My oldest son

My middle child will graduate high school Saturday. He will be relieved and so will his parents. He is smart, but does not like to study. I know, Parents are biased, but I believe he is a gifted artist.This is an oil painting of Syd Barrett he did at school last week. He told us he will not study art in college. He says it is stupid. The real reason is his high school art teacher. She thought the best way to motivate him into using all of his talent was to give him a 'B' on art projects. She should have figured out four years ago this only makes him give up. He became increasingly frustrated he was getting Bs on work that was vastly superior to other students who were getting As. Four years later she has only motivated him to hating all art teachers. We tried repeatedly to talk to this teacher, but she said she knew she could get to my son's inner drive. He enjoys sculpture, but that is not his best subject. He really likes drawing best. Here are couple of animal drawings (sorry about the quality, it is hard to take a picture of a picture)
He really enjoys graphic arts and drawing cartoons. At one point that was his dream. He has created a whole series of comic characters:
Click to make bigger, but honestly the images do not do credit to the talent. He is going to college in the fall, intending to major in Japanese to become a teacher. He says he will not take art classes. That is sad, I think.