Storytime:Storytime:
The first art piece I ever created I was in 2nd grade. In art class, the teacher assigned us to recreate the classic Starry Night. I had never seen the painting, it was the 90s in a developing country and internet search was not available to us. The only image I had of the masterpiece was a black-and-white 2x3-inch photo from an encyclopedia.
I created a drawing of it on a larger scale and turned it into an art class.

The next day, all my classmates' artworks were hung up on the walls except mine.

The teacher spoke to me after class and claimed I didn’t draw mine, that someone else did.

I went home crying and told my parents. The next day, my parents went to talk to my art teacher to defend me and tell her I made it. She refused to believe them, so she made me re-draw it in front of her. I did, and better.

Unfortunately, this only made it worse. Instead of giving me credit and hanging my drawings with everyone else’s, she took every student's drawings down.

This was the first time my work and my talent were repressed. It happened every year with any work I created.