Roger Herman is a Los Angeles-based artist and professor at UCLA department of art.

How long have you been teaching painting at UCLA? Was teaching a profession you wanted to do, or was it a matter of practicality, a way to supplement your income as an artist.
I have been teaching for about 35 years. First at Cal State Long Beach as a visiting artist, a little bit at Art Center in Pasadena and then as a tenured professor at UCLA. I never thought of it as a career or a job. I enjoyed it and came into it more or less by accident. I never asked for it. I was lucky that people wanted me to do it.
In Germany where I studied, teaching is a little more relaxed and may not be as academic as it is here. But at UCLA, the climate was very collegial and you can pretty much orchestrate your own program.

Is painting dead, and why do so many people want to bury it?
Of course, not. Just look around. This is the first time that Southern California has a boom of great painters with international reputations. Great variety and energy. Painting was declared dead when I went to art school in the ’70s. Then later again in the ’90s, then again by the academics, declaring it to be a commercial commodity. Dead or alive, it is one of many art forms depending on what is in fashion.

Can you immediately tell when a student has natural talent for painting? And if one doesn’t seem particularly talented at the beginning, can they become a good painter? In other words, can GOOD painting be taught?
I do not know what GOOD painting is, nor do I understand what natural talent is. Interesting artist? Maybe. Students need confidence. One can guide, but I do not know if GOOD painting can be taught. Most of the time, I do not know what I am doing myself. Teaching art is overrated. The students learn most from each other. If you get a great group together, they do the job on their own.

A lot of young painters show the influence of their college instructors in their work. Do student painters develop their own style, or do a lot of your students become miniature Roger Hermans?
I hope not.

Does teaching painting keep you fresh? Do you ever learn something from your students?
It keeps me on my toes.

What’s the standard advice you give to students when they graduate? Should they embark on a career as an artist (and a painter) or are there better ways to pay off student debt?
The art schools in Southern California are pumping out about 300 MFAs a year. Art schools have become a place for contacts in Southern California. They have been a social lubricant for artists to network and learn from each other. But there are other ways. They should, instead, save the tuition that has become ridiculously expensive and spend the money on a good studio and hang out with smart people who share their interests. It is easy for me to say, coming from a country where a tuition is free.