The Fairy Godmentor

Olga Norris used that term, in describing her "constant wish" for a mentor. She quotes from a book about artist Jon Schueler, whose mentor was Clyfford Still.
Her quote from the monograph, To the North by Gerald Nordland & Richard Ingleby:

Clyfford Still made a major impression on Schueler and became his mentor, advocating discipline, self-control, and the assumption of total responsibility for one's work and its display. The strong impression that Still made on Schueler is clear from his recollections:

So here we all were sitting in this little room at some tables with chairs and he said, "the title of this course is Space Organization, so organize space," and that's the last he ever said about space organization during the entire semester. But it was a terribly profound thing. It really was.

One of the things that he certainly was saying over and over again in a million different ways and which has become an essential part of my thinking is the idea that the artist is nothing unless he accepts the total responsibility for everything that he does. It is by making a responsible move that he makes a statement.

Still advocated a new way of thinking about the painted images as a visual equivalent of the sublime in oneself. He did not want students to paint as he did, nor did he specifially recommend abstract painting. He asked students to make something they had not seen before, and to affirm a positive expression of themselves. He advised against exhibiting in group or competitive shows, but favoured solo exhibitions or those where artists were represented by multiple works. Observers, he believed, could not accept or undertand a new vision through a single work. He urged students to 'avoid playing the museum's game', or becoming involved with dealers whose only interest in their work was financial.

Read the whole post here.

Image is Olga Norris' "Telling It", cotton, dupion silk, digital print heat transferred, reverse applique, hand stiched, 21x20cm - more work here.