Studio Mentorship

Forcing myself to spend more time in the Studio has been very rewarding. To be honest, my assigned mentee is very independent. I find myself stopping by her and seeing how she is doing, more than she is seeking out my help. I relate to that factor, however, it has not necessarily had a positive effect for my thesis work this year. I needed to spend time with people and checks and balances with my own process than I allowed, thus the hoops I am facing now. 

I plan on spending time with her this Thursday. 

On the other hand, I have gained a mentee by default and I feel by availability. My favorite mentoring style is conversation and exploration, i.e. randomly talking things out on the fly. 

I regularly do this with my mentee as well, but as of late we have been passing ships in the night. While she is at her desk or working, I stop by and ask how she is. We address real time issues in a conversational and visual way (I usually draw to make a point) rather than addressing things in crisis mode. This keeps me updated in her process and how she in in class. 

As I mentioned, I have found myself doing this with multiple first year graduate students, and now some of them see me and just sit down and ask questions. I think this resonates with me because it is organic for me as a socially oriented person. When there is a premise for meeting you feel goal oriented, as if we have an hour to address this issue etc, whereas intermittently stopping by to say hi and how are you may catch a process issue before it starts. 

Despite all this, I would still like to be sought out more by my mentee. How might I do that??

I consider myself a seasoned mentor, in the sense of keeping friends accountable, supporting and advising younger people and being a listening ear for those who need guidance. 

From my perspective, mentoring has more to do with listening than talking or even advising. I’m not always the best listener, so to have an established script or role helps me slip in and out of my “mentor” hat. 

I have a lot to learn. I am very interested in the articles my classmates have floating around about mentorship… I have skimmed a few but really want to try out a few new practices in mentoring. My particular mentee is older than I, which makes this experiences different, but not unfamiliar. 

We did have an initial chat about her desires and expectations of me as a mentor, which was good. She expressed a desire to increase her ability to communicate visually and just get better at making in general. She also wants to shadow my thesis research a little to get a glimpse at what next year holds. 

So far, I am trying to be very sensitive to the boundaries I sense that my mentee has already put up toward me… I want to be supportive, to be challenging, but moreover I want to help her do her best. 

What does that mean?

Well, if she hates me will she listen? If I push too hard will she be able to respond? If I forget or neglect to point out the excellent things she already does will she continue to do them? 

Part of what I sense is fear, fear to mess up or fail, fear to be perceived as incompetent or out dated… What I’d like to do is to build my mentee’s confidence enough to move forward regardless of failure, to view failure as an objective versus a nemesis. For me, looking stupid or bring wrong is second to understanding the material. On one hand, I learn all the time. On the other, sometimes people really do perceive me as dimwitted. 

Even though I’ve recognized this need for my mentee, I believe it is not my goal as a mentor to force this on her. It is my goal to help her become more comfortable with making, I need this too, as well as share with her as much of my thesis as I can, because these are the goals she has shared with me. My hope is to influence her through practice, conversation and possibly field trips. 

There are so many things that this program has given me that I wish to pass down to my mentee. My philosophy so far is; one thing at a time.