years. In pilot lingo as a nation … we are at 300 feet, inverted, nose low with power on!

8

I find it interesting that so many here are so very down on Professor Zebo today. I am of the opposite opinion. I think Professor Zebo is doing an excellent job today in trying to get his T.A. (mentee) Luann to grow deeper as a teacher, as an art interpreter/critic, and also likely as an artist herself.

He is using a semi-Socratic method of debate with Luann to guide her into questioning and analyzing a) Luann’s preconceived notions of what the assignment was, b) whether or not Tara successfully completed the assignment, C) whether or not Tara (regardless of her “grade” on the assignment) has CREATED art, and d) whether “art” and “intent” are always aligned or if they can also sometimes be oppositional to each other.

To me, this series has been really well done and has shown a true attempt to get Luann to grow.

I still tend to think that Tara’s art and Tara’s attitude last week still suggest to me that she was planted by Zebo…. but even if not…. Professor Zebo has very successfully used this situation to help Luann grow.

If there was no expectation of anything but two dimensional drawings that hang on the wall, there would not have been a shelf directly underneath all the two dimensional renditions to place Tara’s three dimensional “art” upon. Way to take advantage of that shelf, Tara…

NEVER take a course where the grading is 100% subjective.

Something tells me Mr. Z is about to give her a slip, pink that is!!

Luann needs to resign as a TA before this week is over. That professor is an obnoxious jerk!

This isn’t Luann’s character flaw as much as it’s lack of communication between Luann and her boss. She can’t assist when she doesn’t understand what he’s looking for.

Above all else, art is intentional. People may find beauty in randomness but it’s not “art” . Mr. Zebo is essentially doing the equivalent of seeing a cloud that looks like a bunny. Maybe it does but that doesn’t make it art.

I’m starting to like Tara’s sculpture. This shows how artists can train their audience.

Is he grading her grasp of the lack of meaning? That should give her an A+. Or grading her lack of grasp of meaning? That could earn her an F.

Do they grade TA’s?

I’m loving this art run between Luann and Zebo, and the comments! People seem real fired up about things. My take on Luann versus Tara versus Zebo goes back to when Nils and Tara first came to the class and wanted Luann to cover for them while they goofed off. Luann stood up for herself and Mr.Zebo when she told them to take the class seriously. I think she felt rather honoured that Zebo had asked her to be a TA. So now she is feeling a bit defensive again as these same two friends don’t seem to be taking it seriously. Zebo’s instructions were kind of in what I’ll call “art language” for lack of anything better. I had to use google to get definitions on some of those words used, as they’re not in my everyday usage, and my translation of his assignment would be “look at this common still life and come up with an original way to express it”. Did not need to be a drawing. Later as Luann and Zebo looked at the students work, Luann thought some were very good drawings. Zebo was more interested in seeing something original. The drawings, while good representations, weren’t original. Tara’s piece was, even though not alot of thought was put into it. My translation of his critique of it would be something like “her ironic use of drawing paper and pencil to make a sculpture of a curve and a straight line”. So I don’t think Luann is being mean to Tara, but doesn’t get how people ,who probably spent a lot more time on those drawings, get a C while Tara gets an A for crumpling up her paper and jabbing a pencil in it. Tara will be surprised too. I went to art college, and we’d call those happy accidents. Its a tricky concept to get that great technique like drawing doesn’t necessarily equal great art.

Never try to compete in Twisted Logic with a Pretentious Idiot.

Overdosing on Twisted Logic is how they got to be pretentious in the first place.

Pay attention Luann. You might learn something here!

Art can be arbitrary. And unfortunately not fair sometimes.

Definitely a snobbish jerk.

Zebo is not a lovable character (by design, of course), but he is right and Luann is inscrutable but probably wrong in this matter. “Art” is not merely technical skill, which can be mastered by lots of practice. In Zebo’s judgment, Tara has made “art,” while all the C kids have just practiced technique by rote.

Been there, seen that….

I like that Zebo is getting Luann to think about art in terms of skill vs expression vs what art is. That said, he has to realize that the students were assigned to draw the still-life. But there’s no reason why he can’t give students more than one grade. There could be a grade for: (1) skill and technique in sketching the still life. (2) expression and artistic value w/ respect to the still life and (3) if he wants to have a 3rd category for freewheeling expression he could have one. Then Tara would get 2 F’s and 1 other non-F grade for her crumpled paper sculpture.

Art is whatever you can get away with https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1427&bih=972&ei=IzbKXZLeMNDq-gSt_a34CQ&q=dog+poop+statue+San+Jose%2C+CA&oq=dog+poop+statue+San+Jose%2C+CA&gs_l=img.3…3195.12920..13538…0.0..0.123.1868.25j3……0….1..gws-wiz-img…….0j0i5i30j0i8i30j0i24.HbOwPAKGe0Q&ved=0ahUKEwjS—6E7OPlAhVQtZ4KHa1-C58Q4dUDCAU&uact=5#imgrc=mnD5tlxTMA0OmM:

I just can’t seem to wrap my brain around this logic. I only ask a simple question: what would DaVinci say?

As annoying goes, Mr. Zebo is setting the standard.

Luann is a textbook learner, as is most people. Zebo grades on originality, he wants shock effect not mundane. Zebo wants to not know what art his students will do next.