- Jessica Bellamy
52 Letters Week 8


I have always been a clumsy artist.
...one of my rules in this project...I must send whatever I have made, including all the mistakes.
I consider it a temporal record of the creation of the object itself.
I do miss all of my first art professors.
Your class was the first drawing class I had ever taken.
It was so hard...at the age of twenty...
I needed to learn how to draw, how to SEE, and I didn't need someone to coddle to my insecurities.
I needed a professor who pushed me past them.
People who think art is "easy" are so misinformed.
I do believe that everyone has their own way of making a mark, and I finally developed mine.
You challenged my technical abilities and my work ethic.
...always told me when I made mistakes and helped me discover how to correct them.
You took the time to work only with me, and that made me feel that I mattered...
You drove us hard, had high standards that never wavered...
I love that you shared your work with us.
....to see a a woman be a prolific artist, while being a professor, a wife, and a mother.
Without meaning to, you told all your women students, "You CAN do this."
You told me how proud and amazed you were at my growth...in front of the whole class.
...you validated all of my struggles, insecurities, and accomplishments.
Thank you so very much for that.