This week I want you to ask yourself “what…?”. What…connects with you, makes you feel, allows you freedom, fills your heart, etc. Throughout our creative process we should constantly ask ourselves these types of questions. Our art is our heart, our gateway to what makes us feel and how we choose to show those feelings with the world. As a future Art Educator, this is something I want to instill in my students. I want them to know it is ok to feel. Our art is what allows us to be who we are. As a student, I realize it is scary to open up to your creative side, to let people in. For me, though, I want to be that teacher that lends a helping hand to our future artists. I want to open their eyes to their own potential. I want to let them know that what makes them feel free and fills their heart is what makes them who they are.
My art room will be an open environment, one that allows free expression. My generation, and those to follow behind, are hidden behind what people think is “right”; but isn’t the point of our art to make a statement? To stand out? Be different? That is what I will encourage. My students should never feel like they should be anything but who they are. I will encourage them to question absolutely everything, and explore. Artist or not, we all connect with something. Humans have a natural desire to create. You don’t have to be an artist to do so. Nor do you have to be an Art Educator in order to help people connect with what’s around them. A teacher once told me, “you are never more observant than when you see the world through a sketchbook”. Our sketchbook is our window, our pen our tool; but it is our natural human instinct of observation and connection that make us artists. It is housed in small human moments…the feeling of warm air, the sound of beautiful music, elegant words or your simple physical grounding into the Earth. These are the moments that resonate with me. They make me feel, make me free and fill my heart. So tell me, artist or not, teacher or student…what do you resonate with?
