Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for November 12, 2019

Oh, Tara no gonna like this.

Harsh. ✨

The Zebo gives and the Zebo taketh away.

Zebo is too weird & Luann is a late thinker.

Or is he going to flip it around – and give this grade to Luann?

He does seem “shifty” enough.

On the other hand, he is forcing Luann’s hand, to make her defend that which, until today, she considered indefensible.

If I go any farther, I’ll get political, so I’ll quit here.

Obviously Zebo actually thought it was garbage. He was testing whether Luann could give an unbiased opinion of Tara’s work. I say, BRAVO Mr. Zebo!!

Zebo knows art. Today’s lesson: perspective.

I liked the art myself. Outside the box, and Tara is nothing if not creative. Maybe Tara just doesn’t like having to follow rules to express herself.

The grade seems harsh, as noted above, but considering the time, preparation, and thought put into the “submission” by Tara, compared to the work performed by the other students – she deserved to flunk the assignment…

Sounds like they both gave her an “F”. I wonder if Tara will think Luann had an influence on the grade she got.

Tara does not deserve a and F.

I think Zebo was playing with Luann and she took the bait. I would really like to see Luann gain a little wisdom after this. I remember in some classes at the end of the course the teacher threw out your worst grade. In that case the “F” could be a warning but not too damaging if Tara lays off her ’tude.

I was starting to lose my respect for Zebo. Eccentric though he may be, he teaches a class properly. Nice to see he’s actually teaching Luann subtly like this. He got my respect back for it. Well player, Zebo. Well. Played.

Zebo gives a lesson in “Eye of the Beholder”. And to be fair, though it’s not a drawing, it is a kind of impressionist rendering of the subject.

He’s a smart man — this, a lesson for Luann.

Luann will be kicking herself for this later – if that’s really an “F” the Zebo is giving Tara.

No. GIVE Tara that “F.”

Nil, too.

Tell ‘em it stands for “Fun,” which is what two those slackers were trying to have.

And an “F“ is what those magpies would have gotten if they had pulled that “stunt” in any other classroom. Don’t believe me? Try “goofing” like that in Dr. Fabbi’s class.

There’s a time and place for all things. And no matter what Nil and Tara think of Zebo or “Art,” they are there to LEARN. This ain’t Karaoke night.

It’s high time N&T learned to get serious anyway. Better they learn that now, than later, when get they get fired for goofing around from a job they “really need.”

I’m sure he’s not actually giving Tara an F. He wouldn’t give Luann that kind of power. He might be testing her teaching aptitude, because as a teacher she’ll be handing out grades.

A C- or a D+ might be more fair. She made an effort but didn’t follow the instructions at all and an A+ wouldn’t be fair to the other students who did follow instructions and gave Zebo the art he asked for. If he rewards Tara’s project, eventually none of the students will know what he wants them to do and it will just become confusing and chaotic.

Zebo knows it’s an F. Tara knows she put no effort in it and would think far less of the class if she got an A. The only one getting played is our eponymous stripper (comic)), er, character.

Either Tara deserves an A for an honest response to the assignment, or she deserves an F for, as Luann puts it, disrespect. I honestly don’t see any justifiable middle ground here.

Yes, on your advice.

Can we move on to Nil’s nostril ? Now that is true art.

Oh, how Luann learns her lessons the hard way.

Adding to Luann’s confusion…..

I don’t believe Zebo is playing with Luann at all. He may also be trying to understand where Luann is coming from. In this and previous exchange over Tara’s grade, its a bit like detective work in figuring out criminal intent. Artistic intent is the mystery here. Zebo sees the piece as art believing Tara actually contemplated the piece as per the assignment. As he hears Luann’s explanation of why she believes differently, he sees that Tara did not put thought into the still life at all. Her piece does have meaning though, in that she’s frustrated her friend Luann wants her to actally try to do her best and not just have fun and doing anything she wants. Luann is new to being a TA. She’s mostly here to help set up the class room anyway. She really doesn’t have the experience to judge art, or know there are many ways to do art creation. She could of translated that Zebo wanted to see an original way to express the still life, and Tara could have doodled it as she saw it. But Luann didn’t understand the assignment either. Zebo could of said it in simpler terms, but then we wouldn’t have this storyline debate! Art classes I’ve had, students always asked questions to clarify what was being requested.

Wow, the professor actually talked Luann into it.

Use re-read the instructions from Z. He does not say ‘draw’ and indicates more or less interpretive instructions. Art is not about copying or reproducing, it’s about interpretation and perspective. Tara is far more creative than Luann, regardless of their attitudes. Tara’s effort was fueled by spontaneous emotion, Luann is fueled by fear of getting it wrong.

With this Luann has really understood how hard it is to give grades and how they can hurt. However convinced she is that Tara deserves a F, she now feels guilty. Tara is her friend and Maybe Zebo was right to want to give her an A +? It is not easy to give votes. It was terrible for me to do it in a middle school, it have to be 100 times harder in a community Colleges with adults students.

All I hear is Linus VanPelt’s defense of his coat hanger sculpture.

Zebo did not give her an F. Luann did. And now she seems regretful. I actually went through something similar with an English professor over a writing grade once. I argued that my grade should have been higher and boom! He gave it to me. But it didn’t feel right and all these years later I know he was trying to say that the letter grade after my name was not what was important. It was truly my body of work that held the value. That seems to have been a recurring theme in my life——-doing something well and yet missing out on the grand prize! I now realize I had the grand prize all along.

IMO, I think what’s being taught here is that every on’s a critic! Zebo is looking strictly at an “Act of Creation”, where Luann is choosing to interpret the trash (errr…. I mean Art…) as a sign of contempt towards the class, which by way of her being Mr. Zebo’s TA, is a personal affront to her… But hey! What do I know… I’m just a critic!

it’s only one project grade of probably a number during the course. So she still has time to work offsetting this one and get a passing grade overall.

I can claim a “I called it!” I said in posts about this arc, that it really is a test of Luann and Tara’s friendship, Luann taking seriously her role as a TA—she wants to be a teacher after all—and the art class (makes sense considering the artists who draw this strip) while Tara is doing her usual sarcastic role in life, propriety, or possibly friendship, be damned. I like that Zebo kind of guided Luann in to making a professional choice, the thing that anyone who will be in a teaching, managing, directing, representing, healing, and like roles has to realize is that their responsibility professionally is more acute than friendshp. I can’t tell you how many situations I have reviewed where friends work at a job, where one becomes supervisor, and has to direct or discipline his or her friend. It can be a real test of friendship and professionalism. In this case the F is proximate, the result is what is in question. Will Luann and Tara end up enemies, or will they show the are and understand true friends, and friendshio?

Zebo is giving Luann a life lesson of great value. He’s just gone up a whole bunch of notches in my book. He can do this without hurting Tara because, first of all, it’s only one assignment out of many, and, secondly, he has full latitude as to how he weights this in Tara’s overall grade. It will also serve as a wake-up call to Tara and a lesson to both Tara and Luann about friendship, life, learning and art. Great story arc!

Actually Zebo did not give Tara the F. Luann did and Tara will know that.

And this, dearies, describes politics and many of those issues which we so easily attribute to others.

Somebody else did it.

Don’t forget to vote…

I would grade Zebo’s personal attire an “F”

Shouldn’t Zebo be calling her “Miss Starr” and not “Tara”?

I said it before (two or three times) and I’ll say it again. Conflict will ensue!

It looks like GnK have taken some of the commenters to heart and they are going to spread some of Tiffany’s grief around. And it looks like Luann has stepped in it.

There was a commenter recently that opined that Tara may become for Luann what Tiffany was in middle and high school – a frenemy. GnK need to be careful though. Tara may take the story line away from them and her character seems capable of being somewhat vengeful in her make up so far.

Tara gets an F for her work. Luann gets an F for her impulsive judgement.

Craft can be taught and graded. Art cannot.

for all those that say “not an F” Think about this, this is college. Community College, but college none the less.Grading is generally done on a set criteria and assignments have standards.

The assignment was to Draw a Still life.

Zebo is very avant-garde. His initial perception of the art was she was creative and he does not care about “rebellion” because this is art and much of art is about breaking new ground or rebelling against perceptions. However Luann makes a good argument and technically Tara failed to do the assignment:

We assume, out of frame, the Assignment was drawing a Still Life (since easels were set up and no paints were put out)

While Zebo did put in the hint that they should be going going beyound a simple still life and looking for some artistic interpretations of what was set up as the subject, he did set a subject and the assignment that it be drawn.

or perhaps he didn’t, perhaps he lacks structure because he sees his role as an instructor not as instructing in methods and giving potential artists the Tools to create, but simply be a catalyst – to encourage what he likes and shoot down what he does not… and let students determine his motives (and requirements) for themselves.

However the more I look at it, I think today’s strip is teaching Luann about the responsibilities (and repercussions) of being “in charge”. He understands her reasoning and her objection and is giving her what she asked for… and in return, when it gets called out, he’ll probably have a talk and say “this was your choice, these are your consequences”.

Ultimately I know from listening to my wife (who was an Art Instructor at a Community College) that those who don’t put in any effort will generally not get far. Because most art classes require more than “this is my creation, sure it looks like crap, but it’s artistic so I should get a decent grade for trying” they require papers, research, study and application of technique

Did he give tara an F or Luann?

Yo, folks. I just want to point out that it ain’t over until it’s over. Zebo really wouldn’t just take the grade Luann assigns and give it to Tara. There’s more here, and it’s only Tuesday.

Tara earned an F because she didn’t do the assignment as directed.

As an artist, Creative Director and past instructor myself, my observation of this story arc is that that Zebo feels, rightly, that Tara deserves an A from an artist’s POV. She is taking chances, using her gut intuition (even if it is done as a sort of sleight of the class I.E.: “this is a skate through class and not important.”) allowing the emotion of the moment to drive her creativity and sending a message about the “rules” of the assignment. As a natural artist, which Tara has already been established as in character and temperament so far, she sees Zebo’s class as a kind of simple joke. But Zebo looks past this to the NATURE of the resultant art.

However, he is laying Tara’s grade at Luann’s feet to teach his TA a lesson in several things… loyalty, situational awareness, objectivity, trust, faith and most of all PRIDE. Luann takes her role as a TA seriously. So seriously that she has begun to act as a toady/tyrant, usurping Zebo’s authority as the class instructor. Luann seems to THINK that Zebo WANTS her to judge the VALUE of the work being produced. Rather he seems to me to want her to be both helpful (in the spare set of hands sense) and capable of seeing THROUGH the surface of the assignment to identify the talent of the students so that SHE, LUANN, grows in her observational skills… he would like her to experience the empathy artists must possess to be effective, even if SHE is not the one creating the art.

By throwing Luann under the bus and making HER responsible for Tara’s F grade, he is giving her the hangman’s rope she would use as judge and jury to convict her friend, thus jeopardizing their friendship. I suspect his goal would be to teach Luann the lesson that no great artistic triumph comes and no talent flourishes under a system so focused on the wrong thing… in this case personal respect. Zebo is far from stupid or myopic and he is showing Luann the error in her rush to judgement because she is using the wrong yardstick to measure art by.

I find Zébo and the whole “art class” milieu with its embedded denizens completely befuddling. Aside from Luann, who appears to be progressing as a character and progressing through the classes, the other characters are amorphous and behaving arbitrarily. Is Zébo Rod Serling and Art Class some GnK version of The Twilight Zone. (Yes. I’m dating myself here.)

In all her classes Luann has excelled thru study, friend mentoring, and some random luck (remember the broken paper mâché mask project in the Quill era?). But she seems drawn (no pun) back to the Art Zone over and over. Jack started out as a muscle-head and, after the life posing interlude, seems to have escaped the Zone. Nil is probably Greg in real life. He (Nil) is always non-conformist and drawing cartoonish art; like Jack’s leg and Tara’s elbow in Life Class and a nostril here. He’s taking an intro class twice, even after being depicted in an advanced class. Tara started life as a fall guy (girl?) to save Berniece’s heart throb, Piro, from suspicion in the dorm theft mysteries. Then she reappeared as a somewhat wild friend to Luann luring L to try things outside L’s comfort zone. But then her dark side showed up at the Monster Truck Show, followed by the wild party and missing days in class after. Now she’s going to morph into a frenemy for Luann?

The only “normal” character in these classes seems to be Blythe. A one-panel student from life class drawing a full frontal of Jack and receiving a “Good Work” comment from The Zébo.

In summary, I believe The Zébo and The Art Zone will manifest itself from time to time and we won’t know to what end – until the end – if then.

This is a really lame segment, the whole art class doesn’t work for me.

I think Zebo is taking his job as a teacher very seriously, he is teaching both Tara and Luann a life lesson, one that going to hurt, but will be remembered. Although I do like Tara’s out of the box thinking.

She worked HARD for that F

I think Luann just got the F.

Damn he’s a good teacher.

I suspect the F isn’t going to Tara.

For any actual artists reading, here’s a question – Can you break the rules effectively if you don’t learn to follow them first?

OOOOH … Zebo is good; he’s making Luann think. I believe she’s gonna change her mind back and forth. i still believe the students could get more than one grade for their submission, e.g. one for technical skill, one for artistic effect and imagination (for the still life) and a third for out of the box thinking.

Uh oh…This is probably not going to go over well.

8

This test (of Luann) is very, very interesting.

If Professor Zebo “keeps” the “F” grade…. then I will feel nearly 100% sure that Tara is just a “plant” in the course to help Luann learn. If Tara is really taking the class, Professor Zebo will eventually give her a different grade.

This week is quite enjoyable! Very, very well done!

A little dose of reality; finally.

With friends like Luann, who needs en…?

Luann told Zebo she was interested in teaching at the college level. Fairness and objectivity in grading is part of the job. Zebo is testing her to see if she can rise to that level. It’s easy for Luann to say ‘give her an F’ when she knows she is not the one to actually assign grades. But now Zebo is giving her that ‘power’ and she will ponder the gravity of her decision.

I like where today’s conversation is going. Not only is Luann learning something valuable (and she seems to be), but so am I.

Manipulative pretentious bastard. Now, he’s trying to make her feel Guilty.

Oh, Zebo, you sly fox! Better debater than the average college student (Luann=ACS). But is it fair? Is it Art?

Zebo is okay, but he could use a second facial expression.

Saved by Zebo….Fixxed it.

Now this is indeed a teaching moment.